Vice President of Marketing
Location: Charlotte, NC (South)
Schedule: Hybrid (3 days in office, 2 days remote)
Type: Exempt, salaried
This role is recruited exclusively by Salt Partners, a retained individual for the client.
About the brand
We are a national preschool brand with roughly fifty schools open today and a development pipeline that takes us past one hundred in the near future. Most of our schools are independently owned and operated by franchise owners our corporate team supports directly, with a footprint anchored in the Southeast and expanding across the broader United States.
Our brand is warm, relationship-driven, and centered on the individual child. Our marketing sounds like a person who knows the school, not like an ad. Largely, the marketing team works to craft and curate stories to build trust with families and prospective franchise owners.
We are moving quickly on two fronts at once: growing unit count and strengthening sales at the school level. This is an opportunity to join a high growth company with outsized responsibility, a small team, and a direct line to the executives making the decisions.
About this role
The Vice President of Marketing leads overall marketing strategy and execution, overseeing brand, franchise development marketing, consumer acquisition, and same-unit sales growth. Partnering with the CEO and operations team, this leader will build-on and refine scalable marketing practices that supports new-unit growth while maximizing the performance of existing schools. They will strengthen the national brand, increase qualified franchise leads and awards, accelerate new-school enrollment, and drive sustainable same-unit sales growth. Success means building a measurable, scalable marketing function that supports both system expansion and the long-term financial performance of existing schools.
This is both a strategic and hands-on leadership role in a lean, high-growth organization. The VP of Marketing will help lead the marketing vision under supervision, manage budgets and relationships (web and PR), and ensure marketing investments deliver measurable business results.
We are seeking someone who is a self-starter, driven to build and refine all aspects of marketing, partners well with operations, and has an entrepreneurial spirit while steadily enhancing our brand and growth.
Responsibilities
Marketing Strategy & Brand Leadership
- Develop and lead the company’s integrated marketing strategy, aligning brand, franchise development, and consumer marketing with business growth objectives.
- Own brand positioning, messaging, creative direction, and consistency across national, local, and school-level marketing.
- Lead and develop the marketing priorities, people, accountability, and performance goals
- Manage the marketing budget, agency relationships, vendors, and marketing technology investments.
Consumer Acquisition & Same-Unit Sales
- Drive enrollment, revenue growth, and same-unit sales across existing schools through effective customer acquisition and retention strategies.
- Assist with the consumer marketing funnel, from initial inquiry through tour, enrollment, re-enrollment, and retention.
- Help lead national and local marketing strategies across paid media, SEO, websites, email, CRM automation, reputation management, and community outreach.
- Partner with franchisees on targeted marketing plans to improve enrollment and revenue.
- Establish enrollment targets, conversion benchmarks, and reporting to measure marketing effectiveness and return on investment per location.
Franchise Development & New-Unit Growth
- Partner with the Chief Development Officer to attract qualified franchise candidates and support franchise awards and expansion goals.
- Oversee franchise development marketing, including lead generation, digital campaigns, broker relationships, sales collateral, and candidate nurture.
- Align marketing strategy with market expansion plans and new-school development priorities.
- Establish scalable pre-opening and grand-opening marketing programs that build local awareness and drive enrollment before new schools open.
Franchisee Marketing & Performance
- Equip franchise owners with marketing playbooks, campaign templates, training, and local demand-generation resources.
- Oversee national brand fund strategy and reporting, where applicable.
- Build strong franchisee relationships while maintaining consistent brand standards and system-wide marketing priorities.
Analytics & Business Performance
- Establish executive reporting for brand performance, franchise lead generation, customer acquisition, enrollment, same-unit sales, and marketing ROI.
- Use customer insights, competitive research, and performance data to guide investment decisions and identify growth opportunities.
- Continuously optimize marketing channels, budgets, and campaigns to improve acquisition efficiency and business outcomes.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of progressive marketing experience, including leadership across multiple marketing functions.
- Experience in franchising, multi-unit consumer businesses, education, childcare, or similar
- Proven success driving customer acquisition, revenue growth, and same-unit sales across multiple locations.
- Experience with franchise development marketing, brand strategy, digital marketing, and local demand generation.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams, manage budgets, oversee agencies, and build scalable marketing processes.
- Strong analytical skills, including marketing attribution, conversion reporting, forecasting, and ROI analysis.
- Executive presence and the ability to collaborate effectively with senior leadership, Operations, and franchise owners.
- Comfortable balancing strategic leadership with hands-on execution in a lean, high-growth environment.
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
- Willingness to travel occasionally for school visits, franchise owner meetings, and conferences.
Benefits: Salary + Health Benefits + PTO
This role is recruited exclusively by Salt Partners, a retained individual for the client.