Director, Performance Marketing

Careers / Marketing, Sales and Field Engineering

Director, Performance Marketing

About Gurucul

Gurucul is a recognized leader in AI-powered SecOps and Insider Risk Management — named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SIEM, built on more than a decade of pioneering Behavioral AI, and now shipping an expanding line of agentic AI that is changing how security teams detect, investigate, and respond.

Our category is being rewritten in real time. AI is now both the threat security teams face and the advantage they deploy — and the vendors who define the terms of that shift will own the next decade of the market. We have the technology and the proof. What we are building now is a marketing organization sharp enough to make the case on evidence, not adjectives, and to win the category while it is still up for grabs.

This is our moment, and we are hiring builders who want to own a piece of it. We are growing our marketing leadership team and looking for a Director of Performance Marketing to build and run our paid, digital, and content-driven demand generation engine for the AI era — and to own the pipeline number it produces.

Role Summary

As Director of Performance Marketing, you will architect our demand engine and lead from the front. This is a builder’s role for a player-coach: you will set the strategy, hire and develop the team, and stay close enough to the craft to move fast yourself — in the ad platforms, running the tests, reading the data firsthand.

You own channel strategy, budget allocation, team and agency management, and the performance metrics that decide where we invest next. You help shape a content strategy grounded in the customer and the data, and you orchestrate the programs that power both demand creation and demand capture — SEO and web, organic and paid social, nurture, gated assets, and paid media.

You will partner at the executive level with Sales, RevOps, and Product Marketing. You report to the SVP, Marketing, and will present results and spend rationale directly to the SVP and, at the leadership level, to the CMO.

You’re the right person if you’ve built a demand function — not just inherited one — at a B2B security or enterprise SaaS company. You understand multi-stakeholder buying cycles, you have a clear point of view on what separates demand creation from demand capture and why both matter, and you would rather build something and own the number than manage it from a distance.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own the pipeline number. Set annual and quarterly plans across paid and digital channels — Google Ads, LinkedIn, paid social, display/retargeting, content syndication, and intent-triggered programs — with clear targets for pipeline, CPL, and CAC tied to revenue. Allocate budget based on performance and market signal, not habit.
  • Drive demand creation and demand capture. Build programs that generate net-new interest from buyers who aren’t in-market yet, and separate, optimized programs that capture and accelerate demand already in motion. Know which levers serve which goal, and run both.
  • Build and lead the team. Hire, manage, and develop performance marketers. Set clear ownership, coach on craft, and create an environment where the team does its best work. Manage agencies and syndication partners as an extension of the team.
  • Lead ABM. Partner with Sales and BDRs to run account-based programs against target account lists — coordinating paid media, personalized landing experiences, intent signals, and outbound sequences into one coherent motion.
  • Optimize the full funnel. Own landing page strategy, lead capture, nurture architecture, and conversion paths. Run disciplined A/B tests on creative, copy, audiences, and bidding. Push cost-per-pipeline down quarter over quarter.
  • Report on what matters. Build the dashboards and reporting cadence that track channel performance against pipeline contribution, CAC, and ROI. Present results, recommendations, and spend rationale to senior leadership — and defend every line item.
  • Shape the martech and AI stack. Own the performance marketing layer of the martech stack. Evaluate and implement tools — including AI-augmented campaign execution, intent data, and personalization platforms — that measurably increase program velocity and targeting precision.
  • Influence upstream. Collaborate with Product Marketing on messaging and content for security buyers (CISO, SOC Director, VP IT Risk) to fuel your programs. Bring field feedback and campaign data into positioning conversations — in real time, not after the fact.

What we’re looking for

Required:

  • 8–12+ years in performance marketing, demand generation, or digital marketing in cybersecurity, B2B SaaS, or enterprise technology — including at least 3 years leading direct reports as a director or senior manager.
  • A demonstrated track record of building pipeline, not just generating leads, in a long, multi-stakeholder enterprise sales cycle.
  • Deep hands-on fluency with paid media platforms (Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, paid social, display/retargeting, content syndication) and command of the data they produce.
  • Experience managing both in-house practitioners and external agencies or syndication partners.
  • Strong analytical skills: you can own a budget, present spend rationale, and optimize programs against pipeline, CPL, CAC, and ROI.
  • Experience with marketing automation and CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) and reporting/analytics tools (GA4, Tableau, or similar).
  • Experience running A/B tests and building or optimizing landing pages and conversion paths.
  • Comfort with content strategy and optimization.
  • A clear communicator with executive presence — equally effective in a campaign review and a leadership meeting.

Nice to Have:

  • Direct experience marketing cybersecurity, SecOps, SIEM, UEBA, Insider Risk, or adjacent security technology to enterprise security buyers.
  • Experience with ABM platforms and intent data in a programmatic or account-based motion.
  • Familiarity with AI-augmented marketing execution — generative AI for creative variation, predictive lead scoring, autonomous campaign optimization.
  • Experience building pipeline reporting and attribution models in partnership with RevOps.
  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Base salary: $160,000 – $225,000
  • Gurucul offers a competitive compensation package, including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, EAP, 401K, Paid Time Off, and paid Holidays

Location

  • At our HQ in El Segundo, CA or remote within the United States

Equal Opportunity Employer

Gurucul Solutions, LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

To apply:

Please send resumes to jobs@gurucul.com for consideration.