Director, Brand & Innovation

Carlsbad, CA (On-site)

$150K/yr – $170K/yrDirector/Executive7+ years expOther

Posted 2 weeks ago

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Job Summary

Own and guide the SKLZ brand, product portfolio, and lifecycle, turning consumer insights into actionable strategies while aligning product, marketing, and sales teams around growth opportunities.

  • Own portfolio strategy, lifecycle planning, and SKU optimization
  • Align cross-functional teams on brand positioning, go-to-market plans, and launch readiness
  • Drive assortment decisions and innovation from ideation to launch

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Lead the implementation of SKLZ’s brand positioning, purpose, and narrative to ensure clarity, consistency, and relevance with athletes, parents, coaches, customers, and internal teams.
  • Translate consumer insights, market trends, and competitive intelligence into actionable brand strategies, messaging frameworks, and category priorities.
  • Serve as the brand steward, ensuring alignment across product, sales, digital, and marketing touchpoints.
  • Partner with Shared Services Marketing to shape campaign strategy, content development, and go-to-market planning in support of business priorities.
  • Champion internal understanding of the brand strategy so cross-functional teams and leadership are aligned on SKLZ’s positioning, strategic focus, and growth opportunities.
  • Own the SKLZ product line, including portfolio focus, lifecycle planning, SKU optimization, and seasonal line architecture.
  • Analyze sales, margin, inventory, and market performance to inform assortment decisions and improve portfolio health.
  • Partner with internal teams to align roadmaps and product strategies with consumer needs, brand positioning, and commercial priorities.
  • Help shape innovation planning by identifying assortment gaps, evaluating opportunities, and supporting disciplined progression from ideation through launch.
  • Ensure product information, positioning, and selling tools are accurate, current, and ready to support global go-to-market execution.

Requirements

  • 7+ years of experience in brand strategy, product management, product marketing, or integrated marketing roles.
  • Strong understanding of brand positioning, consumer insights, storytelling, and competitive strategy.
  • Experience with portfolio management, product lifecycle planning, SKU optimization, and business analysis.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional work, manage and develop talent, influence stakeholders, and communicate clearly across functions and levels.
  • Proven ability to operate as a director-level player-coach, combining strategic leadership, hands-on execution, and talent development.
  • Highly collaborative, organized, and adaptable in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
  • Experience in sports, fitness, or consumer products and familiarity with athlete training categories is strongly preferred.
  • A Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications or a related field of study is required.

Preferred

  • MBA degree with a concentration in Marketing, Communications or a similar relevant field is preferred.
Implus logo

Implus

Implus is home to 16 category leading active lifestyle accessories brands. As an industry leader, Implus enables and empowers all people to live active, healthy and fulfilled lives by providing innovative products to more than 60,000 retail outlets and in 60 countries around the world. Implus is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Key brands within Implus' portfolio include SKLZ®, TriggerPointTM, Balega®, Harbinger®, RockTape®, Sof Sole®, Spenco® and Yaktrax®. To learn more, please visit Implus.com.

Founded in 1988
Durham, North Carolina, USA
452 employees (69 in marketing)

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
11.5K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
30.7%
Direct
46%
Referral
6%
Social
16%
Paid
1.2%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~450

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
46 (10% of company)
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
1

Funding

Last Raise
Series Unknown, 11 years ago

Funding History

  • Apr 2015
    Series Unknown