Wanted: Senior Director of Product Marketing

Thanks for keeping your customers in mind, for running your service at a profit, and for all of your openness – especially on the geeky stuff!

— John Kelley (@JohnHedge) February 13, 2019

https://twitter.com/JohnHedge/status/1095560559607668736

That tweet, along with hundreds of other positive comments, came in the day we announced a price increase. We’re proud (and humbled) to have such strong relationships with our customers that they root for our success.

We’re looking for a Product Marketing leader who understands and loves focusing on the customer.

About Backblaze

Backblaze provides cloud storage that’s astonishingly easy to use and low cost. Our customers use our services so they can pursue dreams like curing cancer (genome mapping is data intensive), archiving the work of some of the greatest artists on the planet (learn more about how Austin City Limits uses B2), or simply sleeping well at night (anyone that’s spilled a cup of coffee on a laptop knows the relief that comes with complete, secure backups). We are entrusted with over 750 PBs of data from customers in more than 150 countries. From a storage standpoint, our platform is on the scale of Dropbox & Facebook. We exited 2018 with a strong growth rate, with a cash flow positive (read — our customer acquisition efforts are profitable). We’ve done all this with just $3M of funding.

How? Our team is maniacally focused on understanding customer needs and then providing solutions. More than half of our business comes from self-service customers — they get started without needing to talk to us.

How Marketing at Backblaze Works

• We think of Product Marketing as verticalized business owners. Our product marketers are expected to be athletes that can define and marshal our resources towards clear objectives. We are looking for someone that will lead the team — both as a manager and a contributor.
• Acquisition via content marketing. We’ll have ~3M visitors to the blog this year that come to read compelling, if a little wonky, content on how things actually work. Our secret is writing about customer problems and solutions.
• Conversion of website traffic. That means working cross-functionally to continually remove friction from the user experience — website flows and content that directly helps customers solve problems.
• Sales enablement for a growing team. Increasingly, we have customers that want/need to engage with Sales. That is great, and, Marketing needs to provide our Sales team with the tools to succeed.
• Collaboration with technology partners. B2 is integrated into leading hardware and software solutions. Because of our brand reputation and marketing reach, many partners integrate B2 because they want to run joint campaigns to promote our solutions. Once and integration is validated, Product Marketing owns the relationship with the partner.
• Provide insights and feedback. We are a collaborative organization — our product marketers are key voices in representing our customers.

The Role: Senior Director of Product Marketing

Reporting directly to the VP of Marketing, you will lead a growing team of product marketers.

The Right Fit for our Sr. Director of Product Marketing

• Loves being a marketer. Backblaze spans a variety of customer segments including Consumer, SMBs, and Developers. We’re looking for someone that enjoys serving multiple segments.
  • Capable of leading all of Product Marketing, not just one vertical.
• Possesses the right amount of experience. 10+ years of product/solutions marketing within technical infrastructure, at least 3 years in storage or cloud. Experience with eCommerce/self-service SaaS preferred.
  • Foundation in place to succeed from day one.
• Demonstrates passion for talent development. You’ll be leading a talented team and you must ensure that Backblaze remains a place that people enjoy working.
  • Has led and grown successful teams.
• Obsesses over the story. Whether creating a new webpage or writing up a case study, we strive to create stories that engage. We are looking for someone that is a polished writer and talented editor.
  • Superior communication skills combined with the necessary technical proficiency to tell cloud storage stories.
• Builds enough process. You build clear processes/guidelines/documents that are necessary to communicate and scale an organization, but know that if there’s a 100 page manual, we’re probably making things too hard.
  • Articulates a considered approach to trying something new and, when successful, scaling to a repeatable process for others.
• Blends analysis with instinct. Marketers should own the data wherever possible. However, particularly in hypergrowth settings, there are times we just need to take a bet and be willing to fail.
  • A track record of driving quantified results.

Some of Our More Popular Perks

Backblaze offers an unlimited vacation policy, fully stocked kitchens, twice a week catered breakfast and lunch, superior coffee, and a generous skills training policy to continue your professional development. Our dog friendly office in San Mateo is easily accessible from CalTrain, 280, and 101.

If this all sounds like you:

• Send an email to jobscontact@backblaze.com with the position in the subject line.
• Tell us a bit about your work history.
• Include your resume.
• Share an example of talent development, either from your past or something you found notable. Why did it stick out to you? How have you applied it to your work? (less than 500 words)