Head of Brand & Communications | Bankrate

About the role

You are the Head of Brand & Communications for Bankrate within the Red Ventures portfolio, owning the full brand and communications agenda with a clear mandate to drive measurable growth outcomes. This is a hands-on, offensive role where you will architect how Bankrate appears in the market and directly influence the efficiency of the blended customer acquisition engine. You will own brand strategy, corporate communications, integrated marketing execution, and organic social, ensuring all activities contribute to revenue efficiency rather than operating as a vanity function. You will report directly to the Chief Marketing Officer and work in tight partnership with organic growth, paid media, and product teams to align narrative and timing across all customer touchpoints. The position requires deep fluency in both brand building and demand generation, translating positioning into campaigns that lower blended CAC and lift conversion across digital channels. You will be accountable for the contribution of brand and social efforts to the growth model, using data and experimentation to prove efficiency. This role is based in the United States and requires availability during Eastern Standard Time hours, with remote or hybrid arrangements preferred from East Coast locations.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define and own Bankrate's brand positioning and narrative with a demand-led purpose, building salience and trust that lowers acquisition cost across paid, organic, and direct channels.

Lead corporate communications and earned media strategy, managing reputation, media coverage, and third-party authority to strengthen Bankrate's visibility in AI answer ecosystems.

Architect integrated marketing campaigns that unify brand story and calendar across paid, organic, social, and communications, ensuring coordinated execution against growth objectives.

Own organic social as a dual brand and demand instrument, measured by brand lift and contribution to blended CAC, with clear triggers to move to hard CAC accountability once measurement is mature.

Establish measurement frameworks that grade brand and social performance on lift and contribution to efficient revenue, reporting alongside the broader marketing investment framework.

Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing team spanning brand, communications, integrated marketing, and organic social, fostering collaboration and accountability.

Partner closely with organic growth and paid media to ensure that brand initiatives directly support campaign performance and that insights flow back into strategy.

Champion the citation loop with Organic Growth so that earned authority feeds Bankrate's likelihood of being cited by large language models and AI systems.

Translate leadership narratives into clear positioning for the C-suite and board, defending brand investment in terms of CAC, conversion, and efficient revenue.

Represent Bankrate externally with credibility, ensuring that public-facing discourse reinforces trust, authority, and the value of the rate marketplace.

Define the campaign architecture that turns brand and positioning into coordinated multi-channel activations, aligning story, timing, and measurement across all growth levers.

Maintain a clear line of sight between brand activities and revenue outcomes, insisting on efficiency and accountability rather than isolated brand metrics.

Champion experimentation and learning within brand and social, using test results to refine narratives, channels, and audience targeting.

Ensure that all communications reflect the intersection of editorial integrity and commercial performance, supporting long-term equity and short-term growth.

Own the strategic direction for how Bankrate shows up in market moments, product launches, and industry shifts, maintaining relevance and authority.

Requirements

Bring 10+ years of senior brand and communications leadership experience, with a track record of managing brand, communications, and integrated marketing as one coherent function.

Think and work demand-minded, using CAC, conversion, and efficient revenue as core lenses for evaluating brand and social investments.

Be an offensive builder who thrives on using brand to move growth numbers, comfortable creating structure where it is currently undefined.

Demonstrate deep owned and earned fluency, with proven ability to leverage organic social and earned media as engines of authority and demand.

Exhibit executive presence, with the clarity to set positioning and narrative for senior leadership and the credibility to represent the brand externally.

Be located in the United States and able to work during Eastern Standard Time hours, with remote or hybrid arrangements favoring the East Coast.

Be comfortable aligning with a high-growth, data-driven environment where marketing performance is measured against revenue outcomes.

Have a proven history of building and scaling high-performing marketing teams across disciplines including brand, communications, and social.

Show commitment to measurement rigor, insisting that brand and social efforts are graded by their contribution to efficient revenue.

Nice to have

Experience in financial services or personal finance markets, given the regulated nature of Bankrate's audience and content.

Background working with AI answer optimization and citation loops, understanding how earned authority influences LLM visibility.

Demonstrated success in environments where brand lift and CAC attribution are actively managed and tested.

Practical notes

This role is open to remote or hybrid candidates (East Coast preference), with hybrid being central to New York, NY or Charlotte area offices. Must be able to work Eastern Standard Time hours.