Today, 67% of students and 82% of low-income students can’t read at grade level by the end of third grade. That’s when students are supposed to go from learning to read to reading to learn. It’s America’s number one education crisis and we know how to fix it.

Ignite Reading delivers one-to-one virtual tutoring that teaches every student the foundational skills they need to become a confident, fluent reader. We pair students who need extra support with expert reading tutors who provide daily, 15-minute, Science of Reading-based instruction that rapidly closes their decoding gaps. We focus on the foundational reading skills—phonics, phonemic awareness, and sight words—kids need to master so they can decode a sentence. Students in Ignite Reading’s program achieve over 2 weeks of reading skills growth per week of instruction, and notably all students achieve the same outstanding results including students with IEPs, multilingual learners, students of color and those receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

Ignite Reading is a mission-driven public benefit corporation. We believe we can do well for our team members and shareholders while we solve one of the nation’s biggest challenges. We believe we will be more successful with a diverse team and are seeking candidates who have lived experience related to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Your Role

As our Vice President of Marketing, you’ll be responsible for defining and executing the marketing strategy that fuels our growth. Reporting to the CRO, you’ll play a critical role in building a predictable, sustainable growth engine while establishing Ignite Reading as a trusted brand in the EdTech space.

This is an opportunity to build a marketing team from the ground up—developing our brand, demand generation strategy, and marketing analytics infrastructure to drive awareness, engagement, and revenue.

Key Responsibilities:

Brand & Positioning: Define and articulate our brand narrative, ensuring we stand out in the EdTech landscape while building trust with educators, administrators, and learners.
Growth & Demand Generation: Develop and execute data-driven marketing campaigns that drive customer acquisition, retention, and revenue growth.
Marketing Infrastructure: Establish marketing analytics and insights frameworks to track campaign performance, attribution, and customer behavior.
Content & Community: Oversee content strategy, thought leadership, and customer marketing to deepen relationships with district administrators, educators, students, and learning guardians
Team Building: Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing marketing team across brand, demand generation, events, content, and customer marketing.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Sales, Product, Customer Experience, and Academics teams to align marketing strategies with business goals.

Skills & Competencies

7+ years of experience in marketing, with at least 4 years in a senior marketing leadership role, including managing and scaling a high performing team.
A passion for education, technology, and making a meaningful impact.
Experience in EdTech marketing and a deep understanding of the education ecosystem; Science of Reading product and service category experience a plus.
Strong grasp of brand strategy and storytelling in a way that resonates with district leaders and stakeholders
Proven ability to build and execute effective marketing strategy for mid-stage startups, as well as experience with emerging MarTech and AI tools
Hands-on experience with demand generation, growth marketing, and digital campaigns.
Expertise in setting up marketing analytics, attribution models, and insights infrastructure and a track record of optimizing marketing programs for growth and efficiency.
Data-driven leader with an enterprise mindset
Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, zero-based budgeting startup environment.
Highly collaborative and capable of working closely with others to achieve common goals.
Extraordinary communication skills; written, verbal, and interpersonal.

At Ignite Reading, we’ve decided to embrace a transparent compensation structure for a few reasons:

To promote fairness and equity: This approach supports fairness within our structure. When everyone knows how compensation decisions are made, it reduces the likelihood of pay discrimination based on factors like gender, race, relationships, or negotiation skills.

To provide accountability for our approach: The same role receives the same compensation, with no negotiation.

To build trust within the organization: When employees understand how their compensation is determined, they are more likely to trust organizational structures and decisions, which can lead to overall better culture.

To support legal considerations: Many states are moving to requiring compensation listed on job descriptions and we want to follow these rules.

Salary: $225,000 (This is a full-time, exempt role)

We also ensure you have the tools you need to thrive both in and out of work.

Employee Stock Options
Medical, Dental, and Vision (80% employee coverage, 70% dependent coverage)
401k + matching
Short-term disability (100% employer paid)
Technology Stipend
Unlimited PTO + 12 paid holidays
Professional Development Stipend
Wellness Reimbursement
Internet Stipend
12 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
Yearly Staff Retreat
Voluntary Life Insurance

We believe in building and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace environment. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer where all applicants are considered for employment without attention to color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often don’t apply for roles if they don’t meet all the criteria – unlike majority candidates meeting significantly fewer requirements. We strongly encourage you to apply if you’re interested!

We are seeking candidates who have lived experience related to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are a virtual organization with headquarters in the California Bay Area.

VP of Marketing

Ignite Reading

Compensation Overview

Keyword Match

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

What critics are saying

What makes Ignite Reading unique

Benefits

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth