Marketing Technology Solutions Lead

Job Description:

Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.

If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth – join Kobo and come help us on our mission of making reading lives better.

The Role:

The Marketing Technology Solutions Lead is a pivotal role bridging strategic marketing objectives with effective technological solutions. This individual is a strategic operator and problem-solver who excels at understanding marketing challenges, optimizing processes, and leveraging technology to enhance performance. They will drive the identification, evaluation, and implementation of MarTech solutions, focusing on workflow automation, AI integration, and operational efficiency across various marketing channels. This role requires a blend of strategic thinking, deep technical understanding, and hands-on execution to empower marketing teams and deliver innovative experiences.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Problem Solving & Solution Design: Collaborate effectively with internal teams, actively seeking out pain points, operational inefficiencies, and strategic goals. Translate these into actionable problems that can be solved/improved through MarTech.
• Cross-Channel MarTech Strategy: Understand and address MarTech needs across a broad spectrum of marketing channels, including email, push notifications, digital advertising platforms, and other customer engagement points.
• Workflow & Process Optimization: Proactively identify opportunities through process mining and stakeholder engagement to streamline marketing workflows, automate repetitive tasks, integrate, and improve efficiency across the marketing project lifecycle.
• Technology Scouting & Evaluation: Continually research and monitor developments in the MarTech landscape, including workflow automation, AI capabilities in marketing (creative AI, personalization, data), and emerging tools. Drive the development of Proof of Concepts for innovative marketing experiences, evaluating new technologies and approaches for their potential to address business needs and enhance marketing capabilities.
• AI Integration & Innovation: Identify and implement opportunities to integrate Artificial Intelligence into marketing workflows and tools, from enhancing creative processes to optimizing campaign execution and personalization across channels.
• Solution Implementation & Configuration: Lead the end-to-end technical design, hands-on configuration, development, and implementation of MarTech solutions, including creating automations within platforms like ClickUp, building internal tools with platforms like ReTool, and configuring existing MarTech systems.
• Solution Architecture & Integration: Design, optimize, and maintain robust solution architectures across various MarTech systems (e.g., Hightouch, Builder.io, ReTool, Oracle Responsys), ensuring seamless data flow and integration.
• Performance Monitoring & Optimization: Contribute to the reporting and analysis of marketing solution performance, identifying areas for continuous improvement and optimization.
• Platform Governance & Best Practices: Establish, enforce, and maintain best practices for MarTech platform utilization, data governance, and system integrity to ensure scalability and compliance.
• Technical Requirements & Vendor Evaluation: Define clear technical and business requirements for new tooling, evaluate vendor solutions, and contribute to the RFP process by assessing technical fit, integration capabilities, and methodology.
• Documentation & Training: Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for MarTech solutions, processes, and data flows. Provide guidance and training to marketing teams on new tools and optimized workflows.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Minimum 5+ years of experience in MarTech, marketing operations, or a related role, with a proven track record of strategic problem-solving, process optimization, and hands-on technical implementation.
• Exceptional systems thinking, pattern recognition, and conceptualization abilities, demonstrating a fluid capacity to navigate from tactical details to operational impact and strategic vision.
• Deep expertise in workflow automation and hands-on proficiency with low-code platforms (e.g., ReTool) and enterprise automation tools (e.g., ClickUp Automations, Zapier).
• Proven ability to strategically leverage AI in marketing, encompassing workflow automation, creative applications, and personalization across channels.
• Strong cross-functional mapping abilities and a proven track record of engaging diverse stakeholders to translate complex business needs into integrated and actionable MarTech solutions.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the broader MarTech ecosystem, including specific experience with digital advertising platforms, email, and push notification channels.
• Expertise in designing robust solution architectures across multiple MarTech systems (e.g., Hightouch, Builder.io, BigQuery, Oracle Responsys), with a strong understanding of data flow, modeling, and integration principles.
• Experience defining technical/business requirements for new tooling, leading vendor evaluations, and contributing to the RFP process.
• Highly autonomous with strong independent judgment, capable of driving initiatives from concept to completion.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and analytical skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts and build consensus across technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice-to-Have Skills & Experience:

• Experience with specific tools such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• Familiarity with Agile development methodologies.
• Experience in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

The Perks:

• Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
• Subsidized in-office lunches
• Four extended long weekends in the summer
• Full benefits starting from your first day
• Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
• Work From Anywhere Program for up to 3 months (90 days)
• Monthly commuting allowance for those who are hybrid
• Lifestyle spending account
• Talent and development training budget
• Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
• Weekly Kobo Spark sessions
• Maternity/paternity leave top up
• Dog friendly office

About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is the world’s digital bookseller created by and for booklovers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten Group, Inc. and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo’s millions of worldwide users can read anytime, anywhere, and on any device. With a mission to make reading lives better for all, Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks and audiobooks, and the best dedicated eReaders and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading lives the best they can be, Kobo’s open platform allows people to fit reading into more moments in their busy lives. To learn more about Rakuten Kobo, visit www.kobo.com.

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially.  

Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.  

#RKIND

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Rakuten is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially. 

Rakuten would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.

Beware of fraudulent job offers claiming to be from Rakuten. Rakuten does not send unsolicited job offers or request money during the recruitment process. Learn more: https://rakutenemploymentalert.com/

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the Compensation (base salary + discretionary bonus) for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for stock options, health, vision, dental insurance, RRSP matching, Personal Time Off (PTO), Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

CAD $77,837.00 - 122,548.53 annually