DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Job Location: Gurgaon

Work Setup: Work from Office (All 5 days of the week)

Position Title: Director of Digital Marketing

Department: Commercial / Growth & Brand Marketing

Reports To: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Direct Reports: Head of Performance Media, Lead SEO Specialist, Head of Social & Content Strategy, Lead MarTech & Retention, D2C Growth Manager

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The Director of Digital Marketing will be the central architect driving direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue growth, customer acquisition, and digital brand equity across all web and mobile channels. Reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Officer, this senior leadership role is tasked with managing multi-million-dollar digital media budgets, owning the complete digital acquisition funnel, scaling direct bookings, and modernizing the airline's MarTech stack. The ideal candidate is a hybrid executive: equal parts quantitative performance marketer, technical SEO authority, brand storyteller, and technologist. You will lead cross-functional teams across performance marketing, SEO, social media, marketing technology, and site optimization to minimize dependence on Third-Party Intermediaries (OTAs) and maximize contribution margins (CM1/CM2) across domestic and international route networks.

2. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES & KEY FUNCTIONAL AREAS:

A. D2C Growth & P&L Ownership:

- Direct Revenue Scaling: Own the digital P&L for direct channels (Web + App), driving strategies to achieve the airline's target share of direct bookings versus OTAs.

- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Oversee full funnel conversion across web and mobile apps, minimizing drop-offs on flight search grids, seat maps, ancillary add-ons, and payment gateways.

- Ancillary Revenue Maximization: Drive digital campaigns targeting high-margin ancillary products, including seat selection, extra baggage, lounge access, priority boarding, and travel insurance.

- Yield & Revenue Alignment: Partner closely with Revenue Management and Pricing teams to adjust digital marketing spend dynamically based on load factors, route yields, and seasonal demand fluctuations.

B. Performance Marketing & Paid Media Execution:

- Media Budget Management: Plan, deploy, and optimize multi-million-dollar media budgets across Paid Search (Google Search/RSA), Programmatic Display/Video, Paid Social (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn), and Metasearch platforms (Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak).

- Bidding & Algorithmic Strategy: Implement advanced bidding strategies (Target ROAS, Target CPA, Value-Based Bidding) to maximize booking volume while maintaining strict customer acquisition cost (CAC) efficiencies.

- App Acquisition & Engagement: Lead Apple Search Ads (ASA), Google App Campaigns for Install (ACi), and retargeting workflows to drive high-LTV mobile app downloads and active monthly users (MAU).

- Audience Suppression & Efficiency: Implement automated daily suppression pipelines (via BigQuery/MMP) to exclude active 30-day MAUs from top-of-funnel prospecting, protecting media spend efficiency.

C. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Technical Search:

- Organic Flight Discovery: Own total organic search visibility and non-brand keywords for key routes, destinations, and fare classes across global markets.

- Technical SEO Governance: Oversee site architecture, schema markup (FlightReserve, Airline, Destination data), Core Web Vitals, page load speed, and crawl budget optimizations across localized domains.

- Dynamic Route Page Engine: Partner with engineering to maintain auto-generated, search-optimized dynamic landing pages for thousands of origin-and-destination (O&D) city pairs.

- Content SEO: Direct editorial content strategy to capture long-tail travel search intent, destination guides, and seasonal travel inspiration.

D. Social Media, Brand Engagement & PR Integration:

- Omnichannel Social Strategy: Set the narrative and organic/paid social vision across Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and regional social channels.

- Crisis & Reputation Management: Formulate real-time social response protocols during operational disruptions, weather delays, or flight cancellations in close coordination with Corporate Communications.

- Creator & Influencer Ecosystem: Build scalable influencer partnerships, ambassador programs, and UGC campaigns that drive high-engagement travel stories and viral brand moments.

- Community Management: Oversee active community management, social customer care integration, and social listening platforms to monitor real-time brand sentiment.

E. Marketing Technology (MarTech) & Data Infrastructure:

- Stack Architecture: Evaluate, implement, and optimize the global MarTech stack, including Customer Data Platforms (CDP), Mobile Measurement Partners (MMP - AppsFlyer/Adjust), Consent Management Platforms (CMP), and Tag Management Systems (Tealium/GTM).

- First-Party Data Readiness: Drive the transition toward a privacy-first, cookieless advertising model utilizing server-side tracking, Conversions API (CAPI), and clean room architectures.

- Personalization & Lifecycle Automation: Partner with CRM teams to integrate real-time dynamic web/app personalization, abandoned flight retargeting, and automated trigger sequences.

- Analytics & Attribution: Oversee multi-touch attribution (MTA) models, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), and unified dashboard reporting across Google Analytics 4, BigQuery, and BI visualization tools.

F. UI/UX Optimization:

- User Journey & Experience Architecture: Lead end-to-end mapping and continuous optimization of digital touchpoints (web, landing pages, app, customer portals) to eliminate friction and elevate conversion rates.

- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) & Experimentation: Establish a rigorous experimentation framework (A/B testing, multivariate testing, heatmapping) to turn user insights into actionable UI/UX updates that drive lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) and higher customer lifetime value (LTV).

- Cross-Functional Design Alignment: Collaborate directly with Product Management, Product Design, and Engineering teams to ensure brand consistency, design system adherence, and seamless transitions between top-of-funnel marketing assets and product interfaces.

- Customer Research & Usability Intelligence: Translate quantitative analytics (Google Analytics, Hotjar, Amplitude) and qualitative user feedback (usability testing, customer interviews) into user-centric design enhancements.

- Personalization & Lifecycle UX: Oversee dynamic, personalized UI/UX strategies tailored to different user segments, traffic channels, and funnel stages to improve onboarding and retention metrics.

Required Competencies:

- Strategic UX Oversight: Proven ability to critique and guide UX/UI deliverables (wireframes, user flows, visual design concepts) with a focus on business objectives rather than pure aesthetics.

- Data-Driven Design Strategy: Deep familiarity with UX analytics platforms, heatmapping tools, and testing frameworks to justify design decisions through performance metrics.

- Accessibility & Performance Standards: Solid understanding of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), mobile-first design principles, and Core Web Vitals to balance visual aesthetics with technical site performance and SEO.

3. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs):

- Functional Domain: D2C Channel Growth | Key Metric Ownership & Targets: Direct Booking Share %, Web/App Conversion Rate (%), eTRevPAR, Contribution Margin 1 & 2

- Functional Domain: Performance Media | Key Metric Ownership & Targets: Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Cost Per Install (CPI), Ancillary Attachment Rate (%)

- Functional Domain: Search Engine Optimization | Key Metric Ownership & Targets: Non-Brand Organic Traffic Share, Top-3 Route Ranking Position, Core Web Vitals Pass Rate

- Functional Domain: MarTech & Data | Key Metric Ownership & Targets: First-Party Data Match Rates, Attribution Accuracy, Marketing Tech Cost Ratio

- Functional Domain: Social & Engagement | Key Metric Ownership & Targets: Engagement Rate (ER), Share of Voice (SOV), Net Sentiment Index, Customer Response SLA

4. CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

Required Experience:

- Professional Track Record: 10-15+ years of progressive digital marketing leadership experience, with at least 5+ years in a senior executive/director role managing large-scale budgets ($10M+ annual media spend).

- Domain Expertise: Deep prior experience in high-volume, dynamic-pricing consumer industries - specifically Airlines, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), Hospitality, or Mobility.

- Technical Mastery: Deep hands-on familiarity with performance advertising platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Business Center, DSPs), metasearch bidding platforms, and SEO tools (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush).

- Data & Analytics Proficiency: Direct working knowledge of Google Analytics 4, BigQuery, SQL basics, CDPs (Segment, Tealium), and MMPs (AppsFlyer, Branch).

- Leadership & Team Building: Proven track record of managing and mentoring cross-functional teams of 15+ internal marketers, data analysts, and external agency partners.

Educational Requirements:

- Bachelor's Degree: Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Computer Science, Data Analytics, or related quantitatively oriented field.

- Master's / MBA: Master's / MBA from a top-tier institution preferred.

5. REQUIRED COMPETENCIES & LEADERSHIP STYLE:

- Commercial Acumen: Strong business intuition with an intimate understanding of airline economics, yield optimization, passenger load factor impact, and contribution margin math.

- Agile Leadership: Ability to navigate complex corporate environments while running an agile, high-velocity testing culture (A/B testing, multivariate landing page experiments).

- Crisis Resilience: Calm under pressure during real-time operational crises or press disruptions that spill into social and digital customer feedback channels.

- Cross-Functional Influence: Exceptional communication skills to build alignment across Revenue Management, IT/Engineering, Operations, Customer Experience, and Corporate Finance.