Chief Marketing Officer (San Francisco)

Karbon is the global leader in practice management software for growth-minded accounting firms. We provide an award-winning, highly collaborative cloud platform that streamlines work and communication, enabling the average accounting firm using Karbon to save 18.5 hours per week, per employee.

We have customers in 34 countries and have grown into a globally distributed team, with our people based throughout the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. We are well-funded, ranked #1 on G2, have a fantastic team culture built on our values, are growing rapidly, and making a global impact.

Karbon is seeking a visionary and results-oriented Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to spearhead this pivotal next chapter of our growth and take further market leadership in the accounting practice management software category. This is a unique and transformative role for a strategic leader who is excited by the challenge of building upon our legacy of innovation, refreshing a strong brand, and redefining its value to the accounting industry as we aim to once again set the standard and redefine our category.

As CMO, you will be the chief architect of our evolving growth story, responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive marketing strategy that accelerates our trajectory, generates significant demand, and drives revenue. You will be a key member of the executive team, playing a crucial role in shaping the future of Karbon and the industry.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Market Redefinition:

• Develop and execute a bold marketing strategy that not only drives growth but also positions Karbon as the thought leader redefining the future of accounting practice management in an AI-driven world.
• Lead a comprehensive brand refresh, evolving our positioning and value proposition to reflect our innovative vision and resonate powerfully with the evolving needs of the global accounting industry.
• Champion Karbon's compelling growth story, highlighting our innovative roots and our ambitious vision for the future, to capture the imagination of the market and solidify our leadership.
• Conduct deep market, competitor, and customer analysis to identify disruptive opportunities, anticipate industry shifts, and inform our strategic direction for market redefinition.

Demand Generation & Revenue Acceleration:

• Design, build, and scale a predictable, efficient, and world-class global demand generation engine in close partnership with the sales organization.
• Develop and implement innovative, multi-channel campaigns (digital, content, webinars, PR, social, partnerships, community building, etc.) to drive high-quality leads and build a robust sales pipeline.
• Oversee an extensive calendar of 50+ global events throughout the year, including our flagship annual customer conference
• Establish clear metrics and KPIs to track, analyze, and report on campaign performance, pipeline contribution, marketing ROI, and customer acquisition cost, ensuring data-driven decision-making.
• Take direct responsibility for achieving ambitious pipeline and revenue targets, constantly seeking opportunities to measure, update and optimize.

Team Leadership & Capability Expansion:

• Continue to build, mentor, and inspire a high-performing global marketing team, fostering a culture of innovation, agility, collaboration, accountability, and alignment with Karbon's core values.
• Strategically identify and recruit top talent for critical marketing functions that align with our evolving goals and market redefinition strategy.
• Provide strong leadership, clear direction, and professional development opportunities for the marketing team.
  

Brand Storytelling & Campaign Excellence:

• Develop and refine Karbon's powerful and differentiated brand narrative, articulating our unique vision for the industry, ensuring consistent, impactful storytelling across all marketing touchpoints.
• Oversee the creation and execution of integrated marketing campaigns from strategic conception through execution, analysis, and iteration, targeting key segments within the accounting industry.
• Establish and manage a clear and agile campaign development process, ensuring timely execution and seamless cross-functional alignment with sales, product, and customer success.
• Leverage data, customer insights, and market trends to continuously improve messaging, targeting, and campaign effectiveness.
  

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence:

• Work closely with Sales leadership to ensure tight alignment on go-to-market strategies, lead management processes, sales enablement initiatives, and shared revenue goals.
• Collaborate intimately with Product
• s to inform product strategy, positioning, messaging, and go-to-market plans for new and existing solutions that will redefine the market.
• Partner with Customer Success to leverage customer advocacy, gather insights, and ensure a cohesive customer experience.
• Act as a key partner to other executive leaders, ensuring marketing strategies robustly support overall company objectives and our mission to redefine the industry.

Qualifications:

• Proven experience as a CMO or in a senior marketing leadership role (e.g., VP of Marketing) within a scaling B2B SaaS or technology company, preferably serving the accounting or professional services industry.
• Demonstrable success in developing and executing marketing strategies that have driven significant revenue growth, market share acquisition, and ideally, experience with category leadership or redefinition.
• Extensive experience in brand evolution, including refreshing brand identity, repositioning products/services, and defining clear, compelling value propositions
• A strong track record of building, leading, mentoring, and scaling high-performing, globally distributed marketing teams, with experience adding critical new functions.
• Deep expertise in building and optimizing sophisticated demand generation engines, with a focus on measurable pipeline and revenue impact (familiarity with PLG strategies is a plus).
• Proven ability to develop and implement effective multi-channel marketing campaigns and create compelling brand storytelling that resonates with a B2B audience.
• Strong understanding of modern marketing technologies, analytics, and attribution models (e.g., CRM (Salesforce), marketing automation (Pardot), analytics platforms, ABM tools).
• Exceptional strategic thinking, analytical, communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate a vision, influence, and collaborate effectively at all levels, including the executive team and board.
• A data-driven, results-oriented mindset with a passion for continuous improvement and a clear bias for action.
• Entrepreneurial spirit, comfortable with ambiguity, and thrives in a fast-paced, transformative, and remote-first environment.
• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• A genuine interest in and understanding of the accounting industry and the challenges faced by firms would be highly advantageous.

Why Join Karbon?

• A unique opportunity to be at the forefront of redefining an entire category with a company that has a legacy of innovation and is G2's #1 ranked Accounting Practice Management software.
• Make a profound impact and shape the future of a high-growth software company at a pivotal moment of further market leadership.
• Lead and build upon a strong foundation to achieve new heights of market influence and customer value.
• Work with a passionate, globally distributed, and talented team dedicated to innovation, customer success, and Karbon's core values.
• Be part of a company culture that champions connectivity, excellence, extraordinary outcomes, authenticity, and action.
• Strong benefits package including:
  
  • Paid Flexible Time Off with an encouraged 4 weeks use per year
  • Company paid medical for you and eligible spouse/partner and dependents
  • Company paid dental and vision and eligible spouse/partner and dependents
  • Fully company funded short and long term disability
  • Fully company paid life insurance
  • 401(k) with company matching
  • Flexible Spending Account
  • Up to 8 weeks paid parental leave
  • Work-from-home stipend

As we hire across various locations within the USA we are required by law to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role.

The range provided is broad and takes into consideration a wide range of factors that are reviewed when making a hiring decision, such as physical location/cost of living in that location, years of experience, skills, and other business needs.

It is not typical for a candidate to be hired at or near the top of the pay range and each compensation decision is dependent on each individual case. The base salary is one component of the total compensation package, which for some roles may include a target bonus, for some roles very competitive equity grant, and very generous benefits. While we believe competitive compensation is a critical aspect of you deciding to join us, we do hope you also spend time considering why our mission, purpose and values are right for you. We are creating something transformational here, and we hope you are as excited about the future as we are!

The estimated base sal