Job Title: Director of Performance Marketing

Posting Date: June 2026

Job Department: Marketing

Schedule: Full Time

Job Type: On-Site/Hybrid

Location: Candler 111 Market Pl Suite 800 Baltimore MD 21202

Job Summary

The National Aquarium is seeking a Director of Performance Marketing to lead paid media and digital marketing strategy, multiple agency and contractor relationships and other performance marketing functions. Build relevancy with key audiences, achieve revenue and attendance goals, drive reputational growth, and support strategic priorities. The Director leads the Performance Marketing team, ensuring that output is aligned with and achieves Marketing’s key objectives and KPIs in audience acquisition and engagement, brand and reputational management and thought leadership. Additionally, this individual will be tapped for leadership roles on various organizational steering committees as well as relevant external committees.

This individual reports to the VP of Marketing and Engagement Strategy and is a member of the Marketing Leadership Team.

Key Requirements

Essential responsibilities include:

• Develop and manage an effective performance marketing team that supports the Aquarium’s key marketing objectives:
• Meet our annual attendance and revenue goals and build a pipeline for future high propensity visitors
• Ensure the Aquarium’s highly regarded brand remains top-of-mind and trusted
• Clarify and amplify our unique value proposition
• Lead paid media and digital strategies across web, social, email, SEO, AEO, and emerging platforms to drive audience growth, revenue, and attendance.
• Oversee multiple agency and vendor partnerships, including strategy alignment, creative development, media execution, optimization, and performance analysis.
• Guide market research and trend analysis to identify audience insights, competitive dynamics, and growth opportunities.
• Define and execute an integrated performance measurement framework, partnering with Content and Brand Strategy, Project Management and Performance Planning and Analysis functions to deliver and report against KPIs for acquisition, engagement, brand health, and revenue.
• Partner with Project Manager on reporting and trend analysis
• Partner with Content and Brand Strategy to align paid, owned, and influencer strategies, ensuring effective integration and amplification across channels.
• Lead digital initiatives from strategy through launch, including roadmap development, campaign planning, and ongoing optimization of digital experiences.
• Develop long-term digital growth plans, including automation and self-service enhancements that improve usability, efficiency, and customer experience.
• Serve as a strategic problem-solver, partnering with internal teams and IT to address marketing challenges and advance digital capabilities.
• Ensure direct and indirect reports have the skills, resources and organizational clarity they need to meet and exceed their goals and to function as strong team players
• Provide clarity and ongoing direction to agencies and Digital Freelancer
• Effectively develop, direct and monitor multi-million-dollar budgets, with an eye to maximizing ROI.
• Provide strategic recommendations to senior leadership on opportunities to advance the Aquarium’s digital marketing capabilities, including perspectives on AI preparedness and policies for AI use, including evaluation of ethical application of AI-powered marketing tools
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with internal and external peers
• Maintain established personnel, policies and procedures

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or related field
• 8-10 years of experience leading paid media and digital marketing strategy with direct accountability for revenue, attendance, or conversion performance
• Proven people leader with experience managing both internal teams and agency/contractor relationships
• Expertise across paid channels including search, social, display, programmatic, and emerging platforms, with a strong understanding of full-funnel marketing
• Experience developing and executing digital marketing campaigns and digital experiences, balancing technical, marketing and usability components
• Highly data-driven leader with the ability to define, measure, and optimize KPIs related to audience acquisition, engagement, ROI, and brand health.
• Strategic collaborator and communicator, able to align cross-functional stakeholders and translate organizational priorities into effective performance strategies
• Experience with Google Analytics required and Salesforce Marketing Cloud preferred
• Strong operational and budget management skills
• Agency, B2C, tourism/hospitality, advertising or nonprofit experience a plus

Total Compensation Information

Salary range ($83,000-111,399 Annual). National Aquarium provides an excellent benefits package, including four weeks paid time off, and six paid floating holidays and up to four weeks of paid family leave. Employees are eligible for health care (single and family) after 30 days of full-time work. Conservation day leave and 401(k) plan with employer match available.

About The National Aquarium

Established in 1981, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect people with nature to inspire compassion and care for our ocean planet. The Aquarium’s award-winning habitats are home to thousands of animals representing hundreds of species of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. We are proud to be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and exceed industry standards in all aspects of animal care and welfare.

More than 1.2 million people visit the Aquarium each year to experience our immersive exhibits, and we reach far more through our science-based education programs and hands-on field conservation work. The National Aquarium is one of the top three aquariums in the United States and the largest paid cultural attraction in Maryland.

Our Mission and Goals

The Aquarium’s mission—to connect people with nature to inspire compassion and care for our ocean planet—begins within the walls of its buildings, but it does not end there. The Aquarium protects, enhances and restores natural resources through education and engagement, habitat restoration, animal rescue and sustainable business practices, with its conservation work guided by three overarching goals—to combat climate change, save wildlife and habitats, and stop plastic pollution.

Our Values

At the National Aquarium, our core values form the basis for our beliefs about our organization, our colleagues and ourselves, and serve as the framework to guide our behaviors and actions to achieve our mission.

Connection: We take the time to build lasting connections with each other, our guests, the animals in our care and the nature that surrounds us. We communicate clearly and collaborate readily within and across teams. We engage thoughtfully with our partners. We practice shared accountability.

Curiosity: We center learning and growth in all that we do. Our people are empowered to explore new approaches. We support taking risks. We value diverse perspectives and bold ideas. We embrace change.

Optimism: We celebrate the power of positive moments and shared experiences. We seek out opportunities to have fun. We reconnect with our purpose through sharing successes with our colleagues.

Service: We are in service to each other, our guests and our communities. We make intentional decisions and actions for the benefit of the people and animals within our organization.

Wellbeing: We ensure our people and animals have what they need mentally and physically to thrive. We are committed to improving the wellbeing of communities and sharing the healing power of natural for all.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

National Aquarium values an inclusive and diverse environment for all employees, volunteers, and interns. Our goal is to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a candidate pool representative of the variety of communities we serve. With a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, the Aquarium is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and promotes an environment free from all discrimination and harassment.

In the selection and retention of employees, volunteers, and interns, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, national, social, or ethnic origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, physical, mental, or sensory disability, sex (including pregnancy or childbirth), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, arrest record, family or caregiver status, HIV status, socioeconomic status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Our organization is dedicated to this policy with respect to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruitment, training, promotions, performance management, and separation, and general treatment during time of employment.