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.
What We Do
When kids learn to read on time their opportunities in school and life improve profoundly. If a child cannot read by the time they are in third grade, they are four times less likely to graduate high school.* In 2022, only 33% of U.S. fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders were reading at grade level (National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment scores). Ignite Reading is on a mission to fix this.
Ignite Reading delivers one-to-one virtual tutoring that teaches K-8th graders the foundational skills they need to become confident, independent readers. We pair developing readers with expert reading tutors who provide daily, 15-minute, Science of Reading-based instruction that rapidly closes decoding gaps. Students across all demographics achieve the same outstanding results–an average of 2.4 weeks of reading skills growth per week of instruction–including students with IEPs, multilingual learners, students of color and those receiving free or reduced-price lunch. By ensuring all students master the foundational skills to fluently read any word, Ignite Reading empowers them to move forward and unlock everything school and life have to offer.
"Ignite Reading is one of the most, if not the most, successful interventions we have implemented in our district. The student results and program design are indisputable."
- Claudia Salvestrin, Assistant Superintendent, Red Bluff Union Elementary School District, CA
