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About the Company

Our client is a fast-growing direct-to-consumer ecommerce brand specializing in premium replacement parts and maintenance essentials for diesel pickup trucks. The company has experienced exceptional revenue growth over the past five years while maintaining profitability—a rare combination in the DTC space. This is a bootstrapped, founder-led business built on quality and service.

Unlike traditional auto parts retailers, this company owns the entire customer experience. They design, source, and brand their own products, selling directly through their ecommerce website and major online marketplaces without authorizing resellers or third-party distribution. The product portfolio focuses on essential, repeatable maintenance items: filters, oil kits, brake components, hub assemblies, wipers, fluids, and additives—mission-critical parts that prevent breakdowns and expensive repairs.

The brand emphasizes quality, trust, and convenience. Products meet or exceed OEM specifications with third-party testing. The company provides fitment tools, bundled maintenance kits, and fast shipping, building a loyal customer base that returns for every maintenance cycle.

Primary customers include DIY diesel pickup owners, prosumers and work-truck users who depend on their vehicles for their livelihood, and small businesses like hot shot truckers, construction crews, landscapers, and fleet operators. Future expansion beginning now in 2026 includes auto parts for gas and diesel vehicles. These customers can’t afford downtime and value reliability above all else.

The team is scrappy, hands-on, and intensely focused on execution. The founders are deeply involved, decisions are made quickly, and the culture values accountability and results. People who thrive here are self-starters who bring solutions and treat the business like their own. The company is ready to scale aggressively and needs a marketing leader who can build high-performing teams, establish measurement systems, and execute with discipline.

About the Industry

Given that the client intends to expand beyond the diesel truck space, let’s talk about the online automotive parts and accessories industry.

The online automotive parts and accessories sector is one of the fastest-growing segments of American retail. The U.S. online automotive parts market reached $5.8 billion in 2025 and is projected to climb to $6.8 billion by 2030, growing at approximately 3.2% annually. This growth significantly outpaces traditional brick-and-mortar auto parts retail, which has largely plateaued at 1-2% annual growth.

The broader automotive aftermarket remains massive and essential. With over 280 million registered vehicles in the United States and an average vehicle age exceeding 12 years—the highest in history—demand for replacement parts, maintenance products, and accessories is both substantial and recurring. Older vehicles require more frequent repairs and part replacements, creating steady tailwinds for the aftermarket.

The automotive parts and accessories industry is undergoing fundamental transformation. E-commerce penetration in auto parts has accelerated dramatically since 2020, driven by pandemic-induced behavior changes, improved logistics infrastructure, and greater consumer comfort purchasing technical products online. Online channels now represent a rapidly growing share of the $180+ billion U.S. automotive aftermarket.

Key trends reshaping the landscape include:

• Direct-to-consumer models disrupting traditional wholesale distribution — Consumers increasingly bypass local auto parts stores in favor of online retailers offering better selection, pricing, and convenience
• Accelerating DIY vehicle maintenance — YouTube tutorials, online forums, and detailed product information have democratized auto repair, enabling cost-conscious consumers to perform their own maintenance and upgrades
• Ecommerce becoming the primary discovery and shopping channel — Online search and comparison shopping now dominate the customer journey, even when purchases ultimately occur in-store
• Omnichannel strategies from traditional retailers — Major players like O’Reilly, AutoZone, and Advance Auto Parts have invested heavily in digital platforms, offering features like same-day pickup, next-day delivery, and integrated online/in-store inventory
• Commercial buyers embracing online ordering — Repair shops and professional mechanics increasingly order parts online for speed, selection, and competitive pricing
• Meta and Google dominating paid acquisition — Performance marketing through precise audience targeting, retargeting, and creative testing drives customer acquisition at scale
• Growing enthusiasm for classic and vintage vehicles — Younger generations, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are driving renewed interest in classic car ownership and customization, creating robust demand for hard-to-find and aftermarket parts
• Expanding EV and hybrid vehicle aftermarket — As electric and hybrid vehicles proliferate, specialized parts for batteries, charging systems, and regenerative braking create new market opportunities

Despite the rise of electric vehicles, internal combustion engines will remain dominant for decades. The existing fleet of 280+ million vehicles requires ongoing maintenance, and even optimistic EV adoption scenarios suggest gas-powered vehicles will represent the majority of the U.S. fleet through 2040. The replacement parts market for these vehicles is massive, fragmented, and ripe for disruption by well-executed online retailers that combine operational excellence, data-driven marketing, and customer obsession.

Online automotive parts retail remains moderately concentrated, with the top three players—O’Reilly (22.6%), AutoZone (22.1%), and Advance Auto Parts (14.4%)—controlling 59% of the market. However, 41% remains fragmented across thousands of smaller online retailers, specialty shops, and niche brands. This fragmentation creates opportunity for agile, capital-efficient operators who can leverage digital marketing, superior user experience, and targeted product selection to capture share from both large incumbents and smaller competitors.

About the Role

This VP of Ecommerce & Digital position is for a company ready to scale from a strong foundation to the next level of growth. The business has proven fundamentals—profitable operations, strong repeat purchase behavior, loyal customer base—but scaling requires a marketing leader who can build systems, teams, and processes that drive predictable, sustainable growth.

Currently, marketing is split between external agency support and a small internal team, with unclear ownership. Creative output has been inconsistent, data and attribution are confusing, product launches have lacked coordination, and retention marketing is underdeveloped compared to paid acquisition.

This is an operator role! You’ll review dashboards daily, evaluate ad creative, hire and train team members, negotiate with vendors, and work cross-functionally across the organization. You’ll own a significant paid media budget across Meta, Google, Amazon, and emerging channels. You’ll be measured on customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, contribution margin, repeat purchase rate, and marketing efficiency.

The ideal candidate has built and scaled a DTC ecommerce brand, understands paid media economics, knows how to balance growth with profitability, has transitioned from agency to in-house, has built high-performing teams, and has established data systems that drive better decisions.

You’ll report to the founder/CEO with significant decision-making authority and accountability. The culture is founder-led, fast-moving, and execution-focused with no corporate politics or layers of approval. If you thrive where your work has immediate impact and performance matters more than tenure, you’ll fit right in.

Within six months, success looks like this: Marketing fully transitioned in-house with a high-performing team, a creative engine running at scale, trusted data and attribution systems driving decisions, a strategic roadmap being executed with discipline, and cultural fit proven through direct communication and consistent results.

Responsibilities

• Own the paid media budget across Meta, Google Shopping, Amazon, and emerging channels; establish and defend clear return-on-ad-spend targets based on contribution margin; make data-driven decisions to allocate spend toward highest-performing channels and kill underperforming campaigns quickly.
• Build and lead the marketing organization in-house by recruiting and onboarding specialists in growth, creative, ecommerce operations, and content; transition fully from external agency support within the first 90 days; establish clear team structure, accountability, and operating cadence.
• Develop a high-velocity creative production engine that generates fresh ad concepts weekly to feed platform algorithms and prevent creative fatigue; build partnerships with freelancers, creators, and content producers; implement systems for testing, learning, and scaling winning concepts.
• Establish reliable data and attribution systems that provide a single source of truth for marketing performance; reconcile data from multiple platforms; implement testing methodologies to validate incrementality; build dashboards and reporting that enable confident investment decisions.
• Drive customer acquisition with disciplined unit economics by managing acquisition costs across channels, testing new offers and messaging strategies, forecasting customer volume, and coordinating with supply chain to ensure inventory supports marketing plans.
• Maximize customer lifetime value through retention marketing programs including email and SMS campaigns, loyalty programs, second-order incentives, and win-back automation; establish repeat purchase rate and cohort lifetime value as key performance indicators.
• Lead disciplined product launch execution using structured go-to-market playbooks that coordinate content, email, paid media, and marketplace strategies; track performance by product and channel; work cross-functionally to ensure launches are set up for success.
• Optimize conversion rate and average order value through continuous testing of site experience, checkout flows, bundling strategies, upsell mechanics, and promotional offers; conduct regular friction audits to identify and eliminate barriers to purchase.
• Protect and amplify the brand story as a core differentiator; ensure all creative and content aligns with brand values and voice; leverage founder story and customer testimonials to build trust and authority in the diesel truck community.
• Report on marketing performance with weekly dashboards covering key metrics, monthly financial analysis including contribution margin by channel and cohort, and quarterly strategic updates; work closely with finance to forecast and manage marketing P&L.

Requirements

• 7-10 years of marketing leadership experience scaling a direct-to-consumer ecommerce brand, with demonstrated success taking a company from early-stage growth to significant scale; deep understanding of ecommerce unit economics including customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, contribution margin, and payback period.
• Expert-level proficiency with paid social and paid search marketing, particularly Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and Google platforms; hands-on experience managing multi-million dollar ad budgets; proven track record building and optimizing high-volume creative testing systems and scaling campaigns profitably.
• Strong track record building and leading marketing teams from the ground up; experience recruiting specialists in paid media, creative production, email marketing, and analytics; ability to transition from agency-dependent to fully in-house operations; proven ability to delegate effectively without becoming a bottleneck.
• Demonstrated success designing and executing retention marketing strategies that improve repeat purchase behavior and customer lifetime value; experience with email and SMS marketing platforms, loyalty programs, subscription models, and automated lifecycle campaigns; comfortable building workflows and campaigns independently.
• Financial literacy and P&L management capability with deep understanding of how marketing investments impact profitability; ability to forecast marketing spend and model business outcomes; comfortable presenting financial analysis to founders and finance teams; experience optimizing contribution margin at the order and cohort level.
• Authentic, direct leadership style with a bias toward action and accountability; comfortable working in a founder-led environment where decisions are made quickly; brings solutions rather than problems; earns trust through consistent delivery; willing to challenge assumptions constructively while respecting company values and vision.
• Intermediate-to-advanced data analysis and reporting skills with ability to build dashboards, interpret multi-platform analytics, and conduct cohort analysis; understanding of attribution modeling approaches including multi-touch attribution, post-purchase surveys, and incrementality testing; able to identify data quality issues and drive improvements.
• Strong creative judgment with ability to evaluate ad quality, assess brand fit, and understand what drives performance; experience managing creative teams, freelancers, or agencies; able to provide actionable feedback without being the creator yourself; understands the balance between brand consistency and testing velocity.
• Disciplined approach to product launch and go-to-market execution with structured playbooks for coordination across content, email, paid media, and marketplace channels; experience working cross-functionally with operations and supply chain teams to align inventory with marketing plans; makes data-driven decisions about when to scale or kill initiatives.
• Growth mindset with willingness to get hands-on when needed; comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration in a fast-moving business; stays current on industry trends, platform changes, and emerging best practices; coachable and non-defensive with commitment to continuous improvement.

Applications for this ecommerce job are being coordinated by Allan Seibert. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Allan for additional information that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the intensely competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended.