Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Description

Knak is a mission-driven company

Why? Because our time is limited, our competition is fierce, and our margin for error is small. To have the biggest impact on the world, we stay focused on our core mission, which is...

Empowering marketers to be creative .

That’s why Knak exists.

In a world where AI has made everyone a creator, Knak helps marketers turn ideas into on-brand, high-performing campaigns at scale. The world's most AI-forward companies, including Meta, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Vercel, Notion and Stripe, use Knak as their agentic marketing production layer.

Here's what they and our investor Insight Partners figured out: creation got easy, but that’s making production harder. Every new idea and brief still has to be built, versioned, checked, approved, and shipped across every channel, and that work runs on handoffs, review cycles, and a lot of copy-paste. That middle stretch of the marketing stack has no system, no standard, and no owner.

Knak is the flexible factory for that work. Our customers set the brand rules, choose the tools that feed in and the platforms that send, and decide where AI does the work and where people do. We handle the repeatable parts, so marketers get their time back for the parts that aren't.

We're built by marketers, for marketers. We started with email because it's the hardest channel to get right and where many campaigns win or lose. Now we're bringing that same production discipline to every channel our customers use.

For a CMO, that's a rare seat: the chance to define a category, not just compete in one. You get to market a marketing product to marketers and collaborate with a CEO who is a Marketer himself and truly understands Marketing, brand and the value it brings.

Oh, and we have a bit of fun while doing it, too!

Responsibilities

• Knak is looking for a builder CMO to lead our next stage of growth. As a fast-growing B2B SaaS company, redefining how enterprise marketing teams produce campaigns in the AI era.
• This is not a role for someone looking to inherit a finished marketing machine. We need a leader who can build the machine - someone who has created pipeline, built teams, collaborated and built strong relationships with Sales, developed brands and operated successfully through ambiguity and rapid change.
• You will own Marketing end to end, with particular emphasis on pipeline creation, demand generation and company-level GTM strategy . You will also partner closely with our strong product marketing leadership, Sales, Product and Customer teams.
• This is a remote friendly role - we are open to talent across the United States and Canada. Simply put, we are looking for the best!

Requirements

• A proven B2B SaaS marketing leader who has helped scale a company through a meaningful high-growth stage, ideally from roughly $20M toward $100M+ ARR and has done so without burning a gazillion dollars.
• Deep, hands-on experience building enterprise demand generation across digital, field/events, partners and other channels — with clear accountability for pipeline and revenue.
• A builder who moves quickly, experiments, makes decisions with imperfect information and can operate without everything being predefined.
• The ability to go high and low: from company strategy, positioning and executive communication to product details, campaigns, launches and funnel performance.
• A strong talent leader who can recruit A players, raise the performance bar and make difficult people decisions when necessary.
• Strong brand and creative judgment, with the resourcefulness to find unconventional ways to win without relying on massive budgets
• Roles & Responsibilities
• Own Knak’s marketing strategy and execution end to end.
• Build and scale a marketing organization designed to support Knak’s next stage of growth.
• Lead pipeline creation and demand generation with clear accountability for pipeline and revenue.
• Develop and experiment with enterprise demand generation across digital, field and events, partners, and other channels.
• Help shape company-level go-to-market strategy in close partnership with Sales, Product, Customer, and product marketing leadership.
• Build Knak’s brand and develop creative, resourceful ways to increase awareness without relying on massive budgets.
• Operate effectively through ambiguity and rapid change, moving quickly, experimenting, and making decisions with imperfect information.
• Work across both strategic and tactical priorities, from company strategy, positioning, and executive communication to campaigns, launches, product details, and funnel performance.
• Build and lead a high-performing marketing team, recruiting strong talent, raising the performance bar
• Help establish Agentic Marketing Production as an important new category for enterprise marketers.

Benefits

• At Knak we have four foundational pillars. Culture, customers, product and growth. Culture is our number one pillar because we know that is at the core of building a strong company that can build amazing products and delight our customers. We do this with a laser focus on hiring the right people who are smart, positive and who want more than the typical nine-to-five offers.
• We offer an extremely rewarding, second to none work environment as acknowledged by Ottawa’s Best Places to Work 2025 ! We show our investment in our people through our competitive salaries, equity in the company, great benefits, paid vacation, Life leave days (because life happens), team lunches and off-sites, and most importantly our commitment to YOUR career growth.
• If this sounds like something you’re looking for, then we’d love to hear from you!
• If you don’t see yourself fully reflected in every job requirement listed on the posting above, we still encourage you to reach out and apply. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups often only apply when they feel 100% qualified. We strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, and life experiences to apply. Knak believes in creating an inclusive, barrier-free working environment. If you require ANY accommodation to the interview process please contact culture@knak.com.
• At Knak, our recruitment process includes AI screening for keywords and minimum qualifications as well as video interviews which are transcribed with AI. Humans are still at the core of our decision making! Please note that this job post is for an existing vacancy.