Marketing Director

Work Model: Hybrid; in-person presence in Chicago and at FARE restaurant locations required

Job Type: Full-Time, Exempt

Reports to: President

Compensation: $100,000–$140,000 per year + bonus

Benefits: Health, Dental, Vision, 401(k), Paid Parental Leave, Employee Meal Benefit

About FARE

FARE is a fast-growing, scratch-made fast-casual restaurant brand expanding across Chicago, Charlotte, and new markets.

We’re looking for a Marketing Director to build and lead the marketing strategy behind our next stage of growth — from brand and customer acquisition to loyalty, local store marketing, and new restaurant openings.

This is a high-ownership, hands-on leadership role reporting directly to our President. You’ll set the marketing roadmap, lead the marketing team, manage the budget, and partner closely with Operations, Catering, and outside agencies as FARE grows into new markets.

This role is ideal for a marketing leader who can think strategically, move quickly, use data to make decisions, and still jump into execution when the business needs it.

What You’ll Do

• Own FARE’s marketing strategy and growth roadmap, including brand positioning, customer acquisition, retention, CRM, loyalty, local store marketing, and multi-channel campaigns tied to traffic, sales, engagement, and new-store performance.
• Lead and develop the marketing team while managing agency and external partner relationships, setting priorities, creating accountability, and ensuring campaigns consistently reflect the FARE brand.
• Drive customer growth and retention across email, SMS, loyalty, paid media, social, influencer partnerships, promotions, and lifecycle marketing, with a focus on increasing frequency, engagement, and customer lifetime value.
• Own local store marketing and cross-functional campaigns, partnering with Operations and Catering to build awareness, strengthen community relationships, increase restaurant traffic, and grow catering and restaurant-level revenue.
• Lead new restaurant and new-market marketing, including pre-launch awareness, customer acquisition, PR, influencers, community partnerships, grand openings, and post-launch traffic strategies. Build a repeatable opening playbook that can scale across Chicago, Charlotte, and future markets.
• Own marketing performance and infrastructure, including the budget, KPIs, ROI analysis, campaign reporting, seasonal and menu launch strategy, marketing processes, and scalable systems that can support a growing restaurant portfolio.

What Success Looks Like

• New restaurant openings generate strong local awareness, customer acquisition, and sustained traffic after launch.
• Marketing investment is connected to measurable improvements in traffic, sales, retention, and customer growth.
• FARE develops repeatable local-store and new-market marketing playbooks that can scale as the brand grows.
• The marketing team, systems, and agency relationships grow alongside the business without losing speed or brand consistency.

What You’ll Need

• 7+ years of progressive marketing experience, including leadership responsibility within a multi-unit restaurant, hospitality, retail, food, or consumer brand.
• Proven experience developing and executing marketing strategies that drive customer acquisition, traffic, retention, and revenue.
• Experience leading a marketing team and managing external agencies, vendors, and partners.
• Strong analytical and digital marketing capabilities, including experience with CRM, email/SMS, paid media, web analytics, loyalty, and campaign performance reporting. Experience with Google Analytics, Klaviyo, Tableau, or comparable platforms is a plus.
• Experience owning and allocating a meaningful marketing budget and evaluating ROI across channels.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and the…