About Emerald

Emerald’s talented and experienced teams grow our customers’ businesses 365 days a year with products that create connections, deliver content, and drive commerce. We produce over 140 annual events, create and deliver content through print and digital channels, and power commerce through our seamlessly integrated in-person and digital platforms and channels. For more information, please visit http://www.emeraldx.com.

Emerald is seeking a dynamic and results-oriented VP, Audience Development to lead the growth strategy for our diverse portfolio of event and content brands. This is a senior leadership role for a strategic thinker who is passionate about building, engaging, and retaining audiences. You will be the central force driving our audience acquisition and engagement engine, overseeing a multi-channel strategy designed for significant and measurable growth.

Working closely with Emerald’s brand marketing teams, you will own the full funnel audience journey, from initial awareness to brand loyalty. This position requires a transformative, data-driven leader who can build a sophisticated growth machine by integrating SEO/AEO, organic social, performance marketing, content development, and advanced email/CRM strategies. If you are an expert at turning analytics into action and thrive on building high-performing teams, we want to hear from you.

This position is open to work from any of our US offices or remotely.

As the VP, Audience Development, you will architect and execute a comprehensive strategy to expand our reach and deepen engagement across all platforms. Your core responsibilities will include:

• Management of Functional Pods: Oversee management of specialized teams responsible for the execution of Emerald’s brand marketing audience strategy.
• First-Party Data Management: Oversee collection, integration, and activation of first-party audience data across events, media, and digital channels to drive acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies.

• Audience Optimization: Lead our audience and first party data search engine optimization and answer engine optimization initiatives to capture intent and capitalize on organic traffic by creating unknown to known journeys. Keep up to date on the rapid developments in this space.
• Organic Social: Implement our organic social media strategy, transforming our channels into key sources of audience engagement and acquisition.
• Performance Marketing: Responsible for attribution tracking and accountability, data & measurement.

Requirements

• 8–12+ years of progressive leadership experience in audience development, growth marketing, or a related field.
• A proven track record of significant audience growth with demonstrable wins in both SEO and Email.
• Direct experience managing large-scale performance media budgets across multiple channels.
• Deep expertise with marketing automation and CRM platforms (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo).
• Mastery of the modern analytics stack, including GA4, BI tools (PowerBI) and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs).
• Extensive experience designing and executing marketing experiments, including A/B testing and incrementality studies.
• Strong understanding of data privacy regulations and best practices for compliant data collection and usage.
• Exceptional leadership skills with a history of building, mentoring, and inspiring high-performing teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in both B2B and B2C marketing environments.
• Background in events, agency, media, or publishing industries.
• Hands-on experience with BI report interpretation.

About Emerald

At Emerald, we strive to foster a diverse and inclusive community. We actively recruit and champion candidates who bring new perspectives from varied professional backgrounds and experiences, and we are intentional about ensuring a positive hiring experience for everyone. Our job postings don’t contain experience inflation, and most don’t require college degrees. Instead, they’re crafted to focus on outcomes and transferable experiences that are assessed in a structured interview process carried out by trained hiring teams. 

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Target Compensation: $150,000-175,000 (bonus eligible)

Please note that this range reflects a reasonable estimate of the target compensation for this position. This range may ultimately vary based on a candidate’s qualifications and may be higher where required by applicable law. 

We offer a competitive benefits package designed to strengthen our employees’ physical and mental health, including unlimited vacation for exempt employees, flexible working locations, 401(k) plan with a company match, medical/dental/vision coverage with inclusive provisions including transgender services and fertility benefits, parental and caregiver leave, dependent, commuter and FSA benefits, professional development programs like Toastmasters, and mental wellness tools.

If you need accommodation in our application process or have questions about our posted salary range, please email our Talent Acquisition team at Careers@EmeraldX.com.