ABOUT TERN

Tern is a venture-backed software company on a mission to reshape the $127B travel agency industry — by giving power back to the entrepreneurs who built it.

Nearly 98% of travel agencies are small businesses. These businesses have been chronically underserved by technology. We're here to change that. Our platform helps travel advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable operations — giving them the modern infrastructure they need to lead the next chapter of travel.

But the impact goes beyond business. Travel advisors help clients move more intentionally through the world. When a traveler works with an advisor, they're more likely to avoid overtouristed hotspots and more likely to spend their dollars in places where they can do real good. That's the kind of travel we want more of.

At Tern, we believe in small business. We believe in the power of travel. And we're building the future of both.

AGENCY MARKETING LEAD

Travel advisors run real businesses. Most of them are small, independent, and chronically underserved by the technology they rely on. Tern exists to change that, and it's working. Agencies that adopt Tern don't look back. The word is spreading.

But word of mouth has a ceiling. We have a sales team ready to close. We have a product that wins head-to-head. We have customers who evangelize without being asked. What we don't have is a machine that systematically finds great agencies, gets Tern in front of them, and hands qualified leads to the people who can close them.

That's this role. You'll build the top-of-funnel engine for Tern's agency sales motion- the instrumentation, the campaigns, the lead magnets, the targeting. You'll figure out where agency decision-makers actually live, what makes them pay attention, and what gets them to raise their hand. Then you'll build the system that does it at scale.

This is a founding function, not a seat inside an established machine. There's no playbook to inherit, no team to hand work to, and no attribution dashboard someone else built. If that sounds like a problem, this isn't the right role. If that sounds like the point, keep reading.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Own the qualified agency lead target: Set the baseline within 60 days, establish the monthly goal in partnership with the Head of Agency Sales, and report on it every month
Build and instrument the top-of-funnel: Stand up the tracking, attribution, and tooling needed to know what's working and what isn't across paid, earned, email, social, and referral
Run a weekly experimentation cadence: Ship lead gen experiments on a short cycle- new formats, new audiences, new copy angles. Document what works. Kill what doesn't. Build the playbook as you go.
Ship at least 2 repeatable, documented campaigns per month: Lead magnets, webinars, partner placements, or similar
Work closely with the Head of Agency Sales to sharpen the ICP: The funnel isn't just volume, it's quality. You'll refine targeting based on what's actually closing, not just what's clicking.
Manage a marketing budget across paid, content, and tooling: You decide where it goes, you justify the spend, and you cut what isn't converting
Stay aligned with events, brand, and product marketing: You're not owning those functions, but your campaigns need to pull in the same direction.
Be the expert on where agency decision-makers live: LinkedIn, trade publications, peer communities, conferences; you should know the channels better than anyone else on the team and be constantly testing new ones.

WHAT YOU HAVE

B2B demand gen experience, specifically marketing into SMBs or mid-market companies. You know how these buyers make decisions and what makes them engage.
You've built or been a founding contributor to a demand gen function, not just run campaigns inside an established machine
You're fluent in funnel instrumentation, how to set up tracking, read attribution, and make decisions from data
You work on a weekly cadence, shipping something real every week, learning from it, and adjusting
You can build attribution from scratch, not just read a dashboard someone else set up
You know how to instrument a funnel that currently has none, and you make decisions from that data on a weekly cadence
You're comfortable owning a marketing tech stack and aren't precious about which tools you use.
We run HubSpot today. You'll own it and build inside it, but you'll also evaluate and deploy whatever else moves the needle, including AI SDR tools, enrichment platforms, and emerging acquisition channels. If there's a new tool that changes your CAC, you'll find it.

BONUS POINTS

Experience marketing SaaS tools to agency owners, independent professionals, or other SMB decision-makers
Familiarity with the travel industry or adjacent hospitality/lifestyle verticals
Experience working alongside a sales team- you know how to hand off leads cleanly and what the sales team actually needs from you
Background at a company selling to independent professionals or small service businesses- Honeybook, Dubsado, Clio, Jobber, Mindbody, Attio, Folk, or similar

WHAT WE VALUE @ TERN

🌱 We're always leveling up. Whether you're deepening your craft, learning from a teammate, or embracing a new challenge, growth is core to our identity.

🧭 We act with optimistic agency. We take initiative, seek clarity, and move forward, even when the path isn't obvious. Through every peak and valley, we lead with curiosity, laughter, kindness, and resolve.

💪 We expect operational excellence. We ship value to our users every single week. We believe that compounding habits lead to sustainable productivity, consistency, and mutual trust.

Operating Principles:

👂 We deeply understand our users. At every level of the organization, we obsess about understanding those we serve and the industry we operate in.

➕ We embrace the power of and, and not now. We challenge trade-offs by asking better questions. We break hard problems into small pieces and tackle them with intention. We also know to make the hard call to say "not right now".

📣 We speak up and move forward. Everyone at Tern has a voice and a responsibility to use it. We invite healthy tension, share dissenting views early, and challenge each other with curiosity, not ego.

🏃‍♀️‍➡️ We move fast and sweat the details. Velocity matters and relentless progress beats perfection every time. But speed isn't chaos: we stay aligned, own our outcomes, and care deeply about quality.

🤣 We take the work seriously, but not ourselves. We hire kind, driven people who elevate the room. If you've got a big ego or take yourself too seriously, you won't last.

WHY THIS ROLE IS EXCITING

For someone who's energized by lead gen, you couldn't ask for a more perfect environment. This industry is full of small businesses that have been held back by technology, and they're hungry for tools that save them time and help them grow. We have an incredible product that's better than anything out there, and an army of agency owners who already advocate for us proactively via word of mouth and reactively when we need testimonials or perspective. You're not fighting upstream to convince people to try something untested. You're pouring gas on the fire to unlock the growth of agencies using Tern. Not just adding value to our business, but opening these agencies' eyes to how to grow with better technology.

WHY JOIN TERN?

Be part of a mission-driven team transforming the travel planning space
Work with a supportive, curious, and creative team
Influence and shape our demand gen strategy from the ground up
Competitive salary, equity, and benefits package

Tern is committed to building a team that represents people from many different backgrounds and life experiences, reflecting our worldview coinciding with the users and customers we serve across the world. We prefer that you apply, so think of our postings as the start of the conversation. Take the chance — you may be a wonderful add to our Tern team, even if you don't fully match every requirement on the job description.

Agency Marketing Lead