Director Of Product Design Jobs in Illinois

INTRODUCTION

AI is fundamentally changing how product strategy and market strategy work together. The boundary between building the right product and bringing it to market the right way is disappearing — and the companies that recognize this will build product marketing functions that operate as strategic growth engines, not service organizations.

ActiveCampaign’s Active Intelligence platform — autonomous AI agents serving 180,000+ growing businesses — is redefining how marketing works. We need a Director of Product Marketing who shapes how the market understands it through bold storytelling, drives adoption that compounds, and transforms the PMM discipline in the process.

This role reports to the SVP of Product. Product and Product Marketing operate as a single strategic arm — you’ll have the same context as the people building the product and the same accountability for what happens when it meets the market. This is a player-coach role: you lead a team, but you also personally create — strategies, narratives, content, programs. AI makes that possible at a level it never was before, and we expect our leaders to use it.

Why This Role Matters:

The way companies build, market, and grow products is being reshaped by AI. Product Marketing must evolve from a support function into a strategic operating system for customer understanding, market differentiation, and intelligent go-to-market execution. At ActiveCampaign, we’re building that now. This role is at the center of it.

On a typical day, you might:

Market Narrative & Positioning:

• Define and evolve positioning that clearly articulates why Active Intelligence represents a fundamentally new way for businesses to run their marketing — and why that matters now.
• Translate complex AI capabilities into clear, compelling customer value that resonates across segments.
• Bring conviction to the narrative — if the story isn't bold enough, make it bolder. We want a PMM leader whose point of view strengthens every room they're in.

Adoption & Customer Outcomes:

• Lead go-to-market strategies measured by adoption and continued usage, not launch ceremony. Your success is customers who build their business on Active Intelligence.
• Own the market-side of the customer lifecycle — the narrative that moves someone from “I tried it” to “I can’t turn this off.” Partner with Product to build both sides of that engine.
• Run experimentation-driven programs: every initiative has a hypothesis, a signal, and a learning cycle. We move in weekly learning cycles, not quarterly planning windows.

AI-First Execution:

• Automate traditional launch mechanics — release notes, enablement decks, internal comms. Your team operates above the automation line.
• Leverage AI to transform how the PMM craft works, not just what it produces. Speed, experimentation, and operational scale improve by default.

Sales, Partner & Revenue Enablement:

• Arm Sales, CS, and our partner ecosystem with positioning, proof points, and talk tracks that improve conversations and conversion.
• Establish feedback loops between GTM teams and Product — friction points and market opportunities flow back into product decisions.

Evangelism & Market Authority:

• Build the market presence that makes ActiveCampaign the reference point for autonomous marketing — thought leadership, proof points, and narrative formats that establish our position.

Team Leadership:

• Lead a PMM team of outcome owners who own strategic priorities the way PMs own product areas — with backlogs, experiments, and shipped impact.
• Set the standard by doing the work yourself, not just directing it. The best PMM leaders we’ve seen create alongside their teams — AI makes that leverage real.
• Build a culture of accountability, ownership, and urgency. Create clarity in ambiguity and drive alignment through influence and results.
• Invest in your people's growth as seriously as the work itself — create conditions where they do the best work of their careers in service to their individual and collective success.

The ideal candidate will bring:

Required:

• 8+ years of hands-on experience in Product Marketing, Growth, or Product Strategy in B2B SaaS or AI-driven technology companies.
• 3+ years of proven leadership experience leading PMM teams — experience building or transforming a function, not just running one.
• A product-strategy mindset: you think about market impact the way great PMs think about product-market fit.
• A proven track record driving adoption and retention outcomes, not just launch metrics.
• Proven ability to influence across Product, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success.

Highly Valued:

• Prior experience with AI-native products, marketing automation, or platform products serving SMB/mid-market.
• Experience building experimentation-driven marketing functions.
• Deep customer empathy paired with analytical rigor.
• A mindset that thinks beyond launches — you understand how product marketing drives company growth.
• A desire to erase the artificial boundary between product and marketing.
• An AI-native approach in how you think, work, and lead — not just AI-curious.
• A bias for action and execution: you’d rather build the positioning doc yourself than wait for someone to draft it. Leading a team doesn’t mean you stop creating.
• The ability to build trust through clarity, accountability, and results. You care about outcomes, not organizational theater.
• A passion for transformation rather than maintenance.

What Success Looks Like:

Within 3–6 months, you will have:

• Established Product Marketing as a strategic growth function trusted by Product, GTM, and leadership.
• Driven measurable improvement in product adoption, continued usage, and customer expansion.
• Sharpened market and product positioning to the point where customers deeply understand the step-change innovation we’re delivering and how it transforms their business.
• Built a modern PMM operating model — a team of leaders fully leveraging AI in everything they do, oriented around measurable business outcomes.

One more thing:

Tell us about a time you drove product adoption through experimentation rather than a traditional launch playbook. What was the hypothesis? What did you learn? What would you do differently?

We value this response highly — it tells us more about how you think than any resume line.

COMPENSATION

- Salary Range: $192,400 - $264,600 a year

Compensation details listed in this posting reflect the base rate only and do not include bonus, equity, sales incentives or other role specific compensation that the role may be eligible for. ActiveCampaign believes in and is committed to equitable compensation practices. The salary range provided above is a good faith estimate of the pay range determined by the location associated with the job posting. The actual salary depends on a candidate’s skills, experience, and work location.

ABOUT ACTIVECAMPAIGN:

ActiveCampaign is the autonomous marketing platform for people at the heart of the action. It empowers teams to automate their campaigns with AI agents that imagine, activate, and validate–freeing them from step-by-step workflows and unlocking limitless ways to orchestrate their marketing.

With AI, goal-based automation, and 1,000+ app integrations, agencies, marketers, and owners can build cross-channel campaigns in minutes–fine-tuned with billions of data points to drive real results for their unique business.

ActiveCampaign is the trusted choice to help businesses unlock a new world of boundless opportunities–where ideas become impact and potential turns into real results.

As a global multicultural company, we are proud of our inclusive culture which embraces diverse voices, backgrounds, and perspectives. We don’t just celebrate our differences, we believe our diversity is what empowers our innovation and success. You can find out more about our DEI initiatives here.

PERKS AND BENEFITS:

At ActiveCampaign, we prioritize employees’ well-being and professional growth by cultivating a culture centered on collaboration and innovation. When you join our team, you’ll not only have the opportunity to make a significant impact, but also enjoy a range of benefits tailored to support your personal and career development.

Here are some of the benefits we offer:

• Comprehensive Health & Wellness: Top-tier benefits package that includes a fully-covered High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), complimentary access to telehealth services, and a free subscription to Calm.
• Growth & Development: Access to LinkedIn Learning, professional development programs, and career growth opportunities in a fast-growing organization.
• Generous Paid Time Off: Recharge and take the time you need to maintain work-life balance with open PTO.
• Total Rewards: Generous 401(k) matching with immediate vesting, quarterly perks with commuter and lunch benefits for hub based employees or a stipend for remote workers, and a four-week paid sabbatical with bonus after five years.
• Collaborative Culture: Work alongside brilliant, passionate colleagues in an environment that values innovation, teamwork, and mutual support.

ActiveCampaign is an equal opportunity employer. We recruit, hire, pay, grow and promote no matter of gender, race, color, sexual orientation, religion, age, protected veteran status, physical and mental abilities, or any other identities protected by law.

Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) strive to foster a diverse inclusive environment by supporting each other, building a strong sense of belonging, and creating opportunities for mentorship and professional growth for their members.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.