Head of Brand & Retail Marketing

New York Metro Area (Hybrid) | ~25% Travel to Markets

$175,000 - $200,000 + Bonus

About 1906

1906 makes fast-acting cannabis edibles and drink additives designed around one simple question: How do you want to feel?

We combine plant medicine, real science, and sharp brand building to create a smarter alternative to alcohol and pharmaceuticals. We believe brands are built by ideas, by retail, and by how consumers experience you in the real world. Not by dashboards alone.

The Opportunity

This role reports to the CEO and serves as the brand steward of 1906 across 1,200+ dispensaries, liquor and brick-and-mortar retail (2 states today, 20+ by 2027), and all consumer-facing brand touchpoints.

You will work in close partnership with our Head of Ecommerce & Growth, who owns performance marketing and digital revenue. You own how the brand shows up. They own how traffic converts. Together, you make the machine work.

You'll lead a small internal team, manage agencies and freelancers, and ensure 1906 shows up correctly everywhere consumers encounter us.

This is not a role where you manage from a distance. This is a role for someone who wants to:

• Walk stores and rethink shelves
• Build campaigns and write briefs that inspire real creative
• Create retail programs and fix POS
• Sit with sales and obsess over packaging
• Make the brand sharper, everywhere

Who You Are

• You believe great ideas build brands
• You love retail. You walk stores for fun. You understand merchandising, education, and how things move off shelves.
• You care deeply about consumers and what they care about
• You understand data but use it directionally. You're not a slave to dashboards.
• You obsess over every touchpoint: packaging, POS, sampling, shelf, copy, displays
• You move fast. You test. You refine.
• You're passionate about cannabis, functional wellness, or the non-alc movement
• You're low ego, high output, and comfortable doing whatever needs doing

What You'll Do

Brand Leadership

• Define positioning, messaging hierarchy, and how 1906 shows up across all channels
• Translate our science into stories people remember
• Write briefs that inspire real creative
• Protect brand integrity across markets, retailers, and partners
• Ensure consistency from packaging to POS to digital to field marketing

Dispensary Marketing (1,200+ doors)

• Build the playbook for what moves product: POS, education, merchandising, budtender engagement, promotions
• Partner with sales teams in each market to ensure programs execute in store
• Create scalable toolkits that work market to market
• Spend real time in stores observing shopper behavior and refining programs

Liquor & Retail Expansion (2 states today, 20+ by 2027)

This role defines not just how the category shows up in liquor stores, but how it sells. Success is measured by better shelves, better education, and faster sell-through.

• Define how THC beverages and drink additives should be merchandised, explained, and experienced at shelf
• Build retail programs designed to increase velocity, not just awareness
• Partner with alcohol/beverage distributors to win shelf placement, secondary displays, and retail visibility
• Build relationships with key accounts like Total Wine and regional chains to develop co-marketing programs
• Create the consumer education playbook for a category most liquor shoppers don't yet understand
• Identify which markets to prioritize based on retail readiness and commercial opportunity
• Build toolkits that scale market to market without losing effectiveness

Collaboration with Ecommerce & Growth

• Partner with the Head of Ecommerce & Growth to ensure brand and performance inform each other
• Develop campaign moments that live across retail and digital
• Support creative testing with strong brand thinking
• Ensure DTC reflects the same brand standards as retail, without owning performance marketing

Team & Agencies

• Lead a small, high-output team and external partners
• Set clear priorities and define what great looks like
• Work cross-functionally with sales, product, ops, and ecommerce
• Build a team culture that is fast, creative, and accountable

Qualifications

• 12+ years building brands in CPG, beverage, wellness, or adjacent categories
• Deep experience with retail marketing and in-store execution
• Proven ability to turn strategy into compelling creative and retail programs
• Comfortable being hands-on across copy, briefs, POS, and creative feedback
• Experience working with distributors and retail partners
• Strong understanding of performance marketing, without needing to own it
• Excellent writer, communicator, and creative thinker
• Strong presentation skills

Cannabis experience is not required. Love of consumers and retail is.

Compensation & Benefits

• $175,000 - $200,000 base salary
• Annual performance bonus
• Health, dental, and vision (company pays 100% of employee health premium)
• 401(k)
• Life insurance, disability coverage, accident and critical illness insurance
• FSA
• Unlimited PTO

How We Work

We move fast. We write briefs on the fly. We test in market. We change direction when needed. We spend time in stores. We care about details. If you like building brands in the real world, you'll thrive here.

Our Commitment to Diversity

We believe diverse teams build better companies. We're committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone belongs, and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.