Head of Brand

Primer is a growing network of K8 schools restoring the timeless foundations of American education. Inspired by the original teaching primers that shaped a nation of readers thinkers and builders our schools begin with what has always worked and build for what lies ahead. Close-knit learning environments. Skilled educators. A culture that takes kids seriously as learners and leaders.

Primers shaped the first 200 years of American children. Primer will ready them for the next.

Primer has all the makings of an iconic brand: a big vision to solve one of the hardest problems in America real stories of lives weve changed across the country and strong cultural tailwinds pushing us forward. We hear from parents educators legislators and community leaders every day about the lives were changing from families who felt stuck in the traditional system and now see their child thriving at Primer to parents who feel like they have their child back after a few months at Primer.

Your job is to harness this momentum and craft a brand that millions of families from all walks of life trust with the most important decision they make each year: their childs school.

You will own the entire surface area of Primers brand from our big-picture narrative to individual brand assets across visual design photography film content and copy. Youll inherit our existing brand systems which you see today across and be tasked with growing this foundation into the future of Primers brand.

There are three unique challenges in this role:

• First our brand must be both aspirational and accessible. Most education brands opt for pure exclusivity or pure accessibility but that wont work for Primer.

• Second we are a central marketing & brand org with dozens (and soon hundreds) of local Primers. These campuses are the primary way families experience the Primer brand post-enrollment and nailing the local manifestation of our brand will require systems that scale down to (and empower) those working at the campus level.

• Finally youll need to develop (or have) a nuanced intuition for how Primer should fit into the overall education ecosystem. Education is tough riddled with many strong opinions which presents both a challenge and an opportunity. If you shape our public perception with conviction and succeed you will have crafted one of the all-time great American brands.

• Define what Primer stands for. Own our narrative where we fit in the broader education ecosystem how we show up what were for and what were against.

• Craft our brand norms. These are the standards that define our voice language and visual identity. The kind of thing a campus team or a writer can actually pick up and use not a deck that sits in a drive.

• Build the local engine. We have hundreds (and soon thousands) of local educators who are the face of Primer to our families. Creating a consistent brand experience is a unique challenge and you will own it end-to-end.

• Consistency without bottlenecks. Build the operating system that dials in every public-facing artifact we ship. Fight the approval-chain-by-vibes with clear standards and lightweight checks against them.

• Partner with Growth Admissions and Product to establish the messaging identity and creative standards used across marketing admissions and the product experience enabling each team to execute within those standards.

• Lay the groundwork for employer brand and PR so our story lands with parents future staff and the public alike.

• A strong operator who loves building systems. Youre clear-eyed about the complexity of a central brand function with dozens of local spokes.

• Someone whos done a lot with a little. Youve held a high bar in a resource-constrained environment.

• A brand leader whos done it before youve built brands that feel both aspirational and accessible and understand what it takes to connect with everyday American families.

• A clear writer and editor with real taste. You can set the voice and language standards and enforce them.

• Someone wholl hold the line and be easy to work with at the same time. You can say no when somethings off and make people glad they asked.

• Genuine. We take families students and the teachers who serve them seriously. Youll make sure the brand does too in every community were in.

• You want a pure-play exec role. This may grow into that. Today its a hands-on role building the brand backbone not running a scaled marketing org.

• You want to own the funnel. Growth is responsible for acquisition conversion and enrollment performance. Brand defines the narrative messaging and creative standards.

• You think great brand means routing everything through you. If your model is approve it all myself youll be the bottleneck this role exists to remove.

Primer is a mission-first company. We believe our mission is the highest-leverage way we can create positive service of that we keep work centered on mission execution and avoid social or political activism at work thats unrelated to the mission. If that energizes you wed love to see you apply.

Required Experience:

Director