Senior Performance Marketing Manager
Ello
Location
San Francisco, CA
Employment Type
Full time
Department
Marketing
Compensation
- $135K – $185K • Offers Equity
Our mission at Ello is simple and urgent: Maximize the potential of every child, everywhere.
We’re building the world’s first AI teacher to close that gap: one that listens, speaks, adapts, and inspires, just like the best human educators.
Our first product, Read with Ello, is already helping tens of thousands of kids each week learn to read. It listens as they read aloud, offers support when they stumble, and generates magical, personalized stories using generative AI. It works—and kids love it.
Now, we’re scaling that success into something even bigger: a complete AI teacher for all children. We’re building a real-time learning platform—one that combines language, speech, and memory to power personalized, interactive education for kids worldwide. We’re moving fast: we ship weekly, test directly with kids and families, and push the boundaries of what AI can do in education.
With the resources of the world's top investors and the heart of a public benefit corporation, we’re here to revolutionize how children learn globally. Featured on TIME’s Best Inventions and Fortune’s Change the World, Ello is a small, mission-driven team taking on one of the most important challenges of our time: to democratize education.
About the Role
We're hiring a Senior Performance Marketing Manager to lead and scale Ello's paid growth engine during a pivotal moment in our company's trajectory.
This role is ideal for a strategic marketing leader who has successfully managed agency relationships, built measurement infrastructure from the ground up, and driven meaningful growth at consumer tech companies. You'll own the full performance marketing strategy—from agency management and creative testing to conversion optimization and attribution—while partnering closely with product, creative, and analytics teams to maximize ROI and accelerate our path to scale.
As we scale from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of learners, you'll have the opportunity to shape our growth playbook, build systems that will drive millions in efficient revenue, and prove out channels and strategies that can fundamentally change how families discover personalized AI education.
What You’ll Own
Paid Media Strategy & Agency Management: Strategic oversight of all paid media channels (Meta, TikTok, Google, emerging platforms) including agency selection, management, and performance accountability
Conversion Rate Optimization: Build and lead our CRO program—identifying high-impact opportunities across the user journey, designing and executing tests, and driving systematic improvements to conversion rates
Attribution & Analytics Infrastructure: Own attribution modeling, measurement systems, and analytics frameworks to ensure clean data and accurate ROI measurement across all channels
Performance Creative Partnership: Partner with creative teams to develop performance creative strategies, establish testing frameworks, and iterate based on data-driven insights
Email & Lifecycle Marketing: Drive email and lifecycle marketing strategy in collaboration with product and growth teams to optimize the full customer journey
Budget & Performance Management: Plan, forecast, and report on a multi-million dollar annual budget with clear accountability for efficiency metrics and growth targets
Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with product, engineering, analytics, and creative teams to drive growth initiatives that require coordination across the organization
Who You Are
Strategic thinker with strong operational execution: you can develop comprehensive growth strategies while rolling up your sleeves to implement and optimize
Data-driven decision maker with strong analytical skills and experience building measurement systems from scratch
Expert in agency management: you've successfully evaluated, hired, and managed external partners to deliver exceptional results
Collaborative leader who energizes cross-functional teams and influences without authority to drive company-wide initiatives
Passionate about education, children, and mission-driven work—you're excited to apply your growth expertise to something that truly matters
Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration in a fast-moving startup environment
Requirements
5-7+ years of performance or growth marketing experience, with demonstrated progression in scope and impact
Proven track record managing agency relationships and achieving strong ROI across multiple paid channels
Deep experience with conversion rate optimization: from identifying opportunities to designing experiments to driving measurable improvements
Strong understanding of attribution modeling, analytics platforms (e.g., GA4, Amplitude, Mixpanel), and marketing measurement frameworks
Experience at consumer-focused, growth-stage tech companies (Series A-C preferred)
Exceptional communication skills with ability to present complex data insights to executive stakeholders
About Ello
Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children. We’re currently around 48 people, headquartered in San Francisco with another office in Nairobi, Kenya.
Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator’s W20 batch and are funded by world-class investors, including Goodwater Capital, Homebrew, Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, Ravensburger, Project A Ventures, Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Visible Ventures, and K9 Ventures.
We’re a small, collaborative team that takes each other’s voices seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, our team must be representative of the communities we work in; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture.
We feel enormously privileged to be one of the few companies with the opportunity to take a shot at truly revolutionizing education with AI at this inflection point in technology. We don’t take it for granted, so we work urgently to turn that vision into reality. We want to create an environment where we can all be our best selves, use our strengths to take Ello forward, and develop our skills. We want to have fun while working hard to do impactful things we’re proud of – and we believe it’s possible to do both.
At Ello, diversity is a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to assess skills and experience directly. If you need accommodations throughout the interview process, please contact recruiting@ello.com.
Compensation Range: $135K - $185K