Head of Acquisition

Job Advert

Protein Works is a high-growth DTC nutrition brand with a clear mission: help people live healthier, happier lives through the power of nutrition. We've built a loyal customer base and performance marketing is the engine that connects them to the products that change their habits.

Protein Works is at an inflection point. The brand is investing heavily in growth, the product range is expanding, and the customer data tells a compelling story - we know who our customers are, what they want, and why they stay. What we need now is someone to pour fuel on that.

This is a rare opportunity to own the paid acquisition function at a brand with real product-market fit, a defined mission, and leadership that thinks commercially. You'll have budget, autonomy, and a direct line to decisions. If you want to build something - not maintain it - this is the role.

This role owns paid acquisition end-to-end. You'll lead a high-output team and be expected to use AI tooling not as a novelty but as a genuine performance lever - in creative, bidding, audience strategy, and reporting. Success here means growing revenue efficiently, protecting contribution margin, and building a paid media operation that scales.

What You'll Own

• Own paid acquisition strategy and execution across Meta, Google (Search, Shopping, PMax), and TikTok - with full accountability for CAC, ROAS, and revenue targets
• Embed AI tooling into the day-to-day: creative iteration, copy testing, audience modelling, campaign optimisation, and performance reporting.
• Drive LTV and repeat purchase through intelligent retargeting and lifecycle-aligned paid strategies.
• Support our Performance Creative team with creative strategy for paid channels: iterating UGC, static, and video assets at pace across different product lines and audience segments
• Own channel-level contribution margin reporting - understand what's profitable, what isn't, and make decisions accordingly
• Build and manage the media budget, allocating spend dynamically based on performance data and seasonal demand signals
• Work cross-functionally with brand, CRM, and product to ensure paid activity is joined up with the full customer journey - from first click to repeat buyer
• Support, develop and challenge our acquisition team; set the standard for analytical rigour and creative ambition.

What Success Looks Like

• CAC held within target across all key channels while revenue volume scales
• AI tools are visibly reducing time-to-test and improving creative performance - not just sitting in the stack
• Weekly creative testing cadence in place, with clear winners rolled out and losers cut fast
• Contribution margin visibility at channel and campaign level, reviewed weekly with clear actions
• Each core customer persona is served distinct, high-performing creative and audience strategies

Skills & Experience

Must-Have

• 5+ years in performance marketing, growth or acquisition, with demonstrable experience of building and scaling over a prolonged period.
• Demonstrable experience running and scaling paid campaigns on Meta and Google - with real ownership of budget and results
• Hands-on experience using AI tools in a marketing context (e.g. creative generation, copy testing, performance analysis - not just ChatGPT for captions)
• Strong commercial fluency - you can talk CAC, LTV, ROAS, and GP in the same breath
• Proven track record of building and managing creative testing frameworks, not just executing on briefs
• Comfortable in fast-moving environments where you'll make decisions without perfect information

Nice-to-Have

• Experience marketing in health, nutrition, wellness, or FMCG DTC
• Familiarity with health and wellness consumer trends and how they're reshaping acquisition strategies
• Experience with TikTok Shop or affiliate/influencer performance channels
• Background in building or scaling a paid media team

Behaviours & Traits

• Ownership without prompting - you don't wait for direction; you diagnose, decide, and act
• Commercial by default - every creative decision, budget call, and channel choice is rooted in what it does to the P&L
• AI-native mindset - you genuinely believe AI changes what's possible and you actively build that into how you work
• Fast, not reckless - you bias toward action but you test, measure, and course-correct with discipline
• Low ego, high standards - you'll work across teams and challenge ideas without making it personal