The Team + The Role
Novus is Pendo’s answer to a new challenge in software: teams are shipping faster than ever, but still need a reliable way to understand what is happening in their software after it reaches users. The product is aimed at product engineers and application owners building AI-native software, creating a new audience and category opportunity for Pendo.
The Product Marketing Director, Novus will be the marketing lead and GTM owner for this new product and category. This role owns narrative, positioning, audience targeting, channel strategy, demand generation, community activation, PLG motion, launch execution, enablement, and the metrics that connect marketing activity to early commercial outcomes.
This role is based in-office in San Francisco or New York.
What this looks like day-to-day
- Messaging and positioning: Develop and maintain messaging, positioning, and talk tracks as Novus evolves. Keep product, sales, marketing, and leadership aligned on how to describe the product, audience, category, and customer value.
- End-to-end GTM ownership: Own the full GTM plan for Novus, including audience targeting, channel strategy, campaign execution, launch moments, and success metrics. Build the plan, run it, and own the outcomes.
- Top-of-funnel growth: Own top-of-funnel acquisition for Novus by defining the channel mix, running campaigns, and driving early access signups. Connect acquisition activity to activation, free-to-paid conversion, and early revenue outcomes.
- Community activation: Build the community presence for Novus from the ground up across developer forums, social channels, influencer relationships, and event-driven activation. Create authentic engagement with builders who are skeptical of traditional marketing.
- PLG motion: Own the product-led growth motion in close collaboration with product and growth. Help design self-serve onboarding, activation flows, and freemium-to-paid conversion strategy.
- Pendo and Novus positioning: Help define how Novus and Pendo work together for customers. Position the relationship clearly for teams scaling from fast-moving startups into more complex product organizations.
- Sales and partner enablement: Build enablement materials that help sales and partner teams have credible conversations with product engineers. Translate technical depth into plain language without oversimplifying the product or audience.
- Measurement and commercial impact: Define and own the metrics that connect Novus marketing activity to pipeline and early commercial outcomes. Track measures such as free-to-paid conversion, activation rates, and marketing-sourced ARR contribution.
Who You Are
Beyond the qualifications, we hire through a specific lens. These aren't buzzwords; they're the things we'll actually look for in how you talk about your work.
You're a builder, not a maintainer.
You're most energized when there isn't a clear path yet, and you get to define it. You don't wait for direction; you identify gaps, shape solutions, and drive them forward. At Pendo, great Product Marketing Directors don't just follow instructions; they operate as strategic advisors, influencing decisions, guiding stakeholders, and elevating how we work.
You're AI-curious - genuinely.
You're not using AI tools occasionally. You're rewiring how you work around them. You're faster, sharper, and more prolific because of it, and you bring that energy to everything — how you approach your work, how you prep, how you communicate, how you think. We want someone who sees AI as a multiplier, not a shortcut.
Must-haves
- 7+ years of marketing experience, including at least 2-3 years owning GTM for a technical product or developer-facing platform at the individual contributor level.
- Experience building software or working closely enough with engineers to understand codebases, pull requests, and deploy cycles.
- AI-native working style, with regular use of tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, or similar tools to move faster, generate ideas, and pressure-test thinking.
- Strong content and storytelling instincts, with the ability to write a crisp narrative, build a compelling launch moment, and translate technical depth into plain language without oversimplifying.
- Hands-on experience building community and developer awareness, including an understanding of how builders discover tools, what earns trust in communities such as Hacker News or GitHub, and what feels authentic versus tone-deaf.
Nice-to-haves
- Hands-on experience with PLG go-to-market motions, including self-serve acquisition, freemium conversion, and community-led distribution.
- Familiarity with product analytics, instrumentation, or observability tools.
- Experience marketing to or within developer communities, including open source, dev tools, AI coding tools, or similar spaces.
About Pendo
Pendo was founded in 2013 by former product managers, who combined their heads and hearts to build something they wanted but never had as product managers: a simple way to understand and attack what truly drives product success. Our mission is to improve society's experience with software. Come join one of the fastest-growing startups, supported by best-in-class institutions like Battery Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Spark Capital and Meritech.
Pendo Core Values: Bias to Act, Hone Your Craft, The Team is Pendo, and Maniacal Focus.
Location: Pendo is a hybrid culture. In-office 3 days per week unless designated remote.
Compensation: The expected salary range for this role to be performed in New York, NY is $196,300 - $249,000. The expected salary range for this role to be performed in San Francisco, CA is $196,300 - $249,000.
Benefits: Highly competitive, employer-heavy coverage including $0 premium options, strong 401(k) match, equity, and flexible time off.
EEOC: We are an equal opportunity employer and believe having diverse teams where everyone brings their whole self to Pendo is key to our success. We welcome all people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives.
Accessibility: Pendo is committed to working with, and providing access and reasonable accommodation to, applicants with mental and/or physical disabilities. If you think you may require an accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, please send a request to: accommodation@pendo.io. All requests for accommodations are treated discreetly and confidentially, as practical and permitted by law.