Director of New Club Opening Market Growth

VASA Fitness is seeking a strategic, entrepreneurial Director of New Market Growth to lead the marketing strategy, community integration, and launch execution for every new club opening. This role owns the marketing success of each new market, ensuring every club launches with strong community awareness and sustained membership growth.

Responsibilities:

• Develop comprehensive market launch plans from site acquisition through the first 12 months after opening
• Develop a Market Launch Playbook that captures best practices, timelines, partnership strategies, media plans, event templates, communication cadences, and post-opening growth tactics after every opening. Each new club should make the playbook smarter, creating a repeatable engine that accelerates future launches
• Build scalable launch playbooks that can be replicated across future markets
• Coordinate launch timelines across Marketing, Operations, Sales, Real Estate and executive leadership
• Identify launch risks and proactively solve issues before they impact performance
• Create executive launch scorecards and communicate market readiness across the organization
• Ensure all marketing initiatives are launched accurately and on schedule
• Partner with Paid Media, CRM, Social, PR and Brand teams to maximize lead generation and membership sales
• Ensure marketing campaigns are coordinated and visible to club leadership
• Optimize launch strategies based on market performance and member acquisition trends
• Identify opportunities to increase awareness and improve conversion throughout the first year
• Support club teams with local marketing initiatives that continue momentum well beyond grand opening
• Develop local partnership strategies unique to each market
• Build relationships with Chambers of Commerce, city officials, schools, employers and nonprofit organizations
• Secure sponsorships and community partnerships that increase local awareness
• Identify opportunities for VASA to make a meaningful impact through volunteerism, charitable initiatives and local events
• Cultivate relationships with local influencers, media outlets and community leaders
• Plan and execute grand openings, VIP previews, founder events and ribbon cuttings
• Coordinate media outreach alongside PR
• Manage event budgets, vendors and timelines
• Develop scalable event playbooks that elevate every opening
• Partner with Operations to deliver exceptional member experiences during launch
• Maintain launch calendars and project timelines
• Communicate campaign status, paid media launches and promotional activity to internal stakeholders
• Ensure club leadership understands what marketing is live, what is coming next and how they can maximize local opportunities
• Coordinate regular cross-functional launch meetings
• Maintain documentation, reporting and best practices for every market
• Coach and mentor team members
• Establish priorities and market execution plans
• Oversee local events, partnerships and grassroots marketing efforts
• Build scalable processes that support future team growth as VASA expands

Requirements:

• 8-10+ years of experience in field marketing, growth marketing, retail marketing, new market development or experiential marketing
• Experience launching multiple brick-and-mortar locations
• Proven success driving customer acquisition in new markets
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives involving Marketing, Operations and Sales
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Exceptional communication and executive presentation skills
• Experience managing budgets and external partners
• Willingness to travel regularly to support market launches
• Experience with multi-unit retail
• Experience with fitness
• Experience with restaurants
• Experience with consumer brands
• Experience with franchise organizations
• Experience with hospitality
• Experience with health & wellness
• Experience leading grand openings
• Experience leading local partnerships
• Experience leading community marketing
• Experience leading grassroots marketing
• Experience leading experiential events
• Experience leading new market launches