[Hiring] Head of Marketing & Communications @garden3d

We are hiring a Head of Marketing & Communications to tell the garden3d story across the internet, from wherever in the world you happen to be.

More details if you check our original job posting link

We are worker owned creative collective, innovating on everything from brands and IRL communities to IoT devices and cross platform apps. We share profit, open source everything, spin out new businesses, and invest in exciting ideas through financial and/or in-kind contributions.

Our client roster includes Google, Stripe, Figma, Hinge, Black Socialists in America, ACLU, Pratt, Parsons, Mozilla, The Nobel Prize, MIT, Gnosis, Etsy & Gagosian.

We’re the software team behind innovative products like The Light Phone & Mill, and we operate a global, decentralized community space collective called Index Space.

We think of our garden3d as collective for creative people, prioritizing a happy, talented, and diverse studio culture. We work on projects that bring value to our world, and we balance deep care for the work we do with a genuine curiosity about life outside of our jobs.

Sanctuary Computer — Development

At Sanctuary Computer we’re building a different type of technology shop – one that prioritizes close collaboration between the client and the craftsperson.

Our projects range from design-forward websites, to robust web apps, to native mobile development.

XXIX — Design

When we started XXIX in 2013, we set out to create a different kind of design studio and we’ve thrived because we continually ask what a creative practice can be.

We’re building a radically different kind of organization that values autonomy, growth, transparency, and shared responsibility.

Index Space — Community

A network of physical spaces all around the world, Index provides space for the exchange of knowledge and tools.

We nurture trust within the creative community through generosity and abundance of ideas and care.

garden3d TK — Media

At garden3d, we’re in the early stages of building an experimental media company exploring emerging themes related to the evolving landscape of technology, design and culture.

We aim to monetize this outlet, publish books, produce screenplays, and release music.

Plus, our partner organizations
https://www.thelightphone.com/
https://www.mill.com/
https://www.ingredient-ai.com/

The Head of Marketing & Communications Role

The garden3d Head of Marketing & Communications has one mandate: make sure everything we put on the internet is compelling and interesting. garden3d is a house of brands – Sanctuary Computer (development), XXIX (design), Index Space (community), USB Club (digital community), and the garden3d umbrella itself – and each needs its own voice, its own audience, and its own drumbeat of work worth sharing. Working in close partnership with our founder & president Hugh Francis, this person decides what we make, where it runs, and whether it clears our bar.

You can be based anywhere. A lot of our studios, spaces and people gravitate around New York, so there’s some pull to be here, and a good part of this job is noticing what’s happening in our world and turning it into content. But we already work across timezones, and we would happily hire in Europe, Singapore, Chicago, or wherever you are. If you’re the right person, we want to hear from you.

This role will interface with studio leads, designers, developers, editors, animators, photographers, community managers, event producers and ad platforms across every garden3d vertical.

Simply, this person can easily context shift between our massively diverse set of workstreams, find the most compelling stories, and get them produced at an exceedingly high bar.

This person owns our channels end to end: the garden3d Substack, our podcast, Instagram, X, and the paid accounts behind them. They collab with our team, and a rotating cast of freelance editors, designers and animators, and they run the calendar that keeps a dozen workstreams shipping on time. They think in PESO terms (paid, earned, shared, owned) with the weight on shared and owned media – paid is a tool they use deliberately, and traditional press is a bonus, but not generally where we focus.

The ambition runs past marketing a services business. garden3d TK is our young experimental media company, and this role is its engine: books, screenplays, music, media, activations: a record label for ideas. The ideal candidate looks at a worker-owned collective with four studios, a network of community spaces and an open P&L and sees the best content brief on the internet.

Responsibilities & Mandates

‍Quality never less than 8/10

We aspire for 10/10, celebrate 9/10 and never publish anything that’s not an 8/10 – visually, narratively, and in production quality. This person holds that bar across every post, video, essay and episode on every vertical, and would rather kill a piece than let a 6 out the door. Their feedback makes work better and faster, without micromanaging the people who make it.

Social That Stops the Scroll

They carry a current, practitioner-level read on how each platform works right now: what arrests someone mid-scroll, how a hook earns the next three seconds, why a format lands on TikTok and dies on LinkedIn. Short-form video is a first-class craft here, not an afterthought.

️A House of Brands, Each in Its Own Voice

Sanctuary Computer doesn’t sound like XXIX, and neither sounds like Index. They manage several messaging columns at once, keeping each brand’s tone distinct while the umbrella story stays coherent.

Case Study Production

Every client engagement across our creative agencies should end in a case study worth reading. They own that production line – interviewing the team, shaping the narrative, art-directing the assets – and ship case studies that win each studio its next project.

️Websites That Put Our Best Foot Forward

Our websites are usually the first place a prospective client or hire meets us. They own the strategy behind every garden3d site – what it says, what work it shows, and how clearly it communicates what each studio can do – and they keep sites, decks and other collateral current as the work moves, so what people find is sharp and true.

️Editorial Ownership

The Substack, the podcast, and our transparency publications (like the open-source P&L we release every year) are theirs to run: the calendar, the standards, the growth. They capture what happens in our spaces – Index, USB Club, and the communities around them – and turn it into work worth sharing.

Producing, Paid & Distribution

They direct producers, editors and freelancers like a showrunner: briefs are clear, deadlines are real, and many workstreams move at once without dropping quality. They run paid spend on Meta, Instagram and wherever our audiences live – building audiences, running A/B/C tests on both narrative and adset, and owning budgets against results they can show.

Data-Driven Reporting & ROI

They measure what our content actually does – audience growth, engagement, leads, pipeline influenced – and report on it plainly. Paid spend, organic effort and production time all get judged on return, and next quarter’s plan follows the numbers.

Presence IRL

garden3d shows up in person: events, conferences, talks, Index programming, and the dinners and openings where our world gathers. They decide which touchpoints are worth our time, get us there looking like ourselves, and bring back stories worth publishing.

Culture

They model garden3d’s values of partnership, curiosity, and accountability. The producers and creatives they direct do the best work of their careers here, because the feedback is honest, the recognition is real, and the taste rubs off.

Special Projects

In addition to day to day responsibilities, here’s an idea of some of the projects this role may spearhead or support in coming years 

• Turning garden3d TK into a real experimental media brand: books, screenplays, music, and shows
• Growing our podcast into a property with its own audience
• Launch campaigns for new Index spaces, USB Club drops, and community programs
• Making our annual open-source P&L release a media moment
• Standing up a small content studio that serves all four studios’ new-business pipelines
• Building the systems (and hiring the people) that let us publish more often, while aspiring for a 10/10 content, and never dropping below an 8/10

Qualifications

This is a great opportunity for someone looking to make a significant impact in a growing, dynamic company. Based on the responsibilities of this role, we think the right candidate has the following experience and skills:

Must have:

• 8+ years in marketing, content or brand leadership, with real time inside creative studios, agencies or founder-led companies
• A portfolio that proves exceptional taste – visual, narrative, and tone of voice
• A design background and/or fluency & comfort producing own visual assets at the required quality level in Figma when necessary
• Experience owning a company’s web presence: site strategy, messaging, and keeping capabilities collateral current
• Exceptional project management: content calendars, production pipelines, many workstreams at once
• Short-form video fluency: they’ve shipped work for Reels, TikTok and Shorts and can say why each piece performed
• Extensive experience & comfort managing creatives & producers (editors, designers, animators, freelancers) and getting better work out of them than they’d make alone
• Hands-on experience running paid social on Meta, Instagram and other platforms: audience building, budget ownership, and A/B/C testing across narrative and ad set
• Working fluency in the PESO model, with a point of view on where paid, earned, shared and owned media each earn their keep

Nice-to-have:

• Experience producing a brand’s IRL presence: events, conferences, talks, and the follow-through that turns them into content
• Podcast or audio production experience
• Comfort/experience managing multiple messaging columns in a house of brands
• Newsletter growth experience, Substack especially
• Community & events marketing: programming, launches, IRL moments
• Photography, motion or editing chops of their own
• Fluency with AI production tools, plus the judgment to know when not to use them
• A press & media network (traditional PR isn’t the focus, but relationships help)
• Experience marketing to design & engineering decision-makers at companies like our clients
• Book publishing or long-form media experience
• Experience growing a services business’s story into a consumer-scale audience

Who you are

The person we’re looking for is happy, relaxed and easy to get along with and appreciates a commitment to a culture of transparency, non-dictatorial leadership styles, and alternative methodologies. They’re flexible on anything except conceits that will lower their usually outstanding work quality. They work “smart” by carefully managing their workflow and team.

How we interview

After you submit your application, a member of our team will reach out. Our interview process starts with an intro call to answer any questions you have about the role and to learn a bit more about your experience and interests.

From there, we’ll follow up with a panel interview call where you get to meet a few members of our team, to openly discuss some of our challenges and ensure your skills and interests align with where we’re going as a business.

For qualified candidates, the process wraps with a reference call, and an offer to follow.

Compensation

This role greatly favors autonomous, competent & ambitious operators. It will begin with a 4-month fraction trial contract, paid hourly between $75 – $120 p/hr pending seniority & experience. In the first few weeks of the trial, this individual will propose their own goals to define success in their trial, and present them to our leadership team for approval.

At garden3d, we believe that those who shoulder the most responsibility and create the greatest impact should be paid accordingly. If this individual exceeds expectations by the end of the 4-month period, we’ll shape a permanent role together, with scope and compensation that grow as our audiences and revenue do.

Finally, after a period of proven success in this role (12 – 24 months), this individual will become eligible to join our worker ownership program.

‍How we work:

We believe that there’s a better balance between the poles of freelancing & full time, and for that reason we work differently to most shops:

• Transparency & Ownership: We release out Profit & Loss statements to the community each year, open source our best ideas, and talk business & money with everyone in the company. We’re proud to run our business with integrity, and for that reason we share everything with our team & community.
• 150% Carbon Negative:** Our studio offsets 150% of the carbon we use to do business each year, dated back to our founding in 2015. We turn down work that is not in-line with our morals, and we encourage our peers to do the same. We have been certified climate neutral since 2021.
• Strong Morals:** Since our founding, we’ve turned down somewhere between $1mm – $2mm of work that didn’t meet our moral standards. (Most of that was DTC brands that can’t show a valid sustainability initiative).
• Async & Decentralized: We use tools optimized for calm, thoughtful communication, and opt for async whenever possible. We fight hard to maintain our focus time.
• Remote Friendly: Our company is fluent in remote work, making our workplace more decentralized, and democratized in the process.
• Ideas & Products: In our spare studio time, we work to build our own open source or internal products to diversify & bolster our income. We create amazing technology products for our clients, so why not for the studio?

→ Read more on our Substack, over here.

Kindly submit a complete and thoughtful application, including relevant links that help verify your work experience and identity. Applications with missing or insufficient information will not move forward in the review process.

Our team carefully reviews every complete submission, and we truly appreciate the time and effort you put into applying! We’re excited to hear from you! ❤