Product Marketing Director, Novus

Software is being written faster than ever. AI coding agents are merging PRs around the clock. But speed alone doesn't make better products, and most teams building fast have no reliable way to know what's actually happening in their software after it ships. Novus is Pendo's answer to that problem.

As the Product Marketing Director for Novus, you'll be the marketing lead and GTM owner for a new product in a new category, targeting a new audience for Pendo: product engineers and application owners who build and ship AI-native software. You'll own everything from narrative and positioning to demand generation, community activation, and launch execution — this isn't a role where you hand off to another team when the strategy is done. You build it, run it, and own the outcomes.

This is a rare opportunity to define the category, build the market, and drive the full GTM motion for a product that's redefining how teams understand their software. It requires someone who is energized by ambiguity, fluent in developer and builder culture, and capable of translating a genuinely novel product into a compelling story and a high-performing marketing engine.

Role Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain messaging, positioning, and talk tracks that keep product, sales, marketing, and leadership aligned as Novus evolves
• Own the end-to-end GTM plan: audience targeting, channel strategy, campaign execution, launch moments, and success metrics
• Own top-of-funnel acquisition for Novus — defining the channel mix, running campaigns, and driving early access signups and free-to-paid conversion
• Build the community presence from the ground up: developer forums, social channels, influencer relationships, and event-driven activation
• Own the PLG motion — designing self-serve onboarding, activation flows, and freemium-to-paid conversion strategy in close collaboration with product and growth
• Help define how Novus and Pendo work together — positioning the relationship clearly for customers scaling from fast-moving startups into more complex product organizations
• Build sales and partner enablement materials that help the team have credible conversations with product engineers, a meaningfully different buyer than Pendo's traditional PM audience
• Define and own the metrics that connect Novus marketing activity to pipeline and early commercial outcomes — free-to-paid conversion, activation rates, and marketing-sourced ARR contribution.

Minimum Qualifications

• 7+ years of marketing experience, with at least 2-3 years owning GTM for a technical product or developer-facing platform at the IC level
• You've built software, or worked closely enough alongside engineers that you understand the codebase, the PR, and the deploy cycle
• You're AI-native in how you work: Claude, ChatGPT, or similar tools are your first stop, not an afterthought. You use AI to move faster, generate and pressure-test ideas
• Strong content and storytelling instincts — you can 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 — you understand how builders discover tools, what earns trust in communities like Hacker News or GitHub, and what feels authentic versus tone-deaf

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with PLG go-to-market motions: self-serve acquisition, freemium conversion, and community-led distribution
• Familiarity with product analytics, instrumentation, or observability tools
• Experience marketing to or within developer communities: open source, dev tools, AI coding tools, or similar

What Makes You Successful in This Role

• You're a builder, not a maintainer. You're most energized when the playbook doesn't exist yet and you get to write it. Novus has no established GTM motion — you'll create it.
• You're AI-pilled. You don't use AI tools occasionally — you've rewired how you work around them. You're faster, sharper, and more prolific because of it, and you bring that energy to everything you ship.
• You can do both. You're as comfortable crafting a narrative and a launch strategy as you are setting up a campaign, writing copy, and digging into conversion data. At this stage, there's no one to hand off to.
• Credibility with builders. You understand that product engineers are a distinct audience — skeptical of marketing, they evaluate tools by using them, and they talk to each other. You know how to earn their trust without talking like a marketer.
• Bias toward action. You ship, gather feedback, and iterate. You don't wait for perfect information before moving.
• You move product, sales, and leadership without a team under you. Your influence comes from the quality of your judgment and the speed of your output. People bring you into the room because your thinking makes the work better.

Pendo Description

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. You will gain experience in a diverse and exciting set of technologies and clients and have a real impact on Pendo's future. Our culture is passionate, dynamic, and fun.

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 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.

Compensation

Our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of many compensation, benefits and other reward opportunities we provide.

The expected salary range for this role to be performed each location is as follows:

• New York, NY:  $196,300 -$249,000
• San Francisco, CA:  $196,300 -$249,000

Individual pay rate decisions, including offers made within and over the expected salary range, are based on a number of factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company.