Marketing Manager

Company: Luke’s Lobster

Location: Portland, ME (Hybrid – ~70% Portland office, ~30% travel to shacks nationwide)

Department: Marketing (with deep integration into Operations)

Reports To: Vice President of Marketing

Company Overview

Luke’s Lobster is a renowned seafood brand and a leading national restaurant group with nearly 30 locations, with both fast-casual and full-service lobster roll restaurants. We also operate our own seafood processing facility in Saco, Maine, ensuring our 'Shacks' provide our guests the highest quality, best tasting seafood. Further, we produce branded seafood grocery products as part of our CPG business at grocery stores and other outlets around the country.

Role Overview

This isn’t a desk-only marketing role. As Marketing Manager, you’ll spend significant time in the field—working directly with Shack GMs, visiting locations nationwide, and serving as a bridge between Marketing and Operations. You’ll own shack marketing, manage neighborhood relationships, oversee new shack opening (NSO) marketing, and drive impactful campaigns that elevate sales, brand presence, and community connections.

We’re looking for someone who thrives on taking initiative, spotting opportunities before others do, and moving quickly to make things happen. If you’re energized by solving problems, building relationships, and rolling up your sleeves to get the job done, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

Shack Marketing Ownership

• Use marketing strategy to lead all marketing initiatives for our U.S. shacks, ensuring they are on-brand, well-executed, and aligned with business goals.
• Serve as the go-to partner for Shack GMs, providing marketing support, guidance, and proactive ideas that drive traffic and sales.
• Build relationships within shack neighborhoods, identifying and executing grassroots opportunities to grow awareness.
• Execute Shack Marketing Toolkit with General Managers to train and guide on how to run local shack promotions. 
• Own, plan and execute on New Shack Openings with both on the ground team and cross-departmentally.
• Support the setup, rollout, and ongoing optimization of our in-shack loyalty program, ensuring smooth operations, staff adoption, and strong guest engagement.
• Monitor and maintain loyalty program performance, including troubleshooting issues, training teams, and implementing improvements to drive repeat visits and guest retention.

Field & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Travel ~30% of the time to shacks across the country, ensuring marketing programs are executed effectively and consistently.
• Act as an extension of the Operations team, building trust with GMs and ensuring seamless communication between Marketing, Ops, and other departments.
• Assist with tracking shack-level sales and data to inform decision-making and measure campaign success.

Campaigns, Promotions, and Partnerships

• Coordinate assets, signage, and communication for promotions, LTOs, and shack-level asks.
• Support influencer and partnership campaigns, including product sends, giveaways, brand collaborations, and reservations.
• Assist PR and Development teams with photo sends, shipping samples, and event support.
• Manage neighborhood and shack events, from planning through on-the-ground execution.

Content & Channel Support

• Support website updates and maintenance of second-order channels.
• Create and send marketing emails that drive guest engagement.

Process & Operations Support

• Develop toolkits, SOPs, and repeatable processes for shack marketing.
• Manage NSO marketing, ensuring new shacks launch successfully and are embedded into their local communities.
• Oversee printing, distribution of materials, and other logistical marketing needs.
• Oversee all third party review platforms e.g. Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp etc.

What Success Looks Like in this Role

• You anticipate needs before they arise, proactively offering solutions and new ideas without waiting for instructions.
• You build strong, trust-based relationships with Shack GMs and Operations, becoming their go-to partner for marketing support.
• You take full ownership of shack marketing initiatives—seeing projects through from concept to execution to analysis.
• You confidently manage multiple priorities, hold yourself and others accountable, and deliver work that consistently meets the highest standard.
• You streamline processes and introduce smart, efficient ways of working that set the team up for long-term success.
• You bring creativity and hustle to every project—whether it’s a neighborhood event, an email campaign, or a shack LTO launch.

Qualifications

• 5 years of restaurant marketing background, with experience in sales-building campaigns 
• Strong project management skills—able to juggle multiple timelines and keep projects moving.
• Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, with experience working cross-functionally.
• Willingness to travel regularly (~30%) and thrive in a hands-on, field-based environment.
• A proactive, resourceful problem-solver who takes initiative and thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
• Experience with email marketing platforms (e.g., Klaviyo, Mailchimp), content coordination, and campaign execution a plus.

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary commensurate with experience: expected in the range of $70,000-$85,000
• Paid vacation, sick days, and holidays
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance on a national PPO network with company premium contributions
• Access to an Health Savings Account (HSA) and supplemental insurance policies (Accident Insurance and Hospital Indemnity Insurance)
• Low-asset fee 401k retirement plan after one month
• Mobile phone stipend program
• Paid parental leave 
• Company Amex for approved expenses

About Luke’s Lobster

Luke’s Lobster was born out of the dream of Maine native and third-generation lobsterman Luke Holden to bring the quality lobster rolls of his youth to the big city. After meeting business partner Ben Conniff on Craigslist, the two twenty-somethings opened their first lobster shack in a 250 square foot space in NYC’s East Village in October 2009. 

Now over 15 years later, Luke’s Lobster brings traceable, sustainable seafood to guests across the globe. Our vision is to be the world’s most trusted seafood brand. Our mission is to serve the best seafood because we care for it obsessively from the dock to you, and because we're devoted to serving the whole community of people it touches. We work directly with fishermen to hand pick the best seafood, bring it straight to our own seafood company in Saco, ME and then ship directly to our shacks, grocery partners, and consumers. Cutting out the middleman means better tasting seafood for you to enjoy and a fairer price for our fishermen.

At Luke’s, our company culture comes first. We are proud and passionate about the work environment we have fostered and are excited to see it continue to grow. We value diversity, creativity, transparency, and open communication from all levels. In 2018, we furthered our commitment to sustainability and socially conscious business practices by becoming a certified B Corporation®, reflecting Luke’s Lobster’s deep devotion to our communities, family of teammates, and the environment. Please visit www.lukeslobster.com for more information.

EEO Statement

Luke's Lobster provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to any status, including but not limited to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Luke's Lobster complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Luke's Lobster expressly prohibits all forms of workplace harassment. Improper interference with the ability of Luke's Lobster employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge. Essential job functions include standing for sustained periods of time, lifting objects from lower to higher positions, ascending or descending stairs or ladders, and bending, crouching, and reaching to low and high places. Luke's Lobster is a participant of E-Verify.