Influencer Marketing Lead

Aftershoot, a rapidly expanding company dedicated to revolutionising photography post-processing through AI, is seeking an Influencer Marketing Lead to drive its global creator strategy. With a mission to become the indispensable tool for photographers worldwide, Aftershoot empowers creatives to spend more time behind the lens and less time tethered to their screens. The company has experienced significant growth, boasting over 100,000 active users and achieving substantial year-on-year revenue increases within its first four years, supported by a passionate team and strong investor backing. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of AI in photography by fostering a vibrant community of creators.

About the Role

The Influencer Marketing Lead will be instrumental in architecting and executing Aftershoot's entire influencer and creator marketing programme, with a particular focus on the crucial United States market. This senior position demands a strategic thinker capable of managing a substantial annual creator budget, ensuring its effective allocation, rigorous measurement, and optimisation. The incumbent will transition the existing programme from ad-hoc sponsored content towards building enduring relationships, ambassador programmes, and long-term creator partnerships across key platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Success will be measured by tangible results, including attribution, incrementality, and cost-per-trial and paid conversion metrics, enabling data-driven decisions regarding partner renewals and investments.

This pivotal role involves several key responsibilities designed to elevate Aftershoot's brand presence and user acquisition through creator collaborations:

• **Strategic Development & Execution:** Develop and implement a comprehensive, end-to-end influencer and creator marketing strategy, with the US as the primary focus.
• **Budget Management:** Own the annual creator budget, including allocation, performance tracking, sunsetting underperforming initiatives, and scaling successful ones.
• **Partner Management:** Cultivate and maintain a robust roster of creator partners across photography, creative tools, and technology verticals on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
• **Relationship Building:** Transition the programme from transactional sponsored posts to sustainable, recurring partnerships, ambassador programmes, and deep creator relationships.
• **Performance Measurement:** Establish and refine the measurement framework to track key metrics like attribution, incrementality, cost per trial, and cost per paid conversion for each creator.
• **Contract Negotiation:** Negotiate rates, deliverables, exclusivity clauses, and usage rights, including securing whitelisting permissions for repurposing high-performing creator content into paid media campaigns.
• **Campaign Oversight:** Manage the end-to-end content production process, from briefing creators and monitoring timelines to ensuring timely delivery of agreed-upon assets.
• **Team Leadership:** Recruit, manage, and mentor a team of 2-3 Influencer Marketing Executives, fostering their development and ensuring team success.
• **Cross-Functional Collaboration:** Work closely with Growth, Content, Product Marketing, and Design teams to ensure creator content seamlessly integrates with broader marketing initiatives.
• **Campaign Planning:** Plan and execute creator activities around key commercial periods, such as Black Friday, and significant product launches.
• **Exploration of New Channels:** Investigate and pilot opportunities in adjacent marketing channels, including affiliate marketing, community building, events, and podcast partnerships, where they align with strategic goals.

What They're Looking For

Aftershoot is seeking a seasoned professional with a proven track record in influencer marketing and partnerships. Ideal candidates will possess a minimum of 5-8 years of experience in influencer, creator, or partnerships marketing, gained either agency-side or in-house. At least two of those years should demonstrate strategic development rather than solely campaign execution.

Key qualifications and experiences include:

• Demonstrated experience managing significant creator budgets, with the ability to articulate past spending decisions and the resulting return on investment.
• Experience working with creators based in the US or internationally, with comfort operating across different time zones.
• Excellent command of both spoken and written English, as daily communication will involve video calls and negotiations, particularly with US-based creators.
• Strong negotiation instincts, understanding that a creator's fee is the foundation for a productive, long-term relationship.
• Comfort with data analysis and assessment of campaign performance metrics.
• Familiarity with creator marketing and affiliate management platforms such as GRIN, CreatorIQ, Modash, Upfluence, Aspire, Impact.com, PartnerStack, or similar.
• A proactive approach, with a bias towards action, market testing, and rapid iteration.

For professionals in South Africa considering roles like this, influencer marketing leadership positions often command competitive salaries, reflecting the strategic importance and specialised skillset required. Common employers range from tech startups and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to agencies managing multiple brands. Career progression typically involves moving into broader marketing leadership roles, heading up entire growth teams, or specialising further in specific areas of digital marketing.

• 5–8 years in influencer, creator, or partnerships marketing, at an agency or in-house, with at least 2 of those years setting strategy rather than only executing campaigns.
• Direct experience managing a meaningful creator budget, and the ability to walk us through how you spent it and what you got back.
• Experience working with US or international creators, and comfort operating across time zones.
• Excellent spoken and written English. Much of this job is video calls and negotiation with US-based creators.
• Real negotiation instincts; paying a creator is the beginning of the relationship, not the end of it.
• Comfort with numbers to assess campaign performance.
• Working knowledge of creator tooling and affiliate platforms (GRIN, CreatorIQ, Modash, Upfluence, Aspire, Impact.com, PartnerStack, or similar).
• A bias toward action, moving quickly and testing in the market.