Head of Marketing & Communications

About garden3d

garden3d is a worker-owned creative collective—part studio network, part community space, part experimental media company. We innovate across brands and IRL communities, and we build real products too: from software teams behind devices like The Light Phone and Mill, to community spaces like Index Space, to design and development studios that ship work with taste, craft, and accountability.

We share profit, open source what we can, spin out new businesses, and invest in exciting ideas through financial and/or in-kind contributions. Our client roster includes Google, Stripe, Figma, Hinge, Mozilla, MIT, Etsy, Gagosian, the ACLU, the Nobel Prize, and more.

About The Role

garden3d is hiring a Head of Marketing & Communications to make sure everything we put on the internet is compelling, interesting, and worth your attention—from wherever in the world you’re working.

garden3d is a house of brands: each vertical has its own voice, audience, and rhythm—yet everything should connect back to the umbrella story. This role is the person who decides what we publish, where it runs, and whether it clears our bar.

You’ll work closely with our founder & president, Hugh Francis, and you’ll interface with studio leads, designers, developers, editors, animators, photographers, community managers, event producers, and ad platforms across every garden3d vertical.

Location: You can be based anywhere.

• Many of our teams gravitate around New York, so there’s some pull to be there.
• We also hire across time zones (Europe, Singapore, Chicago, and beyond).
• If you’re the right person, we’ll make it work.

What You’ll Do

Your mandate is simple to state and hard to execute: keep our channels end-to-end, publish at a consistently high standard, and use smart distribution—not noise—to grow audiences and impact.

Own Our Channels End-to-End

• Run the garden3d Substack (and the editorial system around it)
• Own our podcast: positioning, production cadence, and growth
• Lead our social presence on Instagram and X
• Manage the paid accounts that support those channels
• Set and maintain the publishing calendar that helps multiple workstreams ship on time

You’ll collaborate with our team and a rotating group of freelance editors, designers, and animators—while maintaining clear standards, thoughtful feedback, and fast iteration.

Think PESO (With Shared & Owned Doing the Heavy Lifting)

• Use paid intentionally as a tool (not the main event)
• Prioritize shared and owned media to build durable audience relationships
• Treat traditional press as a bonus, not the default strategy
• Bring a point of view on what each channel should do—and why

Set the “10/10” Bar (Never Ship Below 8/10)

Quality is non-negotiable. We don’t publish work that lands at maybe. We aspire for 10/10, celebrate 9/10, and never publish anything that’s below 8/10—visually, narratively, and in production quality.

• Hold the bar across posts, videos, essays, and podcast episodes
• Give feedback that improves work without micromanaging
• Prefer killing or reworking a piece over letting a 6/10 leave the studio
• Help creatives get better and faster through honest, high-signal critique

Social That Stops the Scroll

• Maintain a current, practitioner-level understanding of what works right now on each platform
• Know what arrests mid-scroll—and how to earn the next three seconds
• Understand why formats land differently across platforms (e.g., TikTok vs. LinkedIn)
• Treat short-form video as first-class craft, not an afterthought

A House of Brands, Each With Its Own Voice

Sanctory Computer doesn’t sound like XXIX. Index doesn’t sound like either. You’ll manage multiple messaging columns at once while keeping the umbrella narrative coherent.

• Protect brand tone, voice, and audience fit across studios
• Build consistent “drumbeats” of work worth sharing for each vertical
• Ensure the umbrella story ties everything together without flattening differences

Case Study Production That Wins the Next Project

• Ensure every client engagement ends with a case study worth reading
• Own the production line:
  • Interview the team
  • Shape the narrative
  • Art-direct assets
  • Ship case studies that strengthen each studio’s pipeline

Websites That Put Our Best Foot Forward

• Own strategy behind every garden3d site:
  • What we say
  • What work we show
  • How clearly we communicate each studio’s capabilities
• Keep sites, decks, and collateral current as the work evolves
• Make sure what prospective clients and hires find is sharp, accurate, and compelling

Editorial Ownership (Substack, Podcast, and Transparency Publications)

• Own calendars, standards, and growth for our editorial properties
• Capture what happens across Index, USB Club, and the communities around them
• Turn real moments into work worth sharing
• Include transparency publishing as a distinct strength of the brand
• Support ongoing thought leadership (including open-source initiatives like our annual P&L release)

Produce, Coordinate, and Distribute Like a Showrunner

• Direct producers, editors, and freelancers with clear briefs and real deadlines
• Manage many workstreams simultaneously without dropping quality
• Keep production systems moving:
  • briefs → drafts → edits → final assets → distribution

Paid & Distribution Ownership (Budgets Tied to Results)

• Direct paid spend on Meta, Instagram, and other platforms where our audiences live
• Build audiences and run A/B/C tests on:
  • narrative
  • ad sets (adset structure)
• Own budgets against results you can explain and report on

Data-Driven Reporting & ROI (Plainly, Not Vaguely)

• Measure what content actually does:
  • audience growth
  • engagement
  • leads
  • pipeline influenced
• Report on performance with clarity and accountability
• Evaluate paid spend, organic effort, and production time against return
• Use outcomes to shape next quarter’s plan

Presence IRL (Because Real Community Creates Real Content)

• Help garden3d show up in person through events, conferences, talks, and Index programming
• Decide which touchpoints are worth our time
• Represent the brand with polish and authenticity
• Bring back stories worth publishing—then turn them into content

Be a Culture Model

• Demonstrate garden3d values: partnership, curiosity, and accountability
• Make it easy for creatives to do their best work
• Provide feedback that’s honest and recognition that’s real
• Let your taste rub off—without turning leadership into control

Special Projects You May Lead or Support

In addition to day-to-day ownership, you’ll likely spearhead or support initiatives such as:

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

What We’re Looking For

This is a high-trust role for an autonomous, taste-driven operator who can context shift across diverse workstreams and still produce consistently excellent output.

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
  • tone of voice
• Design background and/or fluency producing visual assets to the required quality level in Figma when needed
• Proven experience owning a company’s web presence:
  • site strategy
  • messaging
  • keeping capabilities collateral current
• Exceptional project management:
  • content calendars
  • production pipelines
  • many workstreams at once
• Short-form video fluency:
  • shipped work for Reels, TikTok, and Shorts
  • can explain why pieces performed
• Comfort managing creatives and producers (editors, designers, animators, freelancers) and raising output quality above what they’d make alone
• Hands-on paid social experience on Meta/Instagram and other platforms:
  • audience building
  • budget ownership
  • A/B/C testing across narrative and ad set
• Working fluency in PESO, with a clear point of view on where paid/earned/shared/owned each earn their keep

Nice-to-Have

• Experience producing a brand’s IRL presence:
  • events
  • conferences
  • talks
  • turning them into content
• Podcast or audio production experience