Director of Digital Marketing - IndiGo Airlines

Job description

JOB DESCRIPTION: DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MARKETING Location: Gurgaon Work Mode: Work from Office completely (All 5 days of the week) Position Title: Director of Digital Marketing Department: Commercial / Growth & Brand Marketing Reports To: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Direct Reports: Head of Performance Media, Lead SEO Specialist, Head of Social & Content Strategy, Lead MarTech & Retention, D2C Growth Manager 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Director of Digital Marketing will be the central architect driving direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue growth, customer acquisition, and digital brand equity across all web and mobile channels. Reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Officer, this senior leadership role is tasked with managing multi-million-dollar digital media budgets, owning the complete digital acquisition funnel, scaling direct bookings, and modernizing the airline's MarTech stack. The ideal candidate is a hybrid executive: equal parts quantitative performance marketer, technical SEO authority, brand storyteller, and technologist. You will lead cross-functional teams across performance marketing, SEO, social media, marketing technology, and site optimization to minimize dependence on Third-Party Intermediaries (OTAs) and maximize contribution margins (CM1/CM2) across domestic and international route networks. 2. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES & KEY FUNCTIONAL AREAS A. D2C Growth & P&L Ownership • Direct Revenue Scaling: Own the digital P&L for direct channels (Web + App), driving strategies to achieve the airline's target share of direct bookings versus OTAs. • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Oversee full funnel conversion across web and mobile apps, minimizing drop-offs on flight search grids, seat maps, ancillary add-ons, and payment gateways. • Ancillary Revenue Maximization: Drive digital campaigns targeting high-margin ancillary products, including seat selection, extra baggage, lounge access, priority boarding, and travel insurance. • Yield & Revenue Alignment: Partner closely with Revenue Management and Pricing teams to adjust digital marketing spend dynamically based on load factors, route yields, and seasonal demand fluctuations. B. Performance Marketing & Paid Media Execution • Media Budget Management: Plan, deploy, and optimize multi-million-dollar media budgets across Paid Search (Google Search/RSA), Programmatic Display/Video, Paid Social (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn), and Metasearch platforms (Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak). • Bidding & Algorithmic Strategy: Implement advanced bidding strategies (Target ROAS, Target CPA, Value-Based Bidding) to maximize booking volume while maintaining strict customer acquisition cost (CAC) efficiencies. • App Acquisition & Engagement: Lead Apple Search Ads (ASA), Google App Campaigns for Install (ACi), and retargeting workflows to drive high-LTV mobile app downloads and active monthly users (MAU). • Audience Suppression & Efficiency: Implement automated daily suppression pipelines (via BigQuery/MMP) to exclude active 30-day MAUs from top-of-funnel prospecting, protecting media spend efficiency. C. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Technical Search • Organic Flight Discovery: Own total organic search visibility and non-brand keywords for key routes, destinations, and fare classes across global markets. • Technical SEO Governance: Oversee site architecture, schema markup (FlightReserve, Airline, Destination data), Core Web Vitals, page load speed, and crawl budget optimizations across localized domains. • Dynamic Route Page Engine: Partner with engineering to maintain auto-generated, search-optimized dynamic landing pages for thousands of origin-and-destination (O&D) city pairs. • Content SEO: Direct editorial content strategy to capture long-tail travel search intent, destination guides, and seasonal travel inspiration. D. Social Media, Brand Engagement & PR Integration • Omnichannel Social Strategy: Set the narrative and organic/paid social vision across Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and regional social channels. • Crisis & Reputation Management: Formulate real-time social response protocols during operational disruptions, weather delays, or flight cancellations in close coordination with Corporate Communications. • Creator & Influencer Ecosystem: Build scalable influencer partnerships, ambassador programs, and UGC campaigns that drive high-engagement travel stories and viral brand moments. • Community Management: Oversee active community management, social customer care integration, and social listening platforms to monitor real-time brand sentiment. E. Marketing Technology (MarTech) & Data Infrastructure • Stack Architecture: Evaluate, implement, and optimize the global MarTech stack, including Customer Data Platforms (CDP), Mobile Measurement Partners (MMP - AppsFlyer/Adjust), Consent Management Platforms (CMP), and Tag Management Systems (Tealium/GTM). • First-Party Data Readiness: Drive the transition toward a privacy-first, cookieless advertising model utilizing server-side tracking, Conversions API (CAPI), and clean room architectures. • Personalization & Lifecycle Automation: Partner with CRM teams to integrate real-time dynamic web/app personalization, abandoned flight retargeting, and automated trigger sequences. • Analytics & Attribution: Oversee multi-touch attribution (MTA) models, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), and unified dashboard reporting across Google Analytics 4, BigQuery, and BI visualization tools. F. UI/UX Optimization • User Journey & Experience Architecture: Lead end-to-end mapping and continuous optimization of digital touchpoints (web, landing pages, app, customer portals) to eliminate friction and elevate conversion rates. • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) & Experimentation: Establish a rigorous experime