VP of Marketing

CORE Transformers | On-Site | Seneca, SC | Reports to CEO

VP of Marketing roles at PE-backed, high-growth companies don’t open often. When they do at a company with a $3M trade show budget and 3x revenue growth projected this year, they don’t stay open long. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to own something truly significant, this is worth your full attention.

CORE Transformers is an industry-disrupting leader in power distribution transformers, supplying critical electrical infrastructure to AI-driven data centers, large-scale construction projects, renewable energy installations, and industrial operations across the country. In an industry notorious for multi-year lead times, we quote in minutes and ship the same day. Our unique transformer design delivers measurably fewer installation defects than major OEM competitors, which means real savings and higher reliability for every customer on every project.

We were founded by the people who built this industry, including founding Sunbelt and Maddox Industrial Transformers, the two largest names in the reconditioned transformer space. That pedigree, combined with explosive demand fueled by the AI and data center boom, has us tracking ahead of aggressive growth targets heading into 2026. The marketing function needs to match that momentum. That’s where you come in.

Your Mission

We have a genuinely differentiated product, a fast-moving sales engine, and a brand that's just beginning to show the world what it can be. The VP of Marketing owns the brand side of that equation completely, with the creative latitude and budget resources to build something worth being proud of

You’ll report directly to CEO Winston Krauss and work alongside our VP of Sales and Operations as part of a tight, collaborative executive team. No red tape, no layers. You own your piece and have a real voice in how this company grows.

We have a strong outside agency partner already contributing in key areas, so there’s a real foundation to build on. You’ll work closely with them, set the vision and strategy, and grow capabilities over time as the business scales. This is a builder role in the truest sense: not a position where the infrastructure already exists and you’re managing a machine, but one where you’re designing it. We’re projecting roughly 3x revenue growth this year. The team will look different every year, and that’s by design. We need someone who knows what a high-performance marketing function looks like at scale and can build toward it from day one.

What Success Looks Like

Here’s a rough look at what you would be building in year one:

• Trade Show Dominance: CORE is the brand people are talking about on the show floor. Strong presence, sharp activations, and clear positioning as the fast-moving, high-reliability alternative to legacy OEMs. Lead capture is systematic and conversion rates from show contacts are measurably improving. Sales ops has what they need to follow up fast and effectively.
• Brand Positioning That Sticks: The market understands who we are: the high-growth, highest-reliability option in the space, with delivery speeds no OEM can match. That story is consistent across every channel and backed by case studies, customer references, and technical proof points. Engineers and procurement teams sourcing under pressure know CORE is the partner they can stake their reputation on.
• Sales Ops Alignment: Our sales operations team has exceptional assets at every key stage of the customer journey, from initial outreach through close. Marketing is a force multiplier for the sales process, not a bottleneck.
  
  

A Day in the Life

Your morning starts with a briefing call with your copywriter. A new one-pager is in progress targeting data center procurement leads, and the draft isn't landing yet. You walk them through exactly why: the audience is a procurement engineer staring down a tight construction deadline, they don't need marketing language, they need to immediately see that CORE ships fast, defects less, and won't blow up their timeline. You point them to two customer stories that illustrate it perfectly and set a clear bar for the revision.

After that, you're reviewing booth concepts for an upcoming show. The design is clean, but it's not stopping anyone. You push back with direction: CORE needs to read as the disruptor in the room, not another booth in a sea of booths. You know who the legacy OEMs are that'll be twenty feet away, and you want every visual choice to make that contrast obvious without saying a word. You send your notes and move on.

In the afternoon you turn your attention to a case study that's been months in the making. The customer finally signed off. You draft the brief yourself: the technical specs that matter to an engineer, the supply chain pressure the customer was under, the outcome in plain numbers. When your writer picks this up, they'll have everything they need to make it credible and compelling. That's the standard you hold.

You close the day reviewing show lead data from last month's event. Capture rates are up. You note where follow-up response has lagged and flag it for sales ops with a recommendation. You track this stuff because the trade show program is one of the most powerful things we do, and you treat it that way.

Every day looks a little different. What doesn't change is the standard, the pace, and the sense that you're building something people in this industry will notice.

Who You Are

You’ve spent your career marketing complex, technical products to sophisticated B2B buyers: engineers, procurement teams, facility managers, project leads. You understand that this kind of buyer doesn’t respond to clever taglines. They respond to credibility, clarity, and proof. You know how to build both.

You’re a builder with a playbook. You’ve either built a marketing function before or have been deeply involved and know what the growth phases look like. You can make decisions today that set the team up for where it needs to be two years from now. You are equally comfortable owning trade shows and digital marketing performance.

You’re sharp, direct, and easy to work with. You communicate clearly across levels and take ownership seriously. When something goes wrong, you don’t deflect. You figure out what happened and fix it. Most importantly, you’re here to build something. The status quo doesn’t interest you.

What You'll Be Doing

Product Marketing

• Develop and own our positioning and messaging, translating complex technical products into compelling value propositions for engineers, procurement teams, and project decision-makers.
• Produce high-quality sales and marketing collateral: decks, one-pagers, technical white papers, videos, and customer-facing documentation.
• Partner closely with our product and technical team to distill R&D output into clear, credible customer communications.
• Own the tone, voice, and customer experience across all product-facing touchpoints, including manuals, specs, and technical documentation.
  
  

Trade Show Program

• Own end-to-end management of a roughly $3M annual trade show program, coordinating across MSPs, a dedicated trade show expert, internal teams, and vendors.
• Develop high-impact show activations: sponsorships, local advertising, experiential moments, and brand activations that make CORE the most memorable presence in the room.
• Build and maintain rigorous attribution and ROI tracking: contact capture, pipeline contribution, customer lifetime value, and reporting back to revenue.
  
  

Brand & Content Marketing

• Own our brand identity: logos, color, typography, tone of voice, and brand guidelines.
• Drive PR and trade press strategy, including industry publication placements, press releases, and award submissions that build authority across target verticals.
• Build a content and thought leadership engine: technical articles, case studies, and editorial that earns CORE credibility with engineers and buyers alike.
  
  

Digital Marketing

• Own the website in partnership with our agency: strategy, design direction, UX, and ongoing optimization.
• Oversee digital channels including organic and paid search, social, and email marketing, working closely with agency partners to set direction and hold the work accountable to outcomes.
• Maintain strong analytics and attribution across channels, ensuring we understand what's working and can report it clearly to leadership.
  
  

Sales Support & Internal Marketing

• Work closely with our sales operations team to produce the collateral, support materials, and campaign assets they need to move deals forward: presentations, case studies, competitive positioning, and technical leave-behinds.

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• Develop partnership and co-marketing collateral to support our business development relationships.
• Keep the internal team informed and engaged through strong internal communications, company decks, and employee-facing brand moments.
  
  

What You'll Need to Succeed

• 7+ years of marketing experience, with at least 2 to 3 years in a VP, Director, or Head of Marketing role, or a Senior Manager / Director track record that clearly demonstrates you're ready for the next step.
• Proven experience marketing complex, technical products to B2B buyers. Industrial manufacturing, electrical equipment, power systems, energy infrastructure, switchgear, data center infrastructure, or adjacent sectors strongly preferred.
• You've owned a marketing function, not just contributed to one. Experience operating as a solo marketing leader or with a small team and agency partners is a significant advantage.
• You understand what a high-performance marketing team looks like at scale, and you've either built one or been close enough to the process that you know how to sequence the decisions that get you there.
• Strong brand marketing skills: trade show management, positioning and messaging, sales enablement collateral, and content strategy.
• Solid working knowledge of digital marketing channels, including SEO, email, social, and paid media. You don't need to be a hands-on specialist in every area, but you know how to set direction, work with agency partners effectively, and evaluate what good looks like.
• Experience managing agencies and external vendors, knowing when to direct, when to defer, and how to get the best work out of outside partners.
• Exceptional written communication skills. You can write copy that makes a technical buyer stop and pay attention. You've done it before.
• A builder's mindset. You've launched things, figured things out without a roadmap, and built structure in environments that were moving fast.
• Willing and able to be on-site in Seneca, SC. Relocation assistance is available.
  
  

Bonus Points If You Have…

• Direct experience with transformer manufacturers, electrical distributors, or companies like Schneider Electric, Eaton, ABB, Vertiv, Hubbell, GE Vernova, or Siemens.
• Hands-on experience owning a large-scale trade show program with real budget accountability.
• Experience working at or alongside a PE-backed company during a high-growth phase.
• A background that spans both startup/lean environments and larger, structured organizations.
• A great eye for design and strong aesthetic instincts that push creative work from good to great.
• An interesting hidden talent or two. We love well-rounded teams.
  
  

Schedule & Location

• Full-time, on-site in Seneca, SC. Relocation assistance available.
• We care about work-life balance and mean it. We also have big things on the line. Most weeks are steady, but trade shows, campaign pushes, and the pace of a high-growth company mean some weeks will ask more. If you're the right person for this role, that won't feel like a burden.
  
  

Compensation

Compensation & Benefits

• Highly competitive base salary, commensurate with experience and seniority.
• Quarterly incentive bonus paid to every employee based on company performance. At our current growth trajectory, this bonus is worth paying attention to. Details discussed during the interview process.
  
  

Benefits

• Health insurance stipend via Thatch (thatch.com), designed to cover the cost of your plan at little to no out-of-pocket cost for individual coverage (available after 90 days)
• Dental and Vision plans available
• Life insurance available
• 401(k) with matching — 100% match on first 3%, 50% match from 4–5%
• Time off commensurate with the role and level of seniority.
  
  

Working With Us

At CORE, we hire smart, hungry people, give them the tools to move fast, and get out of the way. We’re not interested in bureaucracy or legacy thinking. We’re interested in building something great, and we want people around us who feel the same way.

We work hard during working hours. We celebrate wins and believe every employee has a stake in the outcome, so we share a portion of profits equally across the entire company every quarter. We hire the kind of people who make everyone around them better.

If you’re looking for a rocket ship that’s already in the air and a team that’s genuinely worth joining, come talk to us.

How to Apply

We’re patient enough to find the right person, but this role needed to be filled yesterday, so if you’re qualified, don’t wait. We typically respond with next steps within 2 to 3 business days. Our process starts with a short screening call designed to respect your time and give you a real feel for the opportunity before either of us goes further. Most candidates find our interviews highly personable and collaborative. We believe in giving you a genuine look inside the business, not just putting you through your paces.

In the application, you'll find a cover letter field where we'd love to hear from you directly. In two to three sentences, tell us who you are, why this role caught your attention, and why you're the right person to build our marketing function. Feel free to write more if it's warranted.

For serious bonus points: include the word brouhaha somewhere in your response. It's our way of knowing you read all the way to the end, and that you're the kind of person who does.

We're looking forward to hearing from you.