Head of Digital Acquisition (Ecommerce) in Birmingham

This role is only suitable for candidates who have personally owned digital acquisition performance inside a £10m+ ecommerce business. We are hiring a hands-on Head of Digital Acquisition to take full ownership of paid acquisition, SEO performance and e-commerce growth inside a profitable, founder-led retail business. This is a permanently on-site role in Birmingham. Remote, hybrid, agency and coordination-focused candidates will not be considered. Salary reflects direct commercial accountability and ownership responsibility — not a typical marketing or reporting role.

About Hard To Find Whisky: Hard To Find Whisky is a specialist whisky, spirits and champagne retailer operating a high-volume e-commerce platform alongside a flagship physical store. We compete directly with much larger national and international retailers through strong commercial discipline, operational execution and in-house performance ownership. This role exists to scale acquisition capability internally and strengthen long-term e-commerce performance.

The Role: You will personally own and grow customer acquisition inside a £10m+ e-commerce operation. This is not an agency management or coordination position. You will directly control acquisition strategy, channel allocation and spend decisions across paid media, SEO, marketplaces and on-site conversion performance. You will operate embedded within the business and report directly to the founder with full accountability for performance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own acquisition performance and spend decisions end-to-end
• Personally manage and optimise core paid channels (Google, Meta, Shopping)
• Drive SEO and on-site conversion performance improvements
• Balance Amazon and direct-to-consumer channel strategy
• Allocate, pause and redirect acquisition spend based on ROI and margin performance
• Report directly to the founder with commercially focused performance updates

Google Ads & Paid Search:

• Manage and optimise Search, Shopping and Performance Max (where appropriate)
• Improve account structure, efficiency and control
• Actively manage bids, feeds, negatives and budget allocation
• Reduce wasted spend and improve acquisition efficiency

Paid Social:

• Manage paid social as a performance acquisition channel
• Work with internal creative assets to test messaging and creative
• Focus on measurable commercial outcomes, not engagement metrics

Analytics & Reporting:

• Track and report acquisition performance across all channels
• Use GA4, Search Console and ad platforms to inform decisions
• Produce commercially relevant reporting for directors
• Focus on outcomes, profitability and contribution margin — not vanity metrics

Required Experience: This role is only suitable for candidates who have:

• A minimum of 10 years experience
• Personally owned digital acquisition performance inside a £10m+ e-commerce business
• Hands-on responsibility for SEO and paid acquisition channels
• Practical experience managing meaningful paid media budgets
• Experience making margin-driven trade-offs and reducing spend when ROI does not justify growth
• The ability to work autonomously in an on-site, fast-moving environment

What This Role Is Not:

• Not remote or hybrid
• Not agency-led
• Not content-only or social media management
• Not a reporting-only or presentation-focused role

What We Offer:

• A senior, embedded role inside a profitable e-commerce business
• Direct access to decision-makers
• Real authority over acquisition strategy and spend
• The opportunity to materially improve a large e-commerce platform
• Long-term role stability

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: £60,000 – £85,000 per year

Location: On-site — Birmingham

What is the largest monthly paid media budget you have personally owned and optimised? Please include approximate figure and channels. Have you personally reduced or paused paid media spend due to ROI or margin concerns in the past 12 months? Briefly explain. Do you acknowledge that this is strictly an office-based role in Birmingham?