Chief Merchant

About the role: We are seeking a Chief Merchant to serve as our ultimate customer champion and the authentic voice of the merchant within Forter and across the market. This is a unique and career-evolving opportunity for a seasoned retail leader to bring their deep merchant expertise into the heart of a high-growth technology company. This is not a traditional SaaS role; in fact, no SaaS experience is required. We are looking for a leader who has built their career leading digital, e-commerce, or product functions at a top-tier apparel, accessories, beauty, or retail organization. You will leverage your experience—and your extensive network—to build an unparalleled customer advocacy and community engagement engine at Forter. As the Chief Merchant, you will report to the Chief Marketing Officer and be a key member of the marketing leadership team and a critical partner to our entire go-to-market organization. Your primary mission is to embed the customer perspective into everything we do and to build a thriving community that drives growth through advocacy, referrals, and deep strategic relationships. Your success will be primarily measured by the growth of referral-based pipeline that drives new business and customer expansion. What you’ll be doing: Be the Authentic Voice of the Merchant: Serve as Forter’s chief ambassador and thought leader in the commerce community. Participate in market events, including conferences, trade shows, and regional activations, as a credible, respected peer to our customers and prospects. Influence and Educate the Market: Play a critical role in delivering thought leadership and education to target audiences and the market at large in partnership with the VP of Growth and VP of Market Strategy. Cultivate C-Suite Relationships: Leverage your network and expertise to open doors and build trusted relationships with C-suite executives and senior leaders within our customer and prospect organizations. Build a Thriving Customer Community: Architect and lead our market community development strategy, creating forums and programs that foster engagement, knowledge-sharing, and loyalty among our customer base. Drive Our Referral and Reference Engine: Partner with your team to identify and nurture reference-ready customers, and build a scalable program that generates a significant volume of high-quality, referral-based pipeline. Lead the Customer Advocacy Engagement Team: Manage and mentor the Senior Director of Customer Advocacy and Engagement, guiding the team's execution of world-class Voice of the Customer (VoC) and advocacy programs. Partner to Accelerate Growth: Collaborate with the VP of Growth to strategically infuse the customer voice into demand generation, growth, and partner marketing activations. Work alongside the VP of Market Strategy to bring powerful customer stories and proof points into our product marketing, PR initiatives, and brand campaigns. Serve as an essential partner to the Sales organization , helping to integrate customers and the merchant perspective directly into our sales motion to build credibility and accelerate deals. Champion the Merchant Perspective Internally: Partner with the VP of Market Strategy to bring critical "outside-in" thinking to our Product and Engineering teams, ensuring they understand the buyer perspective and are building solutions that create unique value for merchants. What you’ll need: 15+ years of senior leadership experience working directly for an enterprise apparel, accessories, beauty, or retail organization in a digital, e-commerce, or product leadership role. No prior SaaS or enterprise software experience is required Active engagement in commerce and retail industry communities and networks A natural connector and storyteller with executive presence and public speaking skills. A commercially-minded leader who understands how to translate customer relationships and community engagement into measurable bus ... (truncated, view full listing at source)