Marketing & Brand Coordinator Fractional Independent Contractor Engagement
🧩 We’re looking for the right fit; could you be our missing piece?
Puzzle Lab is seeking a resourceful, creative, organized, and proactive Marketing & Brand Coordinator to provide fractional marketing leadership and hands-on execution for an initial five-month engagement. This role will help turn Puzzle Lab’s marketing priorities into cohesive campaigns across email, web, social media, partnerships, print, and corporate outreach. The coordinator will also provide campaign and creative direction to a separate Social Media Manager, ensuring that our social content supports Puzzle Lab’s broader goals and feels consistent with our brand.
The engagement will include approximately 16–24 hours per week, generally spread across two or three days. The job is on-site at Puzzle Lab’s Victoria headquarters.
The engagement is anticipated to begin in October 2026, or as mutually agreed, and continue through February 2027. There may be an opportunity to extend or expand the engagement depending on business needs, results, and mutual agreement; however, this is not guaranteed.
About Puzzle Lab
Puzzle Lab is a fast-growing wood jigsaw puzzle company with an underlying passion for art, innovation, and creativity. More than that, we’re a friendly group of open-minded humans working together to create joyful experiences for our fans and customers. We pride ourselves on our consistent efforts toward environmental sustainability, support of local artists, and an ethical business model.
Puzzle Lab’s vision is to awaken the inner child in all of us. In a world that feels increasingly fast, loud, and serious, it’s easy to forget the simple joy of play. But play is where wonder lives; it’s where we reconnect with curiosity, delight, and our most human selves. Our work is about creating nostalgic and whimsical moments that bring people back, even briefly, to that childlike feeling of sincere awe and carefree discovery.
The Puzzle Lab Minifesto
We create quality time.
When people piece together our cleverly designed works of art, they experience challenge, determination, connection, epiphany. Whimsical delight and inner satisfaction follow them far beyond the puzzle table.
Bringing joy into the world through tactile play, Puzzle Lab also commits to doing right by people and the planet. We raise the bar for ethical employment, provide meaningful support for artists, and make environmental responsibility part of every decision.
In a nutshell, we make the world better by piecing broken pictures back together.
Engagement Overview
Working closely with Puzzle Lab’s CEO and co-founder Tinka Robev, the Marketing & Brand Coordinator will help establish priorities, coordinate campaigns, and keep Puzzle Lab’s marketing activities moving in the same direction.
The successful contractor will translate company goals into practical marketing plans, creative briefs, content calendars, and finished materials. They will coordinate marketing activities across channels and provide clear campaign and content direction to Puzzle Lab’s Social Media Manager.
The Social Media Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management of Puzzle Lab’s social channels, including scheduling and publishing content, community engagement, and creating agreed social content. The Marketing & Brand Coordinator will ensure that this work connects to broader campaigns, product launches, seasonal priorities, partnerships, and business goals.
This is a hands-on role with a meaningful coordination and creative-direction component. It is not intended as a senior fractional CMO engagement, nor is it primarily a day-to-day social-media posting role.
Puzzle Lab is a growing company, and our systems and processes continue to evolve. We ask that the successful contractor first become familiar with our existing brand, tools, and ways of working. Once you’re settled, your ideas for improving our marketing systems and creative output will be genuinely welcome.
Priorities may shift as the company grows. Any meaningful changes to the scope, hours, or deliverables will be discussed and mutually agreed upon.
Scope of Services
Marketing Planning & Campaign Coordination
- Translate Puzzle Lab’s goals and priorities into practical campaigns, content calendars, timelines, and task lists
- Coordinate marketing activities around product launches, seasonal campaigns, corporate sales, partnerships, and company events
- Develop clear campaign briefs that define the audience, message, goals, deliverables, and channel requirements
- Maintain an integrated marketing calendar across email, web, social, print, partnerships, and outreach
- Keep assets, approvals, deadlines, and project information organized
- Coordinate with Puzzle Lab team members and outside creative contributors
- Track campaign results and provide concise, useful reporting
- Help document repeatable marketing processes and workflows
Social Media Direction & Collaboration
- Provide the Social Media Manager with clear campaign priorities, messaging, brand guidance, and creative briefs
- Collaborate on social media calendars and identify opportunities for timely, playful, and relevant content
- Ensure social-media activity supports product launches, email campaigns, partnerships, events, and other marketing priorities
- Identify stories, products, artists, partnerships, and behind-the-scenes moments that can be developed into social content
- Use channel insights to improve future content direction
- Help create photos, videos, graphics, or copy when a campaign requires additional support
Content & Creative Production
- Write and edit website copy, email content, advertisements, presentations, campaign messaging, and sales materials
- Create brand-aligned graphics and marketing assets using Canva and/or Adobe Creative Suite
- Develop polished PDFs one-pagers & promotional materials
- Produce or coordinate photography and short-form video for campaigns
- Adapt creative assets for digital, social, email, and print formats
- Maintain a consistent brand voice and visual identity across channels
- Organize marketing assets so they can be easily reused by internal team members and contractors
Email, Website & Digital Marketing
- Develop and distribute email campaigns to Puzzle Lab’s 17,000+ subscribers
- Help rebuild and maintain key email automations, including subscriber-welcome and post-purchase sequences
- Update and refine Puzzle Lab’s Shopify website, including product, corporate sales, and landing page content
- Apply practical SEO principles when creating and updating website content
- Coordinate messaging and campaign timing across email, website, and social media
- Assist with campaign tracking through links, promotional codes, and channel-level reporting
- Identify insights and opportunities based on customer-engagement and campaign data
Partnerships, Outreach & Brand Activation
- Research potential partners, influencers, bloggers, publications, and community organizations
- Coordinate thoughtful product-gifting and collaboration opportunities
- Help tell the stories behind Puzzle Lab’s sponsorships, donations, artists, and community partnerships
- Support corporate and bulk-gifting outreach with research, messaging, and sales materials
- Help develop playful, memorable campaigns that feel unmistakably like Puzzle Lab
- Contribute ideas and feedback as Puzzle Lab’s brand voice and marketing approach continue to evolve
Preferred Skills
- Strong writing and editing skills, with the ability to adapt tone for email, web, social, print, and business audiences
- Experience coordinating campaigns across multiple marketing channels
- Ability to turn broad goals into useful briefs, timelines, deliverables, and creative direction
- Experience collaborating with or directing social media managers, designers, photographers, videographers, or other creative contributors
- The ability to give clear, thoughtful, and constructive creative feedback
- A keen eye for design and the ability to create attractive, brand-aligned materials
- Proficiency with Canva and/or Adobe Creative Suite, particularly Illustrator or InDesign
- Experience creating or directing photography and short-form video
- Experience with email marketing platforms and automated customer journeys
- Comfort updating Shopify or a comparable e-commerce platform
- Working knowledge of Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other relevant social channels
- Familiarity with practical SEO, campaign tracking, and marketing analytics
- Strong organizational, project-management, and follow-through skills
- Ability to independently manage agreed deliverables while collaborating effectively with a small team
- Playful, curious energy that aligns with Puzzle Lab’s brand and values
- Good judgment and comfort working in a creative, fast-moving small-business environment
Preferred Qualifications
- Three or more years of hands-on experience in marketing, communications, content, brand coordination, or a related area
- A portfolio demonstrating relevant writing, design, campaign, or creative-direction work
- Experience supporting an e-commerce, consumer-product, retail, arts, or lifestyle brand is considered an asset
- Experience coordinating freelancers or external creative partners is considered an asset
- Previous experience providing services as an independent contractor is considered an asset
- Formal training in marketing, communications, graphic design, or a related field is welcome but not required
Equivalent hands-on experience is equally welcome.
What You Can Expect
Puzzle Lab offers a truly unique working culture, and we’re excited to share that with the right person. We’re an eclectic crew of creatives, designers, musicians, and performers, and we’re deeply connected to various facets of Victoria’s artistic scene. We are passionate, compassionate, and care deeply about what we do.
We’re looking for an adaptable collaborator who enjoys making ideas real, can keep multiple contributors moving in the same direction, and wants to contribute meaningfully to our growing company.
Here’s what you can expect from the engagement:
- A collaborative, supportive, and highly creative working environment
- The opportunity to shape visible campaigns and contribute to a growing Canadian brand
- An existing Social Media Manager to collaborate with on channel execution and content
- Approximately 16–24 hours per week, generally across two or three days
- A contract rate of $40–$48 per hour, depending on experience
- Clear priorities, agreed deliverables, and regular planning check-ins
- A discount on Puzzle Lab and select third-party products
- The possibility of extending or expanding the engagement following the initial term, depending on business needs, results, and mutual agreement
As an independent contractor, you will be responsible for your own income-tax, GST, insurance, and other obligations associated with self-employment. The contractor will provide their own reliable laptop and ordinary business equipment. Puzzle Lab will provide access to the company accounts, assets, systems, and software required for the engagement.
We’re seeking a solid, like-minded person to help us bring more creativity, consistency, and momentum to Puzzle Lab’s marketing. Could it be you? If you’re an organized marketing generalist who knows how to bring people, channels, and ideas together, we want to hear from you!
How to Apply
Please apply through our online application with:
- Your resume or LinkedIn profile
- A portfolio or links to two or three relevant examples of your work
- A brief introduction telling us about your experience and why Puzzle Lab interests you
- A short example of a campaign or project in which you coordinated other creative contributors
- Your general availability and preferred weekly commitment
- Your anticipated hourly rate within the posted range
Your introduction can be short and informal. We’re more interested in what you’ve made, how you work with others, and why this engagement appeals to you than in a traditional cover letter. Please do not create unpaid speculative work for your application. Existing examples are perfect.
Puzzle Lab is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming working environment and values diversity in our organization. We welcome applications from qualified contractors of all backgrounds.
Engagement Details
Location: Puzzle Lab’s headquarters in Victoria, British Columbia
Department: Sales & Marketing
Engagement Type: Initial five-month independent contractor engagement
Estimated Commitment: Approximately 16–24 hours per week
Contract Rate: $40–$48 per hour, depending on experience
Equipment: Contractor-provided laptop; Puzzle Lab will provide access to required company systems and software
Anticipated Start Date: October 2026, or as mutually agreed
Primary Contact: CEO & Co-founder: Tinka Robev
