Head of Acquisition (EMEA)

Uphold • Full-time • London, London, City of • 6h ago

About Uphold

Uphold is a global, crypto-forward fintech company powering next-generation financial services across on-chain payments, trading, and neobanking. Serving millions of users across more than 150 countries, Uphold has built a strong reputation for transparency, reliability and trust.

Unlike traditional crypto exchanges, Uphold is not built around a single, closed marketplace. Instead, it connects to multiple underlying exchanges and liquidity venues, enabling users to access deep, aggregated liquidity and competitive pricing without needing to manage multiple platforms. This architecture allows Uphold to focus on delivering a simpler, more resilient and user-centric experience, while abstracting away much of the complexity typically associated with crypto trading.

Uphold operates on a 100% reserve model, publishing real-time transparency into assets and liabilities, and prioritises strong compliance and regulatory standards across markets. With global reach, local payment rails, and a growing suite of consumer and institutional products, Uphold sits at the intersection of crypto and modern financial services, focused on long-term customer value, trust and meaningful engagement at scale.

The Role

We are looking for a Head of Acquisition (EMEA) to own and drive new customer growth across the EMEA region. This is a senior, high-impact role with end-to-end responsibility for acquisition strategy and delivery, accountable for driving step-change growth in new users through performance-led channels.

The role requires deep, hands-on experience running acquisition campaigns through media and creative agencies. You will be responsible for defining the acquisition strategy, translating it into clear media and creative briefs, and ensuring execution delivers against growth targets. This includes close, day-to-day collaboration with agency partners across planning, activation, optimisation and reporting. This is not a high-level sponsorship role - success depends on strong channel knowledge and active involvement in campaign delivery.

You will work in tight partnership with Country Heads and local market stakeholders to ensure acquisition strategies, media plans and creative executions are localised by market, compliant with regional regulatory requirements, and aligned with local customer behaviour and product availability. You will act as the central owner, balancing global scale with regional relevance.

The role is both strategic and executional. You will set direction, budgets and priorities, while also being deeply involved in channel performance, creative effectiveness and optimisation decisions across paid social, paid search and other performance channels.

This is a rare opportunity to make an outsized impact at a company that's redefining the future of finance. If you're energized by complex challenges, thrive in fast-paced environments, and have a track record of delivering results in crypto, we'd love to hear from you. Join us on the frontlines of the digital money revolution and help chart the course for Uphold's next chapter of growth.

Key Responsibilities

Own and lead the acquisition strategy for the EMEA region, with clear accountability for new customer growth
Deliver measurable, step-change increases in acquisition volume and efficiency
Build and brief media and creative agencies, ensuring strategies, plans and executions align with growth objectives
Actively manage agency partners across planning, execution, optimisation and performance reporting
Own performance across paid social channels (e.g. Meta, TikTok, X and emerging platforms), including audience strategy, creative testing frameworks, budget allocation and scaling decisions
Own performance across paid search channels (e.g. Google Search, App Campaigns, YouTube), including keyword strategy, bidding approaches and full-funnel optimisation
Oversee and own other performance channels where relevant (e.g. display, affiliates, programmatic), ensuring clear performance accountability, creative testing and optimisation, and budget allocation
Translate acquisition strategy into clear media plans, creative direction and testing roadmaps
Partner with Regional Heads and local teams to ensure creative and messaging are localised, culturally relevant and compliant with regional regulations
Work closely with Product, Data and Analytics teams to optimise acquisition funnels, landing pages and conversion performance
Own budgets, forecasting, CAC targets and performance reporting for EMEA acquisition
Drive continuous experimentation across audiences, creatives, formats, bids and channels
Ensure all acquisition activity complies with platform policies and regulatory requirements across EMEA and specific country needs

Skills & Competencies

Deep expertise in performance marketing and paid acquisition
Strong experience across paid social and paid search
Proven ability to scale acquisition efficiently across multiple markets
Strong commercial and analytical mindset
Experience managing significant paid media budgets
Excellent agency management and cross-functional collaboration skills
Clear, confident communicator with a results-first approach

Experience & Background

Significant experience and solid track record driving customer growth and 5+ years experience in senior acquisition or performance marketing roles
Experience in crypto strongly preferred; fintech or adjacent financial services acceptable
Demonstrated track record of delivering step-change growth in new customer acquisition
Experience owning acquisition strategy for EMEA or multi-market regions. EU regional experience highly desirable.
Hands-on experience with major performance platforms (e.g. Google, Meta and other paid social/search platforms)
Proven experience managing and scaling acquisition through external media and creative agencies
UK-based, with the ability to work hybrid from Uphold’s London office

Why Join Uphold?