Social Media Manager
Chicago, IL
Marketing & Growth /
Full-time /
Hybrid
We’re Tovala, a food-tech company reinventing home cooking to save consumers time. Through an innovative combination of hardware, software, and fresh food delivery, we make it incredibly simple for anyone to prepare and enjoy delicious, home-cooked meals without sacrificing time to do whatever matters to them. Through our superior technology, product experience and food quality, we have separated Tovala from the busy pack of other meal delivery businesses. In the process, we’ve amassed a loyal, rapidly growing following and our retention, product engagement and customer NPS are all best-in-class. We’ve raised over $100mm from great investors like Left Lane Capital, Origin Ventures, Y Combinator and Comcast Ventures and have invested strongly in building a unique culture that fosters growth, personal development and camaraderie.
Role Overview
Are you the kind of person who thinks in memes, screenshots hilarious comments for inspiration, and can sniff out the next big trend before it hits the For You Page? Keep reading. At Tovala, we don’t want a picture-perfect grid. We want to show up where the internet is already hanging out—messy, funny, real. That means less scheduling a month of aesthetic posts, and more jumping on trends while they’re hot, starting conversations out of nowhere, and making a microwave company feel shockingly human.
This role is for someone whose camera roll is a chaotic treasure trove of real-time content ideas, who reflexively jots down TikTok scripts while waiting for their coffee, and who gets a genuine thrill from inserting a brand into an unexpected cultural moment (and making it work).
We’re looking for someone who lives and breathes consumer culture. You’re naturally plugged into what’s happening online, care deeply about building community, and aren’t afraid to experiment wildly. If you find joy in connecting with real people, hopping on trends before they peak, and making content that feels like a friend dropping into your DMs, this role is for you.
How you will spend your time at Tovala:
- Craft and evolve platform-specific social strategies that align with brand goals
- Build out and manage a flexible content calendar—emphasis on flexible
- Optimize strategy for each platform (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), with a strong focus on native behaviors and trends
- Ideate, film, and publish social-first content in real time (phone-quality)
- Spot golden UGC, give it a glow-up, and brief the creative team on higher-production needs when necessary
- Perform light video and graphic editing (e.g., reels, stories, trending audio overlays)
- Capture behind-the-scenes and trend-driven content on the fly (phone-quality)
- Support our seeding, relationship-building, and content tracking efforts
- Jump into creator convos, hype their Tovala love in real-time, and flag the best stuff for the broader team to remix and reuse
- Recommend partners based on trends and cultural fit
- Speak in brand voice across comments, DMs, and spontaneous brand banter
- Proactively insert Tovala into the right conversations (memes, pop culture moments, etc) to grow reach and build community
- Keep your ear to the ground (social listening) to keep our finger on the pulse and surface insights, trends, and customer sentiment
- Track and analyze performance with native and third-party tools
- Share digestible, actionable insights with the broader team
- Surface community sentiment shifts and relevant feedback early and often
- Work closely with our creative, brand, and marketing teams to align on campaigns and key moments
- Contribute to launches and storytelling across channels
About you:
- 3–5 years running social for a brand or agency (bonus points if you’ve built a following or online voice yourself)
- Deep, slightly obsessive, knowledge of social platforms, trends, and content formats
- Strong writing and visual storytelling skills, with the instinct to adapt tone and format to each platform
- Comfort making quick-turn video and short-form content
- Experience working with influencers and creators
- Naturally proactive, detail-oriented, collaborative, and a little weird (in a good way)
- Basic understanding of social SEO, TikTok trends, and sentiment tracking
- Bonus: Experience with Sprout Social
The values we hold dear
Put the team first
We put what is best for the broader team ahead of what is best for ourselves or our immediate department.
Get s#!t done (well)
We celebrate people at all levels for delivering high impact work that expands the bounds of what we’re able to do.
Connect the dots
We engage with curiosity to learn how our work impacts others so that we can problem-solve holistically and work collaboratively.
Be Direct
We share our perspective openly and directly, even when it feels difficult to do so.
Embrace the obstacles
We rise to meet challenges with a sense of urgency, resolve, and optimism.
Champion the customer
We consider and prioritize our customer in all of our decisions
At Tovala we‘re committed to building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here!
