X, formerly known as Twitter, resumes hiring for brand partnership roles

The roles sit in the X Next and X Next Lab teams, according to PDF documents detailing the open positions obtained by Campaign US, as well as LinkedIn posts by current employees. 

The X Next team “produces creative marketing executions that are audience-led, insights-driven, measurable, on-brand and creative, ultimately leading to a memorable experience for people on X,” according to the LinkedIn profile of Jamie Michaels, head of brand strategy, X Next, Canada & U.S. 

X Next Lab is described as the team “where innovation happens for our advertisers,” according to a PDF document detailing the requirements for the open program coordinator position. 

“We are a team of technologists, producers and data scientists hungry to build new ideas in partnership with X’s most talked about brands. We’re endlessly curious creators looking for new ways to tell stories, prototype new products and ideas and push the limits for how audiences experience Twitter in the real world,” the document says. 

The news of open roles has been shared primarily through LinkedIn posts from X employees. X’s career page remains largely empty, except for an email address: [email protected]. 

The hiring efforts come as X seeks to bring advertisers back to the platform, following owner Elon Musk’s public change of heart about advertising on CNBC in May and his hiring of NBCU Ad Sales vet Linda Yaccarino as CEO that same month. 

Under her leadership, X has introduced brand safety efforts to ease advertisers’ concerns, including new sensitivity controls and a one-year deal with Integral Ad Science, which creates ad-verification technology that helps determine where to place ads in brand-safe contexts.

X has also appealed to creators by rolling out an ads revenue sharing program, which gives those who meet certain criteria a payout in the form of a percentage of ad revenue. 

On Wednesday, the company launched an initiative offering a one-time ad credit of $250 to select businesses that spend $1,000 or more on new ad campaigns over the next 30 days.

The efforts to rebuild X’s marketing and advertising teams come as the company's ad sales declined an estimated 59% in June, compared to the same time last year. 

The team expansion also follows a tumultuous leadership transition following Twitter’s sale to Musk in October 2022, which resulted in thousands of layoffs at the beginning of the year, including the majority of its communications team. 

Twitter’s auto-reply to [email protected] was notoriously changed to the poop emoji after Musk took over. Now, however, X is turning a new page with a new auto-reply that says “We’ll get back to you soon.” 

Meanwhile, brands and advertisers continue to take a “wait and see” approach to the platform as they remain uncertain of its future direction. Others have suspended advertising after appearing alongside unsafe content. 

X did not reply to requests for comment in time for publication.