About Us
The Athletic is a digital sports media company that brings true sports fans closer to the athletes, teams and leagues that captivate their attention. We serve a multi-faceted audience that craves a richer connection and understanding with immersive storytelling and a like-minded community of fans. Founded in 2016 and with major operational hubs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Melbourne, we empower a truly global team of more than 600 creators and cover more than 250 professional sports and collegiate teams across the United States, Canada and the UK. Our newsroom has produced thousands of in-depth reports along with more than 120 podcasts and other forms of premium content. Put simply, The Athletic is at the center of a sports fan’s universe.
About the Role
Our subscription business has grown rapidly over the past few years, driven by our investment in high quality content and an enthusiastic user base. The Athletic is seeking a Principal CRM Marketing Strategist to join our team and take our CRM initiatives to the next level.
In this role, you will play a pivotal role in managing and enhancing our CRM programs. You will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of CRM marketing, from strategy development to execution and analysis. This role will lead and coordinate various CRM initiatives and high-impact programs to convert, engage and retain subscribers throughout their lifecycle as well as drive engagement and conversion from our registered users, ensuring a seamless and personalized customer experience.
You’ll be working closely with our team of CRM rockstars who lead the various projects and strategies for each of these core goals as well as cross-functionally with many teams across the organization, including editorial, design, engineering, analytics, and marketing, to define and implement innovative engagement initiatives that cater to the specific needs and interests of our sports-loving users.
The ideal candidate is a customer-centric, data driven marketer with an entrepreneurial spirit and successful history leading and managing impactful CRM programs that drive the business forward through optimization and experimentation.
This role will be remote for candidates located in the United States or Canada only.
Responsibilities
- Play a pivotal role in developing and refining our CRM marketing strategy to align with company objectives, with a focus on fostering relationships with our users, increasing conversions, and recovering churned users across email, newsletters, and in-app channels.
- Act as a project manager for our CRM team, ensuring the timely delivery of projects that contribute to key company goals, executed with precision and efficiency.
- Identify fresh opportunities for automation, personalization, and improved user journeys through journey mapping, audience segmentation, testing roadmaps (including multivariate and A/B testing), benchmarking, and regular performance reporting.
- Oversee the complete user journey, ensuring a seamless experience across vital user lifecycle workflows, including onboarding, lifecycle management, and churn reduction.
- Analyze user data and behaviors to uncover opportunities for optimizing CRM campaigns and enhancing user experiences.
- Develop and execute a project roadmap for CRM initiatives in close collaboration with key stakeholders.
- Lead experimentation across the team, establishing best practices for evaluating experiments and integrating learnings effectively.
- Evaluate, implement, and manage CRM tools, processes, and platforms to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.
- Define and monitor KPIs to gauge the success of CRM initiatives, regularly reporting on progress.
- Comfortably lead and present in meetings involving multiple stakeholders, including leadership, and stay updated on industry trends and exemplary user experiences, particularly in subscription media products.
- Take charge of overall email list health and uphold domain reputation and deliverability across all email campaigns.
- Ensure all CRM activities adhere to relevant data privacy and compliance regulations.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and Analytics teams to lead extensive and complex data-driven projects that empower CRM to target users effectively through automated and triggered touchpoints.
- Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Analytics, Marketing, Design, Data Science, and Engineering teams on email strategy, execution, testing, and technical integrations across various channels.
Requirements
- 8+ years experience planning, executing, and analyzing marketing automation campaigns, with a strong focus on email and newsletter marketing at a fast-growing consumer company (subscription business is a big plus).
- B2C experience is highly preferable, but will consider B2B.
- Strong understanding of user engagement strategies.
- Familiarity with sports media landscape, including trends, fan behavior, and content consumption patterns as well as subscription-based business models is a plus.
- Showcase robust leadership and team management competencies, including a track record of effectively leading cross-functional teams or spearheading projects spanning various departments.
- Excel in project management, exhibiting exceptional organizational and communication skills. You balance meticulous attention to detail with nimble execution across a diverse array of initiatives.
- Possess an entrepreneurial mindset and leadership acumen, with a proactive approach to identifying opportunities for impact, the confidence to make data-driven recommendations and decisions, and a readiness to act without being asked.
- Display strong analytical skills, capable of crafting high-impact CRM strategies and campaigns driven by data insights.
- Exhibit experience in leading A/B testing initiatives, messaging optimization, and post-campaign analysis.
- Working knowledge of HTML.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
The annual base salary range for this role is $120,000.00 - $140,000.00 USD. The total compensation offered for this position may vary based on factors such as education, experience, skills, and location. It may also include non-cash rewards and benefits. The base salary range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.
The Athletic offers unique perks and benefits to all full-time employees based on their country of residence. Our comprehensive US benefits package includes:
- Highly competitive, employer-contributed medical, dental, vision, basic life and disability insurance plans.
- Savings accounts for medical, wellness, and childcare expenses.
- 401k retirement savings plan and employer match.
- Paid time off including paid sick leave, 12 paid holidays, 15 days of accrued vacation to start, and up to 20 weeks of Paid Parental Leave.
For international candidates: Our global benefits packages offer similar benefits and perks, competitive to the local market.
The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
Click here to review our Applicant Privacy Notice, which describes how and when The Athletic Media Company collects, uses, and shares certain personal information of job applicants and prospective employees.
Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes! Our recruiters use [email protected] exclusively. We do not conduct interviews via text or instant message and we do not ask candidates to download software, to purchase equipment through us, or to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as bank accounts or social security numbers. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be a recruiter with The Athletic but operating from a different email address about a job offer, please report it as potential job fraud to the law enforcement and to [email protected]. 
