AI & CRM Strategist

We're America's #1 online nursery. We pioneered the concept of farm-to-backyard plants & made it possible to grow happier, healthier, and more accessible plants than the garden center or big box store. What sets us apart? We're as close to the farm as it gets. Our plants are sourced from the best growers across the country, cared for by our in-house Plant Experts. A taste of our scale and reach: 2+ million customers and growing 25,000+ trees shipped a day About the team We are looking for someone who is passionate about driving sustainable growth and helping millions of customers find the perfect plants for their outdoor spaces. You'll join a high-performing, data-driven marketing team focused on customer acquisition and retention. We value innovation, collaboration, and a customer-first mindset. As part of the retention pod, you'll work closely with the Director of Retention and cross-functional partners to build lifelong relationships with our customers. We consider ourselves growth innovators, with diverse backgrounds from top consumer brands. Our mandate is to move beyond transactional marketing and build the systems, programs, and experiences that maximize the lifetime value (LTV) of our community. We value strategic innovators who use data, creativity, and technology to deepen customer engagement and advocacy. About the role We’re hiring for trajectory and strategic impact. This role is the essential bridge between data, technology, and customer value creation. You will start as the steward of our automated communications engine, but your core mission is to evolve that engine into a dynamic, learning system that proactively nurtures customer equity. You will not just execute campaigns; you’ll instrument, analyze, and optimize the entire customer journey to identify key drivers of LTV. You are the person who sees a repetitive task and designs an intelligent system, freeing up capacity to tackle complex problems like predictive churn, segment-specific value journeys, and personalized engagement models. This role is designed to grow from operational excellence into channel strategy and customer lifecycle ownership. Key Responsibilities Your core mission is to ensure no customer is left on autopilot. You will work alongside the Director of Retention to leverage our marketing stack and customer data to build intelligent, responsive, and value-driven touchpoints that make every customer feel uniquely understood, leading to greater loyalty, higher repeat purchase rates, and increased customer lifetime value. Systems & Automation Architecture: Design, build, and maintain sophisticated automated workflows that respond to customer behavior and lifecycle stage. Proactively identify and eliminate manual processes through automation and agentic workflows (n8n, Zapier, Claude, ChatGPT, etc), focusing the team’s energy on high-value strategic work. Data-Informed Journey Orchestration: Move beyond batch-and-blast. Use customer data (purchase history, engagement, preferences) to build dynamic segments and personalized journey paths. Your goal is to deliver the right message, at the right time, to maximize perceived value and next-order probability. Performance Stewardship & LTV Optimization: Work alongside the Director to own the daily performance dashboard for retention channels. Don’t just report opens and clicks—analyze how campaign interactions correlate with customer health scores, repeat purchase rates, and aggregate LTV. Propose and execute contingency plans to defend and grow retention revenue. Strategic Testing & Learning Plan Support: Partner with cross-functionals to design rigorous A/B tests. Impact and downstream metrics like customer retention rate, order frequency and average order value mean more to you than just metrics and you ensure tests are built to learn what truly moves the LTV needle. Cross-Functional Value Alignment: Act as a liaison between Creative, Merchandising, and Marketing. Consider every campaign launch’s impact on broader business goals (e.g., promoting high-LTV plant categories, supporting seasonal retention plays). Insight Synthesis & Strategic Input: Conduct post-campaign analysis that asks, "What does this tell us about our customers?" Synthesize data from campaigns, CRM, and site behavior to surface insights that inform our understanding of customer segments and their value drivers. Your Skills and Mindset Builder's Mindset: You are energized by creating order from chaos. You see a manual process and your first instinct is to ask, "How can we systemize this?" Ownership Mentality: You don't just complete tasks; you seek to understand the why behind them and look for ways to improve the outcome. You take pride in the quality and efficiency of your work. Analytical & Data-Curious: You have a natural curiosity for what numbers are telling you. You're comfortable in Excel/Sheets (formulas, pivots) and eager to learn data tools to move from reporting what happened to suggesting why it happened. Detail-Oriented Executor: Exceptionally organized with a relentless focus on accuracy and the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced environment. Proactive Problem-Solver: A low-ego, collaborative teammate who communicates clearly and takes initiative to solve problems before they elevate. Growth-Oriented Learner: Foundational knowledge of CRM and lifecycle marketing principles, with a strong desire to master them. A plus if you have a budding interest in plants, gardening, and DTC e-commerce! What you should have 1-3 years of experience in marketing operations, e-commerce, analytics, or a similar role where you systematized tasks or worked with data. Working knowledge of email/SMS marketing platforms (like Klaviyo), project management tools (like Monday.com) and collaborative creation platforms (like Figma) is required. Exposure to or interest in workflow automation tools (n8n, Zapier) and data visualization is a bonus. A bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Analytics, or a related field is preferred. Not sure if you meet all the qualifications? We’re not sure if you meet all the qualifications? If you’re a process-obsessed, data-curious problem-solver who gets excited by making things run better—not just by executing tasks—we strongly encourage you to apply. We are hiring for potential and mindset. Fast Growing Trees, LLC values diversity and is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. #J-18808-Ljbffr Fast Growing Trees