Customer Journey Manager

Role Description

We are looking for an AI-native, execution-minded Customer Journey Manager to own lifecycle and retention performance across key customer and prospect journeys. This role sits at the intersection of lifecycle marketing, retention marketing, CRM, customer journey orchestration, marketing automation, and omni-channel customer engagement.

This role is focused on recovering and converting leads who do not enroll on the first pass. You will own strategy, execution, and optimization across cross-channel journeys that re-engage dropped leads, improve customer experience, accelerate sales contact, and drive incremental business impact.

This is not a narrow campaign management role. It is a high-agency operator role for someone who can both run the work and improve how the work gets done. You will build and optimize campaigns, journeys, and tests across channels, while also strengthening the underlying processes, tools, workflows, and cross-functional orchestration that make lifecycle marketing faster, smarter, and more effective over time.

Our team operates like a high-performing in-house agency within the broader organization. That means this role offers real ownership, high autonomy, broad visibility, direct access to leadership, and the opportunity to help shape how modern lifecycle marketing gets done here.

The right candidate combines lifecycle marketing craft, direct response instincts, experimentation rigor, platform adaptability, and unusually high personal agency. They do not wait around for a task list. They identify opportunities, figure things out, build better ways of working, and use AI and modern tooling in practical ways to improve performance, customer experience, speed, and operational efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Lifecycle Strategy, Campaigns & Journey Performance:
  • Own lifecycle and retention strategy for key prospect and customer journeys, with emphasis on re-engagement, win-back, and funnel recovery.
  • Build, launch, and optimize cross-channel campaigns across email, SMS, direct mail, landing pages, chat, and related lifecycle touchpoints.
  • Develop messaging, segmentation, sequencing, decision logic, offers, and testing plans to improve engagement, contact, conversion, and retention.
  • Analyze funnel drop-off points, customer behavior, and journey performance to identify the highest-impact optimization opportunities.
  • Drive measurable business outcomes, not just channel activity.
  • Ensure journeys are thoughtfully designed to balance performance optimization with customer experience optimization.
• Journey Operations, Tools & Orchestration:
  • Improve the processes, workflows, briefs, handoffs, QA, and operating rhythms that support journey execution.
  • Help build a stronger orchestration layer across tools, teams, data, channels, and service partners.
  • Coordinate effectively across internal teams including Creative, Brand, Product, Engineering, Analytics, Legal, Compliance, Sales, and channel owners.
  • Work with external agencies and partners where needed to expand execution capacity and improve outcomes.
  • Identify friction, inefficiency, and outdated manual work, then improve, automate, or replace it.
  • Create structure where there is ambiguity and keep work moving without waiting for perfect process or direction.
• AI-Native Marketing & Process Improvement:
  • Use AI tools to accelerate campaign planning, journey design, copy development, QA, reporting, analysis, and workflow execution.
  • Apply AI to improve both marketing performance and operational efficiency.
  • Prototype practical, lightweight solutions when the ideal tool, workflow, or system does not yet exist.
  • Leverage automation and lightweight build tools where appropriate to remove bottlenecks and solve practical workflow problems.
  • Continuously evaluate better ways of working and help evolve the team into a more modern, high-leverage lifecycle function.
• Performance Tracking, Analytics & Insight:
  • Monitor key lifecycle and retention KPIs including engagement, reactivation, conversion, incremental lift, and overall business impact.
  • Translate data into clear recommendations, priorities, and next steps.
  • Build and maintain a disciplined test-and-learn approach across audience, message, timing, cadence, channel, and offer.
  • Partner with analytics and leadership to prioritize the highest-value opportunities.
  • Communicate strategy, performance, insights, and recommendations clearly to stakeholders and senior leadership.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, or a related field is preferred, but not required.
• Relevant experience, demonstrated capability, and a strong track record of results will be considered in place of formal education requirements.
• 4+ years of experience in lifecycle marketing, retention marketing, CRM, customer journey management, customer engagement, or marketing automation.
• Strong experience building and optimizing automated customer journeys that drive measurable business outcomes.
• Experience executing cross-channel programs across email, SMS, direct mail, landing pages, chat, or similar lifecycle touchpoints.
• Experience building and optimizing journeys in customer engagement platforms, ESPs, or marketing automation platforms.
• Experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud is preferred, not required; hands-on experience with modern omni-channel customer engagement platforms such as Braze, Cordial, Klaviyo, or similar tools is strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting platform migration, implementation, or transition across ESPs or customer engagement platforms is a plus.
• Experience in direct response, lead generation, or sales-assisted conversion environments.
• Experience in financial services, lending, debt relief, or another regulated marketing environment.
• Familiarity with SMS strategy, consent requirements, and compliance-sensitive messaging environments.
• Experience with landing page optimization, chat or conversational marketing, and lead reactivation programs.

Requirements

• Strong direct response and conversion instincts.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, diagnose problems, and prioritize opportunities.
• Demonstrated history of high personal agency and end-to-end ownership; able to identify problems, create momentum, and drive solutions without heavy direction.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments where not all processes, tools, or requirements are fully defined.
• Strong builder mentality; comfortable creating practical, lightweight workflows and systems to solve business problems.
• Hands-on experience using AI and modern workflow tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Figma, Sigma, and similar platforms to accelerate research, planning, analysis, workflow automation, QA, and rapid prototyping.
• Comfort leveraging AI, automation, and lightweight build tools to streamline workflows, remove bottlenecks, and solve execution problems.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams at once.
• Exceptional cross-functional communication, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills; able to build trust and drive coordinated execution across Creative, Brand, Product, Engineering, Analytics, Legal, Compliance, Sales, and external partners.

Benefits

• Generous Medical, Dental, and Vision Benefits
• 401(k) with Company Match
• Paid Holidays, Volunteer Time Off, Sick Days, and Vacation
• 12 weeks Paid Parental Leave
• Pre-tax Transit Benefits
• No-Cost Life Insurance Benefits
• Voluntary Benefits Options
• ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Discount
• Wellness Incentive Program