Director of Lifecycle & Growth Marketing

Description

Job Status: Exempt (Salaried)

Reports To: VP of Marketing & Data Strategy

Supervises: None

Who We Are: At Central One, our values are to Deliver Exceptional Service, Work as a Team, Have Fun, and the Credit Union philosophy of People Helping People; all while striving to be C.E.N.T.R.A.L. One Ambassadors. CENTRAL stands for Caring, Enthusiastic, Nimble, Team-Oriented, Resilient, Altruistic and Loyal. At the core of our values lies a commitment to our community, members, and employees, with a focus on overall well-being.

The Director of Lifecycle & Growth Marketing leads deposit and member growth by delivering the right message to the right member at the right time, across every digital channel and every stage of the member relationship. This role owns how Central One attracts new members, welcomes and onboards them, deepens relationships, and keeps members engaged for the long term.

This is a strategic and highly technical B2C digital marketing leader who is still hands-on. The Director sets the lifecycle and digital growth strategy and builds and runs always-on member journeys that listen for behaviors and life moments, powered by CRM, marketing automation, and AI-enabled automation. The role owns the lifecycle and digital marketing technology stack, uses data to segment and personalize, and measures everything against business outcomes such as funded accounts, deposit balances, and products per member.

Working closely with Enterprise Data & AI Governance, IT, Retail, Lending, Member Experience, and Compliance, the Director turns Central One’s growth strategy into programs that perform, starting where we are today and building toward AI-enabled, personalized engagement.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Growth Strategy and Leadership

Set the direction for how marketing drives member and deposit growth.

• Lead the lifecycle and digital growth strategy as a core part of Central One’s enterprise growth strategy, translating organizational goals into marketing targets, programs, and a multi-year roadmap.
• Own the lifecycle and digital marketing budget, allocating spend across channels and programs based on performance and return.
• Serve as Central One’s subject matter expert on B2C digital marketing, CRM, and marketing automation, advising the VP/Leadership Team.
•  Lead, coach, and develop marketing staff as assigned, and raise the digital and analytical capabilities of the broader marketing team.
• Partner with senior leaders across Retail, Lending, Member Experience, IT, and Finance to align growth priorities and remove barriers.

2. Lifecycle Strategy and Member Journeys

Engage members across their entire relationship with Central One.

• Design and own the member lifecycle strategy across acquisition, onboarding, growth, retention, and re-engagement.
• Map member journeys and identify the moments that matter, such as account opening, direct deposit setup, loan payoff, certificate maturity, life events, and signs of disengagement.
• Build always-on, trigger-based journeys that respond to member behavior with the right message, offer, or guidance at the right time.
• Develop onboarding programs that help new members get set up, use their accounts, and add the products that meet their needs.
• Build cross-sell and relationship-deepening programs that grow deposits and products per member, focused on member needs rather than rate alone.
• Create retention and win-back programs that spot early signs of attrition or dormancy and act before members leave

3. CRM, Segmentation, and Member Data

Know our members well enough to be relevant.

• Own the marketing CRM and member data used for targeting, segmentation, and personalization.
• Build and maintain member segments and audiences based on behavior, product holdings, life stage, channel preference, and value.
• Partner with the Enterprise Data & AI Governance and Data Engineering to integrate data from the core, digital banking, and other systems, and to follow enterprise data definitions and standards.
• Manage consent, preferences, and opt-outs across channels in line with privacy and regulatory requirements.
• Use propensity, next best product, and engagement scoring to prioritize audiences and offers as data capabilities mature.

4. Marketing Automation and AI-Enabled Orchestration

Scale personalization without adding headcount.

• Own the marketing automation platform, including journey builds, triggers, dynamic content, testing, and deliverability.
• Identify, pilot, and scale AI-enabled automation for content generation, personalization, send-time and channel optimization, and audience prediction, through the enterprise AI governance intake process.
• Build reusable templates, modular content, and workflows that let a small team run sophisticated programs.
• Document journeys, logic, and processes so programs are maintainable and auditable.

5. Omnichannel Digital Marketing

Be an expert across every digital channel and know how they work together.

• Lead lifecycle and campaign execution across email, SMS, push and in-app messaging in online and mobile banking, website personalization, and direct mail triggered by digital behavior.
• Oversee paid digital acquisition, including paid search, paid social, display, programmatic, and geofencing, in partnership with agency partners: set strategy, budgets, audiences, and targets, and hold partners to cost per funded account.
• Partner on search engine and generative AI search optimization so Central One shows up when people in our communities look for financial products.
• Coordinate channels so members get a connected experience, not competing messages.

6. Acquisition and Conversion

Make it easy to say yes to Central One.

• Own the digital acquisition funnel from first visit through funded account, including landing pages, offers, and online application experience.
• Analyze application abandonment and partner with Lending, Member Experience, and IT to reduce friction and increase completion.
• Build follow-up journeys for abandoned applications and unfunded accounts.

7. Measurement, Testing, and Optimization

Hold every program accountable to business outcomes.

• Define and report KPIs tied to growth: new members, funded accounts, deposit balances, products per member, retention, cost per funded account, and return on marketing spend.
• Report engagement with metrics that matter, such as click-to-open, conversion, and journey completion, rather than vanity metrics.
• Run a disciplined test-and-learn program sized to the team’s capacity, including holdout groups to measure the true lift of lifecycle programs.
• Partner with Marketing analytics and Enterprise Data & AI Governance on attribution, dashboards, and consistent metric definitions.
• Share results and recommendations with the VP/Leadership Team, and use findings to improve programs continuously.

8. Marketing Technology and Partners

Build a stack that works for a credit union our size.

• Own the lifecycle and digital marketing technology roadmap, including CRM, marketing automation, SMS, personalization, and tracking tools.
• Evaluate, select, and implement platforms and integrations with IT, considering cost, fit, data security, and ease of use.
• Manage agency and vendor relationships, including scopes, budgets, performance, and accountability.
• Make sure tracking, tagging, and conversion measurement are accurate across channels and journeys.

9. Compliance and Collaboration

• Make sure all programs follow applicable regulations and policies, including Truth in Savings, UDAAP, CAN-SPAM, TCPA, GLBA privacy, and fair lending, and route materials through Compliance review.
• Partner with Retail, Lending, Member Experience, and Community Relations so digital journeys and frontline conversations reinforce each other.
• Bring a member-first mindset to every program: relevant, helpful, and respectful of how members want to hear from us.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serves as a community role model and participates in volunteer activities to support the People Helping People value and enhance the Credit Union’s visibility.
• Stay current on digital marketing, marketing technology, AI, and regulatory developments through reading, training, and professional development.
• Adhere to all applicable Credit Union policies, procedures, and regulations.
• Perform other duties as requested or assigned.

Pay Range: $96,000 - $124,000 per year, commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Schedule: This position is eligible for a hybrid work arrangement with a combination of in office and remote days upon completion of in-office training period. 

Requirements

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Experience: 8 to 10 years of B2C digital marketing experience, including at least 5 years leading lifecycle marketing, CRM, and marketing automation programs with direct ownership of growth results and budget, and experience leading teams and agency partners. Experience in a credit union, bank, fintech, insurance, or another subscription or relationship-based consumer business strongly preferred. Proven track record of building trigger-based journeys that measurably increased acquisition, engagement, or retention.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Expert, hands-on experience with marketing automation and CRM platforms (such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, Braze, Iterable, Marketo, or similar), including journey builds, segmentation, dynamic content, and deliverability.
• Expertise across digital channels: email, SMS, push and in-app, web personalization, paid search, paid social, display, and programmatic.
• Practical experience applying AI and automation to marketing, such as content generation, predictive audiences, and optimization, with sound judgment about data privacy and responsible use.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience in Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, and testing tools. SQL or comparable data skills strongly preferred.
• Experience with segmentation, journey mapping, and customer lifecycle frameworks.
• Experience managing agencies, vendors, and marketing budgets against performance targets.
• Working knowledge of marketing regulations, including CAN-SPAM, TCPA, and privacy requirements. Financial services regulations such as Truth in Savings and UDAAP a plus.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical programs and results simply to leaders and frontline staff.

Traits: A strategic leader and builder who is equally comfortable presenting to the leadership team and configuring a journey. Obsessed with the member experience and with results. Curious, data-driven, and disciplined about testing. Thrives on a small team, makes the most of limited resources, and creates structure where none exists. Collaborative and credible across departments, with a bias for action and a passion for helping members at the moments that matter.