Director of Retention

Title: Director of Retention
Location: Remote | Chicago-area preferred
Ideal Start Date: ASAP / Flexible
About the Opportunity
ForceBrands is partnering with a high-growth consumer wellness brand to identify a Director of Retention who will take ownership of the company’s retention strategy and full post-purchase customer journey. This is a newly created, highly visible role for an experienced retention leader who wants the autonomy to build, not simply inherit and maintain, a retention program.
The Role:
The Director of Retention will own the customer experience from first purchase through long-term retention, bringing together lifecycle marketing, subscription strategy, customer insights, personalization, churn reduction, cross-selling, loyalty, and experimentation.
This individual will be expected to develop a clear point of view on the customer journey, identify where the greatest opportunities exist, and build and execute the roadmap to address them.
This is not solely an email marketing position. We are looking for someone who thinks holistically about retention, understands subscription economics, is highly analytical, and can translate customer behavior into actionable strategies.
What You’ll Own:
· Develop and lead the overall retention strategy and roadmap, prioritizing the initiatives with the greatest potential impact on customer retention and lifetime value
· Own the full post-purchase customer journey across onboarding, lifecycle communications, subscription, renewal, churn prevention, winback, and expansion
· Identify opportunities to improve early customer retention through stronger education, personalization, messaging, timing, and offer strategy
· Own subscription retention strategy, including churn, cohort performance, rebill survival, cancellation experiences, save offers, cadence, and plan structure
· Build personalized journeys based on customer behavior, products purchased, lifecycle stage, and other meaningful customer segments
· Develop cross-sell, referral, loyalty, gifting, and one-time-buyer-to-subscriber initiatives
· Lead email and SMS strategy with an emphasis on segmentation, customer education, personalization, and retention
· Analyze customer and warehouse data to identify trends, opportunities, and insights that can inform both retention strategy and broader business decisions
· Establish clear retention measurement and reporting while developing a disciplined approach to testing and experimentation
· Leverage AI tools to accelerate analysis, customer insights, content development, experimentation, and quality assurance
· Partner with internal creative resources and external support as needed while determining the capabilities required to scale the function
What We’re Looking For:
· 5+ years of experience across retention, lifecycle, CRM, or related functions, including at least 2 years directly owning retention outcomes
· Meaningful experience within a subscription-driven DTC business
· Experience within supplements, health and wellness, consumables, family-oriented products, or another relevant consumer category strongly preferred
· Hands-on expertise with Klaviyo, including flows, segmentation, campaign strategy, and lifecycle marketing
· Experience with subscription platforms such as Skio, Recharge, or similar tools
· Strong understanding of subscription economics and metrics including churn, cohort retention, rebill survival, save rates, and customer lifetime value
· Strong analytical capabilities with experience using customer data to build segments, identify behavioral patterns, and inform strategy
· Experience building, transforming, or significantly advancing a retention program
· Ability to operate strategically while remaining close enough to the work to execute in a lean environment
· Strong experimentation mindset with the ability to develop hypotheses, test initiatives, measure results, and apply learnings
· Comfort incorporating AI tools into day-to-day workflows and identifying new ways to improve efficiency and output
· Independent, accountable, and comfortable owning an important business function with limited day-to-day oversight

Work arrangement
Yes