Senior Manager, Gift Cards & Loyalty

Job Description:
Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.
If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth – join Kobo and come help us on our mission of making reading lives better.
The Role:
Rakuten Kobo is looking for a Senior Manager, Gift Cards & Loyalty to lead the strategy and growth of two important areas of our business: Gift Cards and VIP/Rewards/Loyalty.
This role will own the commercial strategy, roadmap and performance of Kobo’s global gift card business, while developing and evolving our approach to VIP, rewards and customer loyalty.
The focus is on building programs that create measurable value for both customers and Kobo, growing gift card revenue and distribution, strengthening our customer value proposition, and giving readers more reasons to choose, engage with and stay with Kobo.
This is a strategic and commercial role that will work closely across Ecommerce, Product, Finance, Technology, Marketing, Partnerships, Data and Customer Care to bring programs to market and continuously improve their performance.
What You’ll Do
Gift Cards
Own the global Gift Card strategy, roadmap and commercial performance across digital, physical and partner channels.
Develop and execute plans to grow gift card sales, distribution, activation and redemption.
Identify new growth opportunities across retail, digital, corporate/B2B and strategic partnerships.
Build strategies around key gifting occasions and identify opportunities to make gift cards a stronger customer acquisition and revenue channel.
Improve the end-to-end gifting experience, from discovery and purchase through delivery and redemption.
Evaluate new products, partnerships, distribution models and market expansion opportunities.
Establish clear KPIs and reporting across sales, margin, activation, redemption, customer acquisition and incremental revenue.
Partner with Finance, Legal, Product, Technology and Operations on program governance, compliance and execution.
VIP, Rewards & Loyalty
Own and evolve Kobo’s VIP, rewards and loyalty strategy, including the long-term vision, customer proposition and roadmap.
Evaluate the current VIP program and identify opportunities to improve its customer appeal, engagement and commercial impact.
Develop new loyalty and rewards concepts that strengthen the value of being a Kobo customer.
Explore opportunities across rewards, benefits, recognition, status, exclusive experiences, partnerships and other loyalty mechanics.
Develop strategies that recognize and reward Kobo’s most valuable and engaged customers.
Use customer insights, behavioural data and competitive research to understand what customers value and where Kobo can differentiate.
Develop business cases and test-and-learn plans for new loyalty initiatives before scaling.
Establish a clear measurement framework across membership, engagement, retention, frequency, incremental revenue, margin and customer value.
Ensure rewards and incentives are driving incremental behaviour and sustainable economics.
Strategy & Commercial Leadership
Own the overall strategy, business planning and performance of the Gift Cards and Loyalty portfolio.
Build annual and multi-year roadmaps, identifying the highest-value opportunities and investment requirements.
Develop financial models and business cases for new programs, partnerships and capabilities.
Track market and competitive trends across gifting, membership, rewards and loyalty to identify emerging opportunities.
Work cross-functionally to translate strategy into executable programs and customer experiences.
Partner with CRM, Ecommerce and other marketing teams on the promotion and activation of Gift Card and Loyalty programs, without owning those channels.
Balance global consistency with market-specific customer, regulatory and commercial needs.
What You Bring
7-10+ years of experience in loyalty, rewards, membership, gift cards, partnerships, ecommerce, digital commerce or consumer strategy.
2+ years of people management experience leading and developing direct reports
Experience developing or managing loyalty, rewards, membership, gift card or similar consumer program.
Strong commercial orientation with experience owning revenue, margin or other business performance metrics.
Experience developing customer propositions, program strategies, and business cases.
Strong understanding of loyalty economics, customer behaviour and incremental value.
Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn customer and commercial data into clear strategic recommendations.
Experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives across Product, Technology, Finance and Marketing.
Comfortable operating at both the strategic and executional level — from defining a multi-year vision to getting new programs into market.
Experience working across multiple markets or regions is an asset.
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
What Success Looks Like
You will turn Gift Cards and VIP/Rewards/Loyalty into stronger, more deliberate commercial growth levers for Kobo. For Gift Cards, that means expanding distribution, improving customer experience and growing profitable revenue. For VIP and Loyalty, it means creating a differentiated customer proposition that rewards our best customers, strengthens their relationship with Kobo and demonstrably increases engagement, retention and customer value.
The Perks:
Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
Subsidized in-office lunches
Four extended long weekends in the summer
Full benefits starting from your first day
Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
Work From Anywhere Program for up to 3 months (90 days)
Lifestyle spending account
Talent and development training budget
Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
Weekly Kobo Spark sessions
Maternity/paternity leave top up
Dog friendly office
About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is the world’s digital bookseller created by and for booklovers. Owned by Tokyo-ba