Director of Direct Marketing & Subscription Strategy

System1•Los Angeles, CA

2d•$195,000 - $220,000•Onsite

About The Position

As the Director of Direct Marketing, you will serve as the chief architect of our subscription growth engine. This is a high-impact leadership role with full P&L ownership of a multi-million dollar budget. Reporting directly to the President & COO, you will be responsible for scaling a profitable subscriber base while maintaining a best-in-class LTV/CAC ratio. We are looking for a visionary leader who views direct marketing through a mathematical lens and a psychological filter. You will not just manage channels; you will engineer the entire subscriber lifecycle, leveraging AI tools and marketing automation to drive aggressive, sustainable growth. This position is an onsite role requiring you to work in our headquarters located at 4235 Redwood Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90066.

Requirements

visionary leader who views direct marketing through a mathematical lens and a psychological filter
experience with AI tools and marketing automation

Responsibilities

Maintain ultimate responsibility for the fiscal performance of direct marketing efforts, ensuring optimal allocation of spend to maximize ROI and Lifetime Value (LTV).
Develop rigorous monthly and quarterly financial models. You will provide the executive team with high-accuracy predictions regarding net subscriber growth, churn (voluntary/involuntary), and payback periods.
Lead the integration of AI tooling (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Sora, etc.) to streamline creative production, data synthesis, and campaign iteration, ensuring the team operates at the frontier of marketing technology.
Transform discrete touchpoints into a frictionless, high-conversion experience. You will guide the "story" of the customer from the first ad impression to the third year of renewal.
Spearhead collaborations with Product, Engineering, and UX teams to optimize sign-up flows and in-app engagement.
Architect sophisticated, data-driven retention loops and "win-back" sequences that leverage behavioral triggers to proactively mitigate churn.
Oversee the strategic roadmap for a multi-channel portfolio, including Email, SMS, Direct Mail, Paid Social (Meta, TikTok), and Referral programs.
Identify and prioritize new market entry points and emerging direct-response channels to accelerate global growth.
Design high-impact referral programs that leverage network effects to lower blended CPA.
Conduct in-depth A/B testing on pricing models (e.g., Annual vs. Monthly) and tiered service offerings to maximize long-term yield.
Design "intro" offers that attract high-intent subscribers, ensuring that short-term volume never comes at the expense of long-term retention profiles.
Recruit and lead a sophisticated team of managers and analysts, fostering a culture of intellectual curiosity and data-driven accountability.
Instill a rigorous testing philosophy across the departmentâwhere hypotheses are documented, failures are analyzed as lessons, and wins are scaled rapidly.
Serve as the vital bridge between complex data science and business objectives. You will translate raw metrics into a cohesive narrative for stakeholders.
Lead the philosophy for tracking performance in a post-cookie landscape, championing incrementality testing and Media Mix Modeling (MMM) over simplistic attribution.
Own the reporting standards that define how the organization understands subscriber health and channel effectiveness.