Director of Growth & Acquisition

Chicago Public Media•Chicago, IL

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Chicago Public Media is one of the nation’s largest local nonprofit news organizations. Home to WBEZ 91.5FM, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Vocalo. Chicago Public Media reaches more than 3.3 million people weekly across broadcast, print, and digital platforms. As a mission-driven organization, we aspire to be the most trusted news source Chicagoans turn to for understanding the people, events, and ideas shaping our community. We believe independent journalism is essential to a healthy democracy and that access to objective, fact-based news is a right for every citizen. We serve the public interest by creating diverse content that informs and enriches our community, supported by a dedicated staff of approximately 250 professionals. For more information, please see the Chicago Public Media Annual Report . The Opportunity The Director of Growth & Acquisition leads Chicago Public Media’s audience growth and member acquisition engine across all brands, platforms, and channels. This role is responsible for expanding the pool of potential members, increasing audience engagement and registration, and converting audiences into long-term financial supporters. The Director oversees acquisition strategy across digital, audio, on-air, paid media and emerging platforms, with accountability for acquisition revenue, conversion performance, CPA efficiency, and sustainable long-term growth. The role partners closely with Product, Marketing, Insights, Development, and Editorial teams to build scalable audience pathways that strengthen engagement, registration, personalization, and membership conversion across WBEZ, Sun-Times, Vocalo, and future platforms.

Requirements

Experience leading multi-channel audience or membership acquisition strategies
Strong understanding of CPA, LTV, conversion optimization, and revenue modeling
Experience managing paid digital growth channels and acquisition performance
Strong analytical, forecasting, and performance optimization capabilities
Ability to build scalable audience growth systems and testing frameworks
Experience leading cross-functional initiatives across Product, Marketing, Editorial, and Insights teams
Strong understanding of audience engagement, registration growth, and conversion strategy
Ability to translate audience insights and behavioral data into actionable growth strategies

Responsibilities

Audience Journey Ownership: The Membership department operates through two interconnected engines: Growth & Acquisition and Lifecycle & Retention. The Director of Growth & Acquisition owns the pre-conversion stages of the audience journey, including: Audience Awareness, Audience Engagement, Registration & Identity Development, First membership transaction. The role is responsible for building scalable acquisition systems that move audiences from discovery to first-time financial support across brands, platforms, and channels. The role oversees acquisition strategy, audience conversion pathways, registration growth, and first-gift performance while partnering closely with Lifecycle & Retention to ensure acquisition quality and long-term audience value.
Core Area of Focus - Audience Growth & Acquisition: Build and scale a sustainable audience growth and acquisition engine that: Increase new member volume year-over-year, Expands the pool of high-potential future members, Improves conversion rates across engagement and donation pathways, Strengthens registration and known-user growth, Maintains disciplined CPA guardrails, Supports long-term lifetime value growth.
Sustainable Growth Philosophy: This role is responsible for balancing acquisition scale with long-term member value, ensuring growth strategies prioritize sustainable retention, audience alignment, and relationship quality - not simply transaction volume. Success in this role will be measured not only by acquisition volume, but by the organization’s ability to acquire engaged, high-quality supporters with strong long-term retention and participation potential.
Strategic Responsibilities: Growth Strategy & Modeling: Develop acquisition strategies aligned with long-term audience and revenue goals, Establish CPA and LTV frameworks to guide sustainable growth decisions, Forecast acquisition performance, conversion trends, and channel contribution, Identify scalable growth opportunities across paid media, audio, partnerships, and emerging platforms, Partner with Product and Lifecycle teams to strengthen audience registration, engagement, and conversion pathways.
Experimentation & Optimization: Lead acquisition testing and optimization across channels, products, and audience segments, Establish testing standards, reporting frameworks, and optimization processes, Analyze conversion performance, audience behavior, and messaging effectiveness to improve acquisition outcomes, Translate testing insights into actionable audience, offer, and conversion strategies, Build a culture of disciplined experimentation and continuous improvement.
Platform Growth & Expansion: Lead acquisition strategy for emerging products and platforms, including new product launching in FY27, Define how new platforms support audience growth, engagement, registration, and membership conversion, Partner with Product and Lifecycle teams to develop audience experiences that strengthen participation, personalization, and membership value.
Channel & Performance Leadership: Oversee acquisition performance across digital, on-air, audio, and emerging channels, Lead conversion optimization across landing pages, donation flows, registration experiences, and onboarding pathways, Define channel strategy, KPI governance, and attribution standards, Maintain visibility into acquisition performance through reporting and dashboard oversight.
Narrative Integration & Audience Conversion Strategy: Partner with Membership leadership to align acquisition messaging with broader audience and membership strategies, Develop audience targeting, offer positioning, and conversion messaging frameworks, Translate organizational narratives into high-performing acquisition campaigns, Lead audience and messaging tests tied to conversion performance.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with Product, Marketing, Insights, Editorial, and Development teams to align audience growth and conversion strategies, Support audience targeting, cohort analysis, attribution modeling, and performance forecasting, Align acquisition strategies across brands, platforms, and audience experiences, Lead recurring cross-functional growth and performance discussions.
Team & Operational Leadership: Manage and mentor Growth & Acquisition team members, Establish acquisition KPIs, reporting standards, and accountability frameworks, Oversee vendor and agency relationships, Support acquisition planning, budgeting, and resource prioritization.