Director of Retention Marketing & CRM

VICI•Walnut Creek, CA

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Retention Marketing & CRM leads the development and execution of VICI’s retention marketing strategy and CRM channels, managing a team responsible for email, SMS, app and web push, and loyalty programs. The role owns the end-to-end customer journey, from onboarding through repeat purchases, reactivation of lapsed customers, and loyalty program performance. It sets the strategy for growing VICI’s active customer file and subscriber conversion, while preventing churn and increasing purchase frequency and customer lifetime value across retention channels. This hands-on leader manages campaign and lifecycle performance, testing, segmentation, reporting, cross-functional coordination, and vendor relationships. The position also develops and supports a team of two, setting objectives and responsibilities and monitoring progress and results. The role follows a hybrid schedule, with in-office work Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in Walnut Creek, California. Work takes place in an indoor office or home office environment.

Requirements

At least 8 years of direct-to-consumer marketing experience in lifecycle and retention marketing, including email, CRM, loyalty, and customer segmentation.
Experience owning loyalty program strategy and performance, including program setup, enrollment, utilization, and tier progression.
Demonstrated ownership of program performance, including setting targets, reporting results transparently, and course-correcting based on data.
Experience monitoring email and SMS deliverability and ensuring compliance with applicable regulations, such as CAN-SPAM and TCPA, across a high-volume sending program.
Hands-on experience with ESP and SMS platforms, including building automated and triggered programs within platform capabilities.
Prior people management experience.
BA/BS in business, marketing, analytics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
Strong analytical and commercial instincts and the ability to balance short-term revenue objectives with long-term customer health and retention.
Proven people leadership skills and experience managing and developing a team.
Proactive, solutions-oriented collaboration skills, including identifying growth opportunities and turning ideas into actionable strategies and tests.
Clear, succinct written and verbal communication skills, executive presence, and the ability to create executive-ready decks for marketing plans, campaign strategy, and budget and performance reviews.
Excellent project management skills, including conceptualization, cross-functional alignment, planning, resource management, and delivering analysis and recommendations.
Curiosity and persistence in investigating trends, data signals, and underlying questions.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth retail environment with competing priorities and tight timelines.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing a high-volume email and SMS program with complex, layered segmentation.

Responsibilities

Own list growth, subscriber conversion, retention strategy, and the active customer file across email, SMS, app and web push, and loyalty, including segmentation.
Build and manage an ongoing A/B and multivariate testing roadmap across the customer lifecycle, winback, and loyalty programs, and translate results into future strategy.
Develop winback strategies and targeted reactivation campaigns to reduce lapsed customer files and recover revenue.
Lead email and SMS campaign strategy, segmentation, execution, testing, deployment, analysis, and optimization across a high-volume sending program.
Increase customer purchase frequency and lifetime value through lifecycle campaigns, personalization, and customer journey optimization.
Own the loyalty program end-to-end, including program structure, enrollment growth, utilization, tier progression, rewards, promotional calendar, and ongoing optimization.
Use sales and campaign data to drive revenue performance, repeat purchase rate, retention and lapse rates, list growth, engagement, and loyalty KPIs; provide regular proactive reporting to leadership.
Collaborate with eCommerce, Social, and Paid Media leads to optimize customer experience and coordinate a cohesive brand narrative and promotion calendar across onsite and in-app journeys.
Manage relationships with ESP, SMS, and loyalty technology vendors and stay current on platform capabilities and industry best practices.
Lead and develop a team of two while remaining hands-on; assign responsibilities, set objectives and measures, monitor progress and results, and build feedback loops into the team’s work.