Head of Retention

Ultra Pouches•New York City, NY

10d

About The Position

Ultra™ is already the #1 brand of nicotine-free pouches in the world and we only launched 6 months ago —we’re just getting started. Our mission is to build the category-defining brand of functional pouches for people who want enhanced performance without the crash, addiction, or long-term downsides. Ultra does not just make a pouch that is somewhat “better for you” than Zyn. We make functional performance products that are actively good for you. The market shift is massive: nicotine pouch sales are up 3,000% since 2019 and projected to reach $20B by 2026. Consumers are adopting the pouch form factor at scale, and many are now seeking nicotine-free functional benefits in a pouch. Ultra is positioned to lead that wave. As Head of Retention at ULTRA , you won’t just be optimizing emails. Your mandate is broad and critically important: improve cohort retention, expand LTV, maximize customer love. You will take full ownership of retention KPIs across the entire customer lifecycle —from acquisition, to activation and onboarding, to repeat purchase behavior, subscription optimization, win-back, reactivation, and long-term engagement. Email and SMS are tools in your toolkit, not the job. Your job is to move cohort curves —by any means necessary. This is a highly strategic, cross-functional operator role. You’ll collaborate deeply with the CEO, Growth, Product, Creative, and Tech to design systems that improve customer outcomes—not just short-term metrics. Whether that’s onboarding flows, usage education, habit formation, gamification, subscription mechanics, or entirely new retention surfaces, you’ll be expected to identify the lever and pull it. We’re looking for someone who thinks like a scientist , operates with data-backed conviction, and has proven they can implement retention playbooks on scaled and rapidly growing subscriber bases. We want someone who firmly believes that retention can be ULTRA’s biggest and most durable growth lever.

Requirements

You’ve owned retention and LTV at scale , improving cohort curves, reducing churn, and expanding customer value over time.
You use data and customer insight —cohort analysis, lifecycle metrics, customer interviews, and CX feedback—to understand why customers stay or leave.
You translate insights into clear hypotheses , run experiments to validate them quickly, and then scale what works into durable systems.
You’re strong in email and SMS , but you think holistically about lifecycle—onboarding, activation, subscription mechanics, winback, and long-term engagement.
You’re analytical and structured—comfortable living in retention dashboards, running experiments, and separating signal from noise.
You care deeply about getting better every week—and you embody ULTRA’s values: Move fast. Be data-driven. Take ownership. Build with intention. Compete to win.

Responsibilities

Retention Strategy & Ownership: Own customer retention end-to-end, with direct accountability for churn reduction, repeat purchase rate, subscription health, and LTV expansion . Set the strategic direction for retention and operate with autonomy, speed, and accountability. Define what “great retention” looks like at ULTRA and build systems to achieve it— cohort by cohort .
Customer Understanding & Lifecycle Intelligence: Develop a deep, evolving understanding of the end-to-end customer lifecycle —from first exposure and first use to habit formation, loyalty, and churn. Leverage quantitative data (cohort analysis, funnel drop-offs, usage signals) and qualitative inputs (customer interviews, CX transcripts, reviews) to uncover why customers stay, expand, or leave. Continuously identify the true drivers of churn and LTV across customer segments, products, and acquisition channels.
Experimentation → Validation → Scale: Translate lifecycle insights into clear, testable hypotheses for reducing churn, reactivating lapsed customers, and expanding active subscriber value. Design and run rapid experiments across onboarding, activation, subscription mechanics, winback, offers, education, and engagement. Move fast: validate ideas through lightweight tests before investing in fully architected systems. Once validated, own the end-to-end buildout —processes, tooling, automation, and documentation—so wins scale reliably.
Lifecycle Marketing: Own the full lifecycle experience—from onboarding and activation to habit formation, subscription optimization, winback, and reactivation. Email and SMS are tools, not the job. You’ll deploy any surface necessary to improve retention: lifecycle flows, education, packaging inserts, loyalty mechanics, in-product nudges, or new engagement loops. Partner with Product, CX, and Creative to reinforce correct usage, expectations, and perceived value.
Subscription, Winback & Reactivation: Own subscription performance including opt-in rate, save rate, pause behavior, and churn recovery. Design winback and reactivation strategies grounded in lifecycle insight and customer motivation—not blanket discounts. Build scalable systems to recover revenue and re-engage high-intent customers.
Offer Strategy (Shared with Growth): Partner closely with the Head of Growth on offer design, bundles, pricing tests, and promotions . Meet Growth in the middle: Growth owns acquisition efficiency; Retention owns downstream value and churn impact. Ensure offers are optimized for long-term LTV , not short-term spikes.
Analytics & Retention Infrastructure: Build and maintain retention reporting focused on cohort retention, churn, repeat rate, LTV, and subscription health . Ensure insights consistently translate into experiments and decisions—not passive dashboards.