Principal, Lifecycle Automations & Incentives

Upside•Washington, DC

12d•$169,000 - $201,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As the Principal, Lifecycle Automations & Incentives, you will be the primary architect behind accelerating the scale of an automated, hyper-personalized, and scalable lifecycle growth engine. We are looking for a seasoned lifecycle leader and growth strategist capable of operating at the absolute intersection of consumer psychology, data-driven automation, and active financial engineering. You’ll report to the Director of Lifecycle Marketing, and together you will drive strategy, execution, experimentation and regular optimization on two of the most critical levers for Upside’s growth: a full-funnel "core" lifecycle ecosystem tightly aligned with consumer growth goals and the strategic, profitable deployment of a large incentive bonus budget to help influence consumer behavior.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive experience in Lifecycle Marketing and CRM, with a demonstrated track record of increasing consumer engagement and retention within a relevant mobile-first B2C experience, a marketplace brand, or other related industry.
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or a related field.
Deep functional knowledge in marketing engagement platforms such as Braze, Iterable, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, specifically with hands-on experience building and architecting solutions in platforms. This role requires ongoing practitioner-level expertise and comfort personally building, troubleshooting, and optimizing sophisticated automation programs.
Deep understanding of consumer data analytics platforms, data architecture/pipelines, API connectivity, SQL proficiency, and more.
Experience developing and optimizing mobile-first lifecycle marketing programs across push notifications, in-app messaging, content cards, and other app-native engagement channels.
Data-first decision maker with a test-and-learn mindset. Outstanding analytical and critical thinking abilities, and the capacity to interpret data into practical insights and achieve business results.
A collaborative mindset with a proven ability to build strong, impactful partnerships across diverse teams.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and persuade collaborators at all levels.

Responsibilities

Lead "Core Lifecycle" workstreams, helping us evolve from ad-hoc, one-off sends to a robust, automated ecosystem. You will personally design, build, instrument, and optimize sophisticated lifecycle automations across onboarding, habituation (M1–M3 retention), reactivation, and high-upside viral referral loops.
Design and test personalized journeys explicitly engineered to transition highly engaged, fuel-only consumers into long-term, high-LTV grocery and restaurant consumers based on geographic proximity and site-level market potential.
Infuse deep 1:1 consumer-to-merchant matching and advanced personalization logic into the core communication infrastructure to maximize conversion velocity.
Act as a primary growth steward translating the principles of the consumer habit, incentive, & engagement framework across the lifecycle ecosystem. Ensure our offer and bonus ecosystem functions as a coordinated, unified ecosystem that guides consumers toward long-term habituation.
Partner closely with data science and consumer analytics to isolate true incrementality. Build rigorous control frameworks to deploy strategic bonuses strictly at a consumer’s behavioral "inflection point," ensuring promotional spend is the marginal reason for a consumer’s next transaction.
Act as a critical cross-functional bridge between consumer strategy, engineering, product, analytics, and data science. Pinch-hit and support the martech projects by clearly scoping and documenting the technical data requirements.
Support the deployment and optimization of internal AI-driven lifecycle agents, subagents, knowledge bases, skill bases, and more to accelerate production velocity.
Function as a trusted, high-visibility partner to leadership teams across consumer, product, analytics and executive stakeholders to shape and impact our commercial growth model by turning abstract lifecycle problems into clear strategic roadmaps.
Be comfortable operating independently while managing projects of extreme complexity and high risk while serving as an expert resource and mentor for the wider lifecycle team.