Director of Direct Marketing & Subscription Strategy

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.

• P&L Ownership: Maintain ultimate responsibility for the fiscal performance of direct marketing efforts, ensuring optimal allocation of spend to maximize ROI and Lifetime Value (LTV).
• Advanced Forecasting: 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.
• AI-Enhanced Efficiency: 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.

• Unified Journey Strategy: 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.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Spearhead collaborations with Product, Engineering, and UX teams to optimize sign-up flows and in-app engagement.
• Retention & Win-Back: Architect sophisticated, data-driven retention loops and "win-back" sequences that leverage behavioral triggers to proactively mitigate churn.

• Portfolio Diversification: Oversee the strategic roadmap for a multi-channel portfolio, including Email, SMS, Direct Mail, Paid Social (Meta, TikTok), and Referral programs.
• Market Exploration: Identify and prioritize new market entry points and emerging direct-response channels to accelerate global growth.
• Referral Innovation: Design high-impact referral programs that leverage network effects to lower blended CPA.

• Pricing Strategy: Conduct in-depth A/B testing on pricing models (e.g., Annual vs. Monthly) and tiered service offerings to maximize long-term yield.
• Quality-First Acquisition: Design "intro" offers that attract high-intent subscribers, ensuring that short-term volume never comes at the expense of long-term retention profiles.

• Talent Mentorship: Recruit and lead a sophisticated team of managers and analysts, fostering a culture of intellectual curiosity and data-driven accountability.
• Culture of Experimentation: Instill a rigorous testing philosophy across the department—where hypotheses are documented, failures are analyzed as lessons, and wins are scaled rapidly.

• The "Data Translator": Serve as the vital bridge between complex data science and business objectives. You will translate raw metrics into a cohesive narrative for stakeholders.
• Privacy-First Measurement: Lead the philosophy for tracking performance in a post-cookie landscape, championing incrementality testing and Media Mix Modeling (MMM) over simplistic attribution.
• The Single Source of Truth: Own the reporting standards that define how the organization understands subscriber health and channel effectiveness.

• Competitive salary + bonus + equity
• Generous PTO + 11 company holidays
• Open sick time
• 100% covered Medical, Dental, Vision for employees
• 401k with match
• Health & Dependent Care Flex Spending Account 
• Paid professional development
• Leadership & growth opportunities
• Virtual company and team building events

The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position is $195,000 - $220,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process. Please note that the compensation details listed in U.S. role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits.

System1’s headquarters is located in Marina del Rey, CA with an additional office in Bellevue, WA.

Employees near office locations are returning to the office.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

System1 provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.