Director, Engagement and Retention

Join the future of news

We're on a mission to deliver riveting storytelling for all of America. At The Washington Post, you'll help reinvent news. Our work is driven by a deep investigative spirit and enhanced by innovation to bring audiences closer to the stories that matter most.

About Our Team

The Washington Post is powered by the passion and talent of our people. It takes all of us to reinvent news. Beyond our award-winning Newsroom and Opinions teams, we work across many departments, including Brand & Events, Communications, Customer Care, Engineering & Product, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing & Advertising, Print Operations, and Sales.

Why This Role Matters

Subscriber engagement and retention are central to The Washington Post's growth strategy and long-term sustainability. As our reader base expands across both consumer and enterprise channels, we must continually find smarter, more human ways to connect with subscribers and keep them connected. This role leads the team responsible for ensuring that subscribers not only stay, but stay engaged, informed, and loyal.

• You are driven by the challenge of building meaningful relationships between people and products that matter.
• You thrive at the intersection of insight, innovation, impact, and leading with data and learning with purpose. Helping subscribers feel seen, understood, and valued motivates your work.
• You take pride in reducing friction, deepening loyalty, and influencing behavior through intentional, personalized engagement strategies.
• You believe that behind every metric is a human story and you use that belief to build better customer experiences, smarter programs, and stronger teams.
• You're inspired by the opportunity to shape the future of journalism by connecting more readers to the powerful reporting and purpose of The Washington Post.

• Define and execute the engagement and retention vision across B2C and B2B subscription businesses, including Consumer Subscriptions, Higher Education, and WP Intelligence to drive subscriber satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value.
• Design and optimize full-funnel subscriber journeys (onboarding, activation, retention, renewal) by embedding personalized communications, strategic touchpoints, and seamless experiences across digital and offline channels.
• Develop and scale high-impact programs such as churn prevention, reactivation campaigns, and milestone-based lifecycle marketing to reduce attrition and measurably improve retention KPIs.
• Translate subscriber insights into enterprise strategy by partnering with Product, Engineering, and Brand teams to embed the voice of the subscriber into roadmap decisions, feature development, and messaging frameworks.
• Lead B2B engagement strategy in close collaboration with Enterprise Sales and WP Intelligence, improving onboarding, user adoption, content relevance, and account renewals.
• Apply segmentation and predictive analytics to identify churn risks, refine pricing strategies, and enhance audience targeting, in partnership with Analytics, Finance, and Revenue Science.
• Own the messaging and creative framework for subscriber communications, ensuring clarity, consistency, and brand alignment across all touchpoints.
• Present strategic plans and program performance to executive leadership and cross-functional stakeholders, clearly linking engagement outcomes to revenue growth and subscriber health metrics.
• Monitor and adapt to industry trends by engaging with external partners, vendors, and thought leaders to benchmark against best practices and pilot emerging engagement strategies.
• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of marketers, strategists, and specialists, fostering a culture of experimentation, curiosity, accountability, and continuous learning.

• You have 8+ years of experience in digital marketing or subscriber engagement roles, including 5+ years leading high-performing teams. A master's degree or equivalent experience is strongly preferred.
• You're confident driving complex initiatives that require close collaboration with stakeholders in Product, Engineering, Finance, and Marketing. You know how to bring diverse partners into alignment.
• You've successfully built and scaled high-impact subscriber programs from onboarding and pricing to churn reduction and lifecycle communications that measurably increased retention and value.
• You use insights, testing, and predictive models to shape strategy and workflows. You ask the right questions and act on the right signals.
• You understand the privacy landscape (VPPA, GDPR, CAN-SPAM) and ensure compliance without compromising user experience.
• You have deep experience with marketing automation tools and know how to deploy personalized messaging across email, app, web, and other owned channels.
• You communicate clearly and persuasively, whether presenting strategies to senior leadership or guiding your team through prioritization.
• You have experience managing managers and specialists. You build inclusive, accountable teams that grow with the business.
• Experience working in subscription-based media, SaaS, or digital B2C/B2B environments is strongly preferred.

• Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage
• Company-paid pension and 401(k) match
• Three weeks of vacation and up to three weeks of paid sick leave
• Nine paid holidays and two personal days
• 20 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent
• Robust mental health resources
• Backup care and caregiver concierge services
• Gender affirming services
• Pet insurance
• Free Post digital subscription
• Leadership and career development programs