Lifecycle Marketing Lead

The Minnesota Star Tribune is an innovative modern media organization building on an extraordinary 159-year legacy. With seven Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other accolades, we stand as a beacon of journalistic excellence in Minnesota. We are the heart and voice of the North.

Our mission is to build a better Minnesota by connecting us with the people, ideas, and stories that strengthen our communities. We’re seeking dynamic leaders who are passionate about journalism and democracy to help shape this future. If you are excited about reinventing one of our state’s most trusted institutions and leading us into a new era of growth and excellence, we want to hear from you.

The Lifecycle Marketing Lead at our headquarters in Minneapolis MN is responsible for executing growth strategies across the entire digital subscriber lifecycle—from audience acquisition and subscriber conversion through engagement, retention, and win back. This role develops and executes data-driven marketing initiatives across onsite experiences, email, paid media, and subscription marketing platforms to optimize the customer journey and drive measurable business growth.

Working closely with the Digital Acquisition Director, Director of Subscriber Engagement and Retention, and Senior Digital Marketing Manager, the Lifecycle Marketing Lead plays a key role in expanding the organization's digital subscription business. This position partners across marketing, audience, and product teams to convert audiences into loyal subscribers, deepen subscriber engagement, and improve retention through experimentation, personalization, and continuous optimization. Leveraging data, customer insights, and testing strategies, the Lifecycle Marketing Lead identifies opportunities to enhance campaign performance, improve the subscriber experience, and maximize subscriber lifetime value.

Responsibilities

• Execute lifecycle marketing campaigns across acquisition, onboarding, engagement, retention, and winback initiatives.

• Build, test, and optimize onsite subscription experiences, including pricing, offers, messaging, user journeys, and save interventions within our subscription platform (Piano) and our app platform.

• Produce, test, schedule, and optimize email marketing campaigns, promotional messaging, and subscriber communications.

• Manage paid social campaigns that support subscription acquisition and lifecycle objectives.

• Develop customer segmentation and audience targeting strategies to deliver personalized marketing experiences.

• Monitor campaign performance, analyze customer behavior and test results, and provide reporting and recommendations that improve conversion, engagement, retention, and lifetime value.

• Assist with quality assurance across onsite experiences, email campaigns, subscription flows, and other marketing channels.

• Identify emerging lifecycle marketing trends, testing opportunities, and best practices that improve subscription growth.

• Leverage AI tools to improve marketing workflows, uncover optimization opportunities, and increase operational efficiency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field, with a minimum of 4 years of experience in lifecycle marketing, digital marketing, subscription marketing, or a related field.
• Proven experience planning, executing, and optimizing multi-channel digital marketing campaigns using email marketing platforms, marketing automation, and other digital marketing tools.
• Strong proficiency with analytics and reporting tools to measure campaign performance, identify trends, and translate data into actionable insights that improve business results.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills with the ability to make data-driven recommendations and optimize the customer journey.
• Strong written and verbal communication, organizational, and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively across cross-functional teams while working independently, demonstrating initiative, accountability, and attention to detail.
• Experience in subscription-based or recurring revenue businesses, with an understanding of subscriber lifecycle marketing and customer journeys preferred.
• Experience using Piano, Sailthru, or similar customer journey, subscription marketing, and marketing automation platforms, with familiarity using paid social advertising platforms preferred.
• Working knowledge of HTML and experience leveraging AI tools to improve marketing workflows, campaign execution, and performance optimization preferred.
• Must be currently legally authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H1B status, 0-1, TM, CPT, OPT, etc.). We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Compensation & Benefits

The compensation range for this position is $72,000 - $85,000/year.

Compensation for the role will depend on several factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience and may fall outside of the range shown.

The Minnesota Star Tribune offers a competitive total rewards package, which includes a 401(K) match, healthcare coverage – medical, dental, and vision, life, disability, paid time off, and a broad range of other benefits. Learn more at benefits.startribunecompany.com.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that are required to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is often required to remain in a stationary position (i.e. standing, sitting, or both) approximately 90%; move short distances approximately 5%; position self to pick up objects (i.e., bending, twisting, stooping) weighing up to 5 lbs. around the officing and moving (i.e. lift, carry, push, pull) items weighing up to 5 lbs. approximately 5%.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee will work in a typical office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, keyboards, mouse, photocopiers, and filing cabinets. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. The office environment will have normal lighting and climate control tolerances. Work from home office environment may differ from the physical offices in Minneapolis, MN.

Disclaimer

The duties and responsibilities of this position and this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for their job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice based on business needs.

More about The Minnesota Star Tribune

At The Minnesota Star Tribune, we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset, and we are committed to their happiness, growth, and well-being. Here’s a snapshot of the exceptional benefits we offer:

• Modern Downtown Office: Enjoy a state-of-the-art workspace with a free fitness center, collaborative center, golf simulator, and a rooftop patio.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Includes commuting subsidy, medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Wellness & Work-Life Balance: Participate in our wellness program with financial incentives, generous paid time off, flexible holidays, one volunteer day, and two wellness days.
• Financial & Family Support: Benefit from a 401(k) with company match, paid parental and caregiving leave, hybrid work arrangements, and tuition reimbursement.
• Additional Perks: Access to an employee assistance program, pet insurance, flexible spending accounts, and health savings accounts.

2025 award winner of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Media and News and proud recipient of Newsweek’s Greatest Midsize Workplaces 2025 recognition.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Even if you don't meet every single requirement for this role, we encourage you to apply. At The Minnesota Star Tribune, we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.