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Director, Marketing & Communications

Al-Monitor
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Director, Marketing & Communications

Location: Washington, DC

Reports To: Head of Business

Employment Type: Full-Time

Compensation: $115,000 – $135,000

Work Authorization: Must be authorized to work in the United States

 

About AL-MONITOR

AL-MONITOR (AL-MONITOR.com) is an award-winning media service founded in 2012 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Jamal Daniel. Its mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the Middle East through world-class reporting and analysis from and about the region. In just its second year, AL-MONITOR received the prestigious International Press Institute's Free Media Pioneer Award, becoming the only American media outlet exclusively covering the Middle East to earn this distinction.

AL-MONITOR is widely read by U.S., international, and Middle East decision-makers at the highest levels, as well as by media, thought leaders, experts, and students. Its audience includes institutions such as the White House, Harvard University, NATO, the World Bank, and foreign and defense ministries around the world. With a multilingual platform that includes Mandarin Chinese, AL-MONITOR reaches a global audience seeking trusted, in-depth coverage of the region.

 

The Role

The Director, Marketing & Communications leads AL-MONITOR's subscription growth engine, owning the end-to-end strategy across acquisition, lifecycle, retention, and brand. This role carries significant commercial accountability and requires a highly strategic marketer who is equally confident at interpreting data-driven signals as they are shaping campaign creative.

Reporting to the Head of Business, the Director serves as the operational owner of subscription revenue growth and the strategic partner on revenue innovation and digital marketing strategy. The Director personally owns newsletter audience growth and acquisition strategy (Editorial owns the content), email program operations in HubSpot, leads ongoing HubSpot optimization, designs strategic segmentation and personalization frameworks, and runs paid retargeting and advertising programs. They manage the Customer Success Manager and serve as the HubSpot point of contact for Editorial on proper list selection, segmentation, and email send workflows in collaboration with the engineering team on technical needs.

This role heavily revolves around subscription growth strategy, hands-on CRM and email execution, AI-enabled marketing innovation, and cross-functional collaboration across Product and Engineering, Editorial, Events, Accounting, and Crest legal. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who brings excitement and energy, generates new ideas grounded in competitive analysis and industry best practices, and partners deeply with cross-functional teams to ship them. They believe in the brand and want to grow it, not just market it.

 

What You'll Do

  • Lead end-to-end campaign management for marketing initiatives across planning, execution, optimization, and measurement, ensuring alignment with business objectives and marketing goals
  • Own and execute the subscription marketing strategy end-to-end across acquisition, conversion, lifecycle, retention, and brand growth
  • Lead AL-MONITOR's newsletter ecosystem as the core audience capture and conversion engine in close collaboration with editorial
  • Own and operate the HubSpot CRM platform end-to-end (strategic segmentation, personalization frameworks, automation logic, list hygiene, day-to-day configuration); drive ongoing HubSpot optimization with new processes, segments, and automation workflows
  • Design and execute lifecycle marketing programs (onboarding, engagement, retention, winback) with execution support from the Customer Success Manager
  • Partner hand-in-hand with Product and Engineering on user personalization, paywall, gating, and conversion experiences, co-ideating, scoping, and shipping the digital experiences that move the needle
  • Own paywall and gating strategy: define gating logic, run experimentation to optimize funnel conversion, and adjust strategy continuously based on data
  • Run continuous A/B testing and optimization across email, site, paywall, copy, and lifecycle programs; use site and email testing tools to validate hypotheses, measure impact, and ship improvements that compound over time
  • Own and run paid retargeting, paid acquisition, and advertising strategy (abandoned cart, behavioral retargeting, lookalike acquisition, search, social, display, programmatic) as a real acquisition channel and new revenue diversification stream
  • Develop pricing and packaging recommendations to the Head of Business for quarterly review across all types of  subscriptions including group an individual. 
  • Serve as the link  between marketing, editorial, product, CRM, analytics, and executive leadership, ensuring campaigns are fully integrated, well-resourced, and on-track
  • Own the marketing calendar and intake process: identify bottlenecks and friction points, and use scalable processes and tools to manage concurrent projects and campaign components across multiple channels and teams
  • Integrate AI across marketing workflows to optimize content creation, segmentation, lifecycle programs, competitive analysis, and team productivity; identify and pilot new tools that strengthen the marketing stack
  • Inspire, coach, and develop a high-performing team. Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, problem-solving, innovation, and speed-to-market. 
  • Manage and develop the Customer Success Manager, lead new hire enablement for marketing and tech tools (HubSpot, ChargeBee, Campaign Monitor, analytics platforms), and provide functional oversight to Sales & Partnerships on US and European group subscription acquisition
  • Drive competitive analysis and industry research across subscription media and adjacent industries to bring back new ideas, benchmarks, and experiments worth testing
  • Partner with Editorial on SEO strategy, content distribution, and audience insights to drive organic acquisition while respecting editorial independence
  • Collaborate with editorial on brand voice and copy standards across all subscriber-facing communications
  • Partner with legal on marketing compliance (terms of service updates, privacy policies, email compliance, GDPR/CCPA), reviewing campaigns and copy where compliance touches the work
  • Manage the marketing budget in partnership with the Head of Business, and translate marketing data into clear, actionable insights for leadership through monthly reporting and quarterly business reviews

 

What You Need to Succeed

  • 7–10 years of experience in subscription marketing, lifecycle marketing, or growth marketing at a subscription media, membership, or B2C/B2B subscription business (required)
  • 3–5 years of people management experience, including direct ownership of at least one direct report
  • Hands-on, deep experience with HubSpot or comparable CRM platforms (Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Klaviyo, Iterable, Marketo), including strategic segmentation, personalization workflows, automation, and platform administration
  • Familiarity with subscription billing platforms (ChargeBee, Recurly, Stripe Billing, or similar) — sufficient fluency to oversee subscription operations through the Customer Success Manager and connect billing data to marketing decisions
  • Proven ownership of email and lifecycle program design and execution, including strategic segmentation, personalization, and journey design  
  • Direct experience with paywall and gating strategy in a subscription context, including ongoing optimization for funnel conversion
  • Hands-on experience with paid retargeting and paid acquisition: abandoned cart, behavioral retargeting, lookalike acquisition, search, social, and/or programmatic
  • Cross-functional experience with product teams: comfortable partnering with product and engineering on user personalization, conversion experiences, and growth experimentation
  • Cross-functional collaboration experience with editorial, legal, or finance teams in operational marketing contexts
  • Strong data and analytical mindset: comfortable reporting on subscription metrics, revenue performance, and A/B test results; able to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for senior leadership
  • Hands-on operator: comfortable writing newsletter copy, configuring CRM workflows, and developing strategy in the same week
  • A strategic self-starter: naturally curious, takes initiative without being asked, and prioritizes work based on business needs and direction from leadership
  • Authorization to work in the United States

Nice to Have

  • Experience at a subscription media company, membership organization, or D2C subscription business
  • Interest in or experience with policy, foreign affairs, or journalism
  • Strong newsletter intuition: understands what makes a subscription newsletter convert and retain
  • Self-starter who brings excitement and energy that builds team momentum
  • Strong communication and presentation skills, able to translate technical marketing concepts for non-technical leadership audiences

 

What We Can Offer You

Join AL-MONITOR for meaningful work on a respected, award-winning publication in our Washington, DC office. We offer competitive compensation and a benefits package designed to support you and your family. Enjoy comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage (dental and vision fully employer-paid), with HSA savings available. Prioritize your well-being with generous paid time off that grows with tenure, and 11 paid holidays. Build financial security with fully-paid life insurance, AD&D, and short-term disability.

 

Additional Information

AL-MONITOR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, protected Veteran status, or other factors protected by law.