Associate Director, Retention

About Darkroom

We're building the future of advertising and are looking for the minds to help us do it.

Darkroom is a progressive omnichannel growth marketing agency focused on retail, e-commerce, and consumer businesses. We have been recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in America by Inc. 5000 (2023), a top 1% digital advertiser by Varos (2023), and our founders were named Forbes 30 Under 30 recipients for Marketing and Advertising North America (2024).

This is a fully remote role supporting a team in the EST time zone and is open to candidates based in Portugal, Mexico, Brazil, and Spain.

We are looking for a highly innovative, data-driven, and creative Associate Director, who’s motivated by the challenge of working with some of the fastest-growing e-commerce and digital brands. You will lead a team of email, SMS, and retention marketing industry experts to drive client revenue, and partner with internal cross-functional colleagues to go deeper on understanding our customer needs and insights with a specific focus on deepening retention and building loyalty. You will lead a cross-functional team to go deeper building creative strategies in email and SMS campaign development to help our clients grow.

You Should Apply if this sounds like you:

You’re passionate about e-commerce and digital marketing. You’re immersed in the world of direct-to-consumer growth marketing. We're looking for an expert Associate Director, Retention to join our team! In this role, you will lead a growing team within the Retention Marketing Department to strategically develop customized retention (and customer loyalty) marketing strategies that help our clients grow and scale.

• 7+ years of work experience in digital marketing.

• You’re passionate about developing creative customer journeys that drive loyalty and lifetime value.

• You’re passionate about building teams, training them on best practices, and helping them grow into experts.

• You immerse yourself in scaling personalized D2C/e-commerce email and SMS programs that build deep customer relationships for clients.

• You have experience working in Klaviyo (or a similar ESP’s) including list segmentation, lifecycle drip automations, and triggered events. Additionally, you have knowledge of Shopify and their tech stack options such as Privy, JustUno, Yotpo, Octane AI etc.

• You have developed SMS and loyalty programming strategies and have experience working with SMS platforms such as Attentive, PostScript, SMSBump, or Klaviyo.

• You're used to working in a fast paced environment and can project manage multiple tasks at once for yourself, your team and your clients.

• You love making data driven decisions and excel at turning analytics into actionable SMS and email strategies that drive client revenue.

• You dedicate time to learning and being on the cutting edge of trends and best practices in the world of DTC marketing.

• You have experience developing and executing customer loyalty programs that enhance LTV

• You've had at least one direct report before OR exceptional leadership skills working with cross-functional teams.

• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills, plus ability to clearly articulate and express complex and sometimes technical ideas to a wide variety of people and groups at any level.

A Day in the Life:

• Serve as the senior point of contact for select clients, working to develop best-in-class retention strategies. On a weekly basis, you will meet with clients to discuss current and future initiatives.

• Conduct weekly 1:1s with your direct reports and manage their workload and capacity to ensure their success. Additionally, you will help train the team to help your direct reports succeed and grow.

• Develop strategic campaign calendars and prioritize projects and initiatives designed to scale your clients’ email and SMS programs.

• Provide support and guidance to help Retention Specialists analyze data, develop winning retention strategies and create reports for clients happiness.

• Project manage and delegate client tasks to your team, consisting of both specialists and designers. Review all client briefs and designs for approval before they are sent to the client.

• Coordinate cross-departmentally with the Performance Marketing and Strategy teams to develop cohesive and creative campaigns that drive client growth.

• Develop strategic KPI’s for clients and work with the retention team to create insights and actionable recommendations.

• Execute on automation/flow logic set-up, pop-up builds, and app integrations.

What it's like to work at Darkroom:

We're building the future of advertising and are looking for the minds to help us do it. We only seek out the best—from our clients to our people. Our team is our most sacred asset, and we offer highly competitive salaries and the following perks:

• Unlimited Vacation Policy, and Holidays: Rebooting is one of the most important parts of growth. At Darkroom, you have access to a flexible vacation policy, and 10 holidays throughout the year to keep you recharged and sharp.

• Location, location, (or no) location: Remote-first culture with a strong community base. With Hubs in LA, The Bay Area, New York, Philly, Sao Paulo, Lisbon, and Eastern Europe.

• Endless opportunities for growth: Our agency is founded on an interdisciplinary approach, giving Darkroomers insights into services far beyond your job description. Grow your skills and interests beyond your niche and stay at the forefront of the industry through total immersion in cross-functional collaboration.

• Parental Leave: flexible parental leave benefits to support new parents during this important transition, ensuring time to bond with their families while maintaining work-life balance.

Equal Opportunity Statement:

Darkroom is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national orientation, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.