Head of CRM & Retention Strategy

Lindar; St Albans; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

MrQ, an award-winning online casino, is seeking a Head of CRM to own retention, lifecycle, reactivation and win-back strategies. You will lead the CRM team, chair the Cross-Functional Retention Team and drive retention metrics across active players, cohorts and churn.

You'll shape the retention roadmap with Product, Operations and Data, manage budgets, and ensure compliant messaging under UKGC LCCP and CAP Code. This role is hybrid, based in St Albans.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in CRM, lifecycle or retention marketing, including 3+ years leading managers or senior specialists in iGaming or another regulated consumer business.
• Proven retention strategy ownership with measurable targets.
• Commercial acumen. You think in LTV, ARPU, churn and bonus ROI, and you can defend a CRM budget to Finance.
• Proof of incremental impact from holdouts or controlled tests.
• Deep Optimove knowledge: target groups, streams, real-time campaigns, data feeds and ESP integration.
• Working knowledge of email deliverability: DMARC, DKIM, SPF, domain reputation and inbox placement.
• Strong knowledge of UK gambling marketing rules: UKGC LCCP, the CAP Code, PECR and UK GDPR consent, high-value customer requirements and safer gambling.
• Data fluency. You’re at home with cohort analysis, propensity and risk scores, and you use AI every day.
• Experience running a cross-functional forum and influencing senior leaders in Product, Operations and Data.
• The ability to tell a retention story to the Leadership Team in one slide.
• Player instinct. You care whether a message is right for the player, not just whether it converts.

Responsibilities

• Own the retention numbers: active players, cohort retention, churn and reactivation. Set the targets and deliver them.
• Chair the Cross-Functional Retention Team, bringing Product, Operations, Compliance, Reward Orchestration, Brand and Data together around shared commitments.
• Build the retention roadmap across risk, product and marketing, with every initiative sized by impact.
• Lead and grow the CRM team across Campaigns, Lifecycle and Conversions, and Tools, Offers and Insight. Set the rhythm for planning, QA and post-campaign reviews.
• Own the full lifecycle, from registration and onboarding to lapsed journeys, dormant reactivation and win-back. Every always-on programme runs with a holdout group.
• Set the contact strategy: how often we contact players, on which channels, and the balance between product-led and marketing-led messages.
• Treat safer gambling as a retention lever. Use risk and affordability signals to shape who we contact, how often and with what.
• Own the CRM budget and calendar. Report what pays back every month, and stop what doesn’t.
• Shape retention offers with Product so each one gives players a reason to return, not a blanket bonus.
• Sign off every message a player gets from MrQ, making sure it’s in the MrQ voice and compliant with UKGC LCCP and the CAP Code.
• Own the martech stack and vendors (Optimove, Sinch, Dotdigital). Find and fix where players drop out between the target audience and the delivered message, and keep deliverability clean.
• Make AI part of how the whole team works.

Skills

CRM leadership

Lifecycle marketing

Retention strategy

A/B testing

Email deliverability

UK gambling rules

Data fluency

Cross-functional leadership

AI in marketing

LTV analysis

Tools

Optimove

Sinch

Dotdigital

Job description

MrQ, an award-winning online casino, is seeking a Head of CRM to own retention, lifecycle, reactivation and win-back strategies. You will lead the CRM team, chair the Cross-Functional Retention Team and drive retention metrics across active players, cohorts and churn.

You'll shape the retention roadmap with Product, Operations and Data, manage budgets, and ensure compliant messaging under UKGC LCCP and CAP Code. This role is hybrid, based in St Albans.