Audience Engagement & Membership Manager

Kqed Inc; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 89,156 - 111,445; Full time

Job summary

KQED’s Snap Studios is seeking an Audience Engagement & Membership Manager to grow paying audiences for Snap Judgment PLUS and Spooked PLUS, while expanding our reach across social, video, and emerging platforms.

You will lead membership operations, develop pathways to convert listeners into members, and build engaging communications. You’ll manage contractors and collaborate with editorial, design, and social teams to drive revenue and audience growth.

Qualifications

• Real experience in audience development, membership, or digital media operations. Not adjacent to it. In it
• Direct time on a membership or subscription platform with a working understanding of what actually drives conversion and retention
• Strong writing. Retention email, social caption, internal memo. All three should sound right
• Comfort using data to make decisions and explain them
• Ability to work without close supervision and manage multiple things at once without dropping them
• Experience managing contractors or freelancers toward a real outcome
• Must have a real and abiding love of audio storytelling.

Responsibilities

• Run day-to-day operations on Supercast: onboarding, benefits delivery, renewals, retention
• Build the pathways that turn casual listeners into paying members and keep them there
• Track acquisition, churn, engagement, and revenue. Bring leadership real analysis, not just dashboards
• Craft subscriber communications that sound like Snap
• Manage outside vendors or contractors supporting membership operations when needed
• Lead Snap Studios onto YouTube and whatever platform comes next
• Build formats that take audio storytelling somewhere worth watching
• Coordinate publishing workflows directly or through contractors
• Track what is working. Have a point of view on what is not
• Direct Snap's presence on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and wherever our audience turns up next
• Build social and email strategies that sound like the shows
• Coordinate release and promotional workflows across public and subscriber feeds
• Find platform, distribution, and partnership opportunities that grow our reach and our revenue
• Manage freelancers or agencies on social and digital execution
• Manage and track ad campaigns
• Get into the room with editorial early. Audience thinking should be part of the plan from the start, not something we add later
• Collaborate with our design team on visual content
• Watch trends. Test things. Tell us when something is not working
• Other duties as assigned

Skills

Audience development

Membership platforms

Strong writing

Data-driven decisions

Multi-tasking

Contractor management

Love of audio storytelling

Education

Bachelor's degree, or equivalent experience

Tools

Supercast

YouTube publishing

Job description

Title: Audience Engagement and Membership Manager

Reports To: Executive Directors

Department: Snap Studios

Schedule Format - Location: Hybrid - San Francisco

Pay Information: $89,156 - $111,445

Who We Are

KQED’s Snap Studios creates show about real people in real moments. Cinematic. Moving. Raw.

Stories that make you pull over and sit in a parking lot until it's done.

Snap Judgment is the flagship. A weekly narrative storytelling show heard on 450+ public radio stations and downloaded over half a billion times. Time Magazine recently named one of the Top 100 Podcasts of All Time.

Spooked explores the paranormal, with real stories told by the people who lived them. One of the most devoted fan bases in all of audio.

Fire Escape follows one woman’s journey through the California Penal System and back again.

A Tiny Plot documents an extraordinary experiment where a group of unhoused people attempt to build a place called home. Peabody-nominated.

Mind Your Own with Lupita Nyong'o. Hosted by Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong’o, features amazing stories from the African Diaspora.

Snap listeners show up. They bring friends. They write letters. They make their kids listen. They come to Snap shows. They send us stories. They save time for us. They wear Snap merch. This role exists to meet them where they are, grow the communities around them, and make them know they belong.

________________________________________

The Role

This core responsibility is growing and retaining paying audiences for Snap Judgment PLUS and Spooked PLUS, while building the systems and experiments that expand Snap Studios’ reach across social, video, and emerging platforms.

The Audience Engagement & Membership Manager will run Snap membership programs, build our presence on video and social platforms, and grow the audience for everything we make.

Some of this work you will do yourself. Some of it you will manage through outside contractors. We are not looking for someone who needs to own every task. We are looking for someone who owns every outcome. Know when to do it. Know when to hire it. Know the difference.

No full playbook exists for parts of this job. Writing that playbook is the job.

What You Will Do

Membership: Snap Judgment PLUS and Spooked PLUS

• Run day-to-day operations on Supercast: onboarding, benefits delivery, renewals, retention
• Build the pathways that turn casual listeners into paying members and keep them there
• Track acquisition, churn, engagement, and revenue. Bring leadership real analysis, not just dashboards
• Craft subscriber communications that sound like Snap
• Manage outside vendors or contractors supporting membership operations when needed

Video and Platform Development

• Lead Snap Studios onto YouTube and whatever platform comes next
• Build formats that take audio storytelling somewhere worth watching
• Coordinate publishing workflows directly or through contractors
• Track what is working. Have a point of view on what is not

Social Media and Digital

• Direct Snap's presence on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and wherever our audience turns up next
• Build social and email strategies that sound like the shows
• Coordinate release and promotional workflows across public and subscriber feeds
• Find platform, distribution, and partnership opportunities that grow our reach and our revenue
• Manage freelancers or agencies on social and digital execution
• Manage and track ad campaigns

Working Across the Studio

• Get into the room with editorial early. Audience thinking should be part of the plan from the start, not something we add later
• Collaborate with our design team on visual content
• Watch trends. Test things. Tell us when something is not working
• Other duties as assigned

________________________________________

What You Bring

• Real experience in audience development, membership, or digital media operations. Not adjacent to it. In it
• Direct time on a membership or subscription platform with a working understanding of what actually drives conversion and retention
• Strong writing. Retention email, social caption, internal memo. All three should sound right
• Comfort using data to make decisions and explain them
• Ability to work without close supervision and manage multiple things at once without dropping them
• Experience managing contractors or freelancers toward a real outcome
• Must have a real and abiding love of audio storytelling.

Preferred

• Experience with Supercast, Patreon, or similar platforms
• Working knowledge of YouTube publishing and performance
• Background in public radio, podcasting, or nonprofit media
• Familiarity with podcast distribution and platform partnerships
• Comfort using AI tools for content, audience engagement, or operations

Education

• Bachelor's degree in a related field, or equivalent experience

NOTE

NOTE: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employees may be required to perform other related duties as necessary to meet the ongoing needs of this organization.

#LI-hybrid