Director, Marketing Operations – Email & Digital Subscriptions

Hearst Newspapers; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Competitive retirement plan with match

Generous Paid Time Off

Parental Leave

Child & Dependent Care Reimbursement

Mental health benefits

Job summary

Hearst Newspapers seeks a Director of Marketing Operations to lead a four-person team and own the technology, processes, and ecosystem behind digital subscription marketing. You will partner with Marketing, Product, Engineering, BI, Editorial, Finance, and Customer Service to optimize email, newsletters, and lifecycle programs.

You will translate business needs into scalable marketing tech solutions, drive AI-enabled automation, and ensure data flows and personalization are effective across

Qualifications

• Experience leading Marketing Operations function or team.
• Hands-on experience with email and/or newsletter operations including segmentation, lifecycle communications, personalization, QA, testing, and optimization.
• Strong knowledge of MarTech platforms, marketing automation, CRM/CDP, and customer data.
• Experience partnering with Product and Engineering to build or improve marketing capabilities.
• Ability to troubleshoot data flows across marketing systems and identify root causes.
• Experience managing competing requests across multiple stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of four Marketing Operations professionals.
• Own and continuously improve the technology and operational processes supporting email, newsletters, lifecycle marketing, CRM/CDP, and marketing automation.
• Partner with Marketing and Editorial to improve performance, personalization, segmentation, and effectiveness of email and newsletter programs.
• Work with Product and Engineering to translate marketing needs into technical requirements and deliver new capabilities.
• Oversee technology supporting the digital customer journey, including websites, audience data, personalization, and subscriber communications.
• Diagnose and troubleshoot issues across platforms, data flows, integrations, campaigns, and customer experiences.
• Establish intake, prioritization, QA, governance, and release processes across Hearst newspaper markets.
• Identify opportunities to use AI and automation to reduce manual work and boost efficiency.
• Evaluate vendors and technology solutions to ensure scalable and well-integrated MarTech ecosystem.

Skills

Marketing Operations leadership

Email & newsletters optimization

MarTech platforms expertise

CRM/CDP data handling

Collaboration with Product/Engineering

Stakeholder management

People leadership

AI & automation in marketing

Tools

BlueConic

Sailthru

Salesforce

SQL

Job description

Job Description

Director, Marketing Operations at Hearst Newspapers

About The Role

Hearst Newspapers is looking for a strategic and hands‑on Director of Marketing Operations to lead the technology, processes, and team supporting our digital subscription marketing business.

Reporting to the VP of Digital Subscriptions, this role leads a team of four and serves as the operational bridge between Marketing, Product, Engineering, Business Intelligence, Editorial, Finance, and Customer Service.

A major focus of the role is email and newsletter optimization- ensuring our customer communications, lifecycle programs, audience segmentation, personalization, and marketing automation are effective, scalable, and continuously improving.

This person will also help manage and evolve the MarTech ecosystem supporting our digital subscriber journey, from audience and customer data through website experiences, offers, checkout, and ongoing subscriber communications.

This is not primarily a campaign execution, Sales Operations, Ad Operations, or project management role. We’re looking for someone who understands the technology behind modern marketing and can translate business needs into scalable solutions.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop a team of four Marketing Operations professionals.
• Own and continuously improve the technology and operational processes supporting email, newsletters, lifecycle marketing, CRM/CDP, and marketing automation.
• Partner with Marketing and Editorial to improve the performance, personalization, segmentation, and effectiveness of email and newsletter programs.
• Work closely with Product and Engineering to translate marketing needs into technical requirements and deliver new capabilities.
• Help oversee the technology supporting the digital customer journey, including websites, audience data, personalization, subscription offers, and customer communications.
• Diagnose and troubleshoot issues across platforms, data flows, integrations, campaigns, and customer experiences.
• Establish effective intake, prioritization, QA, governance, and release processes across multiple Hearst newspaper markets.
• Identify opportunities to use AI and automation to reduce manual work, improve efficiency, and enable Marketing teams to do more.
• Evaluate vendors and technology solutions and help ensure the MarTech ecosystem is scalable and well integrated.
• Build strong relationships across Marketing, Product, Engineering, BI, Editorial, Finance, and Customer Service.
• Create processes and capabilities that can scale consistently across Hearst Newspapers’ markets while still supporting local needs.

What We’re Looking For

Required:

• Significant experience in Marketing Operations, preferably leading a Marketing Operations function or team.
• Deep, hands‑on experience with email and/or newsletter operations, including segmentation, lifecycle communications, personalization, QA, testing, and optimization.
• Strong knowledge of MarTech platforms, marketing automation, CRM/CDP, and customer data.
• Experience partnering closely with Product and Engineering to build or improve marketing capabilities.
• Strong understanding of how data moves across marketing systems and the ability to troubleshoot issues and identify root causes.
• Experience managing and prioritizing competing requests across multiple stakeholders or business units.
• Proven people leadership experience.
• Strong business judgment and the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business decisions.
• Experience using AI and automation to improve marketing processes and team efficiency.

Preferred:

• Experience in media, publishing, subscriptions, or consumer marketing.
• Experience supporting multiple brands, markets, or decentralized organizations.
• Experience with website/digital customer experiences, personalization, subscription offers, or checkout.
• Experience with platforms such as BlueConic, Sailthru, Salesforce, or comparable MarTech solutions.
• Familiarity with SQL, APIs, data integrations, or data activation.
• Experience evaluating vendors and implementing new marketing capabilities.

The Person We’re Looking For

You’re someone who enjoys figuring out how things work and how to make them work better.

You don’t simply take a request and pass it along to Engineering. You ask questions, understand the underlying business and technical problem, identify the right solution, and bring the right teams together to make it happen.

You’re comfortable moving between marketing strategy, technology, data, and operations, and you know when to get into the details and when to step back and lead.

You’re curious about AI, constantly looking for ways to eliminate manual work, and comfortable operating in a complex, multi‑market organization where priorities don’t always align.

Our Benefits:

• Physical Wellbeing: Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage to keep you and your family healthy.
• Invest for the Future: Competitive retirement plan with matching program in most markets.
• Generous Paid Time Off: Recharge with ample time off, including holidays and vacation.
• Paid Parental Leave: Support for growing families, with paid leave for new parents.
• Monthly Child & Dependent Care Reimbursement: Financial support for the care of your loved ones.
• Emotional Wellbeing: Be your best self with our mental wellness benefits.
• LGBTQ+ & Inclusive Health Services: Inclusive healthcare designed for every individual’s unique needs.
• Fertility Coverage & Menopause Support: Helping you along every step of your family journey.
• Pet Wellness Reimbursement & Rover Credits: We care about your pets, too – helping you keep them happy and healthy.
• And more, click here for additional benefits and details.

This position does not provide sponsorship.All applicants should have the right to work in the U.S. without immigration sponsorship.

In accordance with applicable law, Hearst is required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role if hired in New York, NY. The reasonable estimate is $150,000 - $160,000. A final decision on the successful candidate’s starting salary will be based on a number of permissible, non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to skills and experience, training, certifications, and education.