Director of Growth & Retention (AI-Native)

Magicstory; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Magic Story seeks a Director of Growth & Retention (AI-Native) to own the systems, execution, and performance that drive subscriber growth and long-term retention. This operator role partners with the CMO on brand direction while owning the growth infrastructure and experiments.

You will run lifecycle strategies, measure impact, and scale a data-driven marketing engine with AI-enabled insights and automation.

Qualifications

• Strong candidates have SQL proficiency (BigQuery preferred).
• Experience with lifecycle tools and analytics is essential.
• Hands-on, AI-enabled marketer who can run experiments weekly.

Responsibilities

• Own subscriber growth efficiency and retention metrics.
• Own onboarding activation, churn reduction, and LTV expansion.
• Lead lifecycle marketing (Email, SMS, Push) and testing cadence.
• Design and maintain marketing data infrastructure and dashboards.
• Collaborate with the CMO on paid channels and creative tests.

Skills

Growth analytics

Lifecycle marketing

SQL proficiency

AI tooling

Tools

Klaviyo

Segment

Amplitude

BigQuery

Fivetran

Job description

Director of Growth & Retention (AI-Native)

At Magic Story we're looking for a Director of Growth & Retention (AI-Native) to join our team.

About Magic Story

Magic Story is an AI-powered kids’ media platform where every child becomes the hero of their own franchise. We create deeply personalized books and digital experiences that build emotional intelligence and turn bedtime into a ritual families love. Our proprietary AI engine produces studio-quality, one-of-one content at scale — redefining what personalized kids’ entertainment can be. Backed by Point72 Ventures and The House Fund, we’re a small, high-output team scaling fast.

The Role

We’re hiring a Director of Growth & Retention (AI-Native) to own the systems, execution, and performance that drive subscriber growth and long-term retention.

This is not a reporting role. It’s an operator role.

You will be accountable for improving conversion, reducing churn, increasing LTV, and building a lifecycle engine that compounds over time. You’ll partner closely with our CMO on brand and creative direction, while owning the growth infrastructure and experimentation that moves revenue.

If you like ownership, autonomy, and measurable impact — this role is for you.

What You’ll Own

Growth & Retention Outcomes

You are accountable for:

Subscriber growth efficiency

Onboarding activation

Churn reduction

LTV expansion

Win-back performance

Lifecycle revenue contribution

You own numbers — not just campaigns.

Lifecycle Marketing (Email, SMS, Push)

Integrate support data (Gorgias) into lifecycle logic

Run continuous testing on messaging, timing, sequencing, and segmentation

Increase lifecycle velocity — more experiments, faster iteration, clearer learnings

Marketing Systems, Reporting & Data Infrastructure

Own the marketing stack (Klaviyo, Segment, Amplitude, BigQuery, Fivetran)

Design and improve event tracking across the customer journey

Build dashboards that clearly show what’s working

Write SQL in BigQuery when needed

Fix broken pipes without waiting on engineering

You should be technical enough to operate independently.

Performance & Experimentation

Partner with the CMO on paid channel optimization and creative testing

Identify bottlenecks in funnel conversion and fix them

Develop and ship growth experiments weekly

Build repeatable systems for testing and iteration

AI-Native Operating Standard

We are an AI-first company. We expect you to operate the same way.

You should:

Use AI daily to generate campaign variations and hypotheses

Automate repetitive analysis and reporting

Mine churn reasons and customer feedback using AI

Build lightweight workflows that increase output without increasing headcount

Move 2–3x faster than traditional marketing teams

AI is leverage. We expect you to use it.

What We’re Looking For

We value:

Agency

Ownership

Bias toward action

High standards

Technical chops matter. You should have strong hands-on experience with lifecycle tools and analytics. But if you wield AI like a weapon and can ramp quickly, we care more about output than perfect tool overlap.

Strong candidates typically have:

SQL proficiency (BigQuery preferred)

Experience with Segment or similar CDPs

Subscription or DTC experience

But above all: you’ve materially improved growth metrics before.

What Success Looks Like (First 3 Months)

Clear visibility into the full customer journey

Improved lifecycle conversion and measurable churn reduction

Faster experiment cycles and cleaner analytics

Growth systems that scale without founder micromanagement

A marketing engine that feels sharp, not chaotic

Why This Is a High-Impact Role

You’ll join a small, AI-native team building a category-defining company. You’ll have autonomy, responsibility, and direct influence on growth and retention.

If you want to build something meaningful — and see your work move numbers every week — we’d love to talk.