Director of Retention

Alpha Lion; California City (CA); Remote; USD 130,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpha Lion is a fast-growing brand seeking a Director of Retention who will own our retention engine end-to-end. You will deeply understand our customers—their goals, behaviors, and why they stay or churn—and translate that into a competitive advantage in post-purchase journeys.

This hands-on role requires you to work across data, platforms, and teams to grow customer lifetime value, drive retention-driven revenue, and scale the subscription and loyalty experiences from onboarding through

Qualifications

• 7–10+ years in Retention, Lifecycle/CRM, or Subscription growth within DTC e-commerce.
• Proven track record managing a subscription book of 25,000+ active subscribers.
• Demonstrable retention impact with NRR, churn, or LTV improvements.
• Hands-on expertise with Klaviyo, Attentive, Recharge/Skio/Stay, Shopify and related data tools.

Responsibilities

• Own the retention lifecycle end-to-end including emails, SMS, and in-app messaging.
• Lead segmentation, automated journeys, and testing to improve activation and longevity.
• Build a customer intelligence engine using cohorts, NPS, reviews, and zero-party data.
• Scale a lean retention team with clear ownership and KPIs.
• Collaborate with Brand, Growth, Product, and Operations to align GTM strategies.
• Monitor retention metrics and drive initiatives that boost LTV and revenue.

Skills

Retention Leadership

Lifecycle/CRM

Subscription Growth

Klaviyo

Attentive

Recharge/Skio/Stay

Shopify

Data Infrastructure

Tools

Klaviyo

Attentive

Recharge/Skio/Stay

Shopify

Job description

Role Summary

Alpha Lion is looking for a Director of Retention to own our retention engine end-to-end. You'll be the person who deeply understands our customers - their goals, behaviors, and why they stay (or leave) - and turns that understanding into a real competitive advantage. This is a hands-on role: you're not just setting strategy, you're in the data, in the platforms, and in the details of the post-purchase journey, identifying and executing the highest-impact ways to grow Customer Lifetime Value. Your work directly fuels how aggressively and profitably Alpha Lion can acquire new customers.

Responsibilities

• Own the retention calendar end-to-end - offers, incentives, LTOs, launches, cross-sell, and reactivation - partnering with Brand and Growth on GTM strategy.


• Own subscription performance and economics: take rate, churn, reactivation, subscriber LTV/LTR, and contribution margin.


• Build and scale a world-class subscription and loyalty experience, from onboarding through offboarding, in partnership with Product and Operations.


• Lead lifecycle and CRM end-to-end (Email, SMS, Push) - strategy, segmentation, automated journeys, and continuous testing across messaging, offers, and timing.


• Build a customer intelligence engine: leverage behavioral data, cohorts, NPS, reviews, and zero-party data to uncover the highest-impact opportunities across the customer journey.


• Build and develop a lean, high-performing retention team, with clear ownership, KPIs, and operating cadences.

What Success Looks Like

• Returning customer revenue, LTV, and contribution margin materially exceed targets, making Retention a real driver of company growth.


• A subscription program that consistently improves adoption, cross-sell, and longevity - not just maintains the status quo.


• A loyalty program with measurable, demonstrable impact on repeat purchase and customer value.


• Customer and cohort insights that don't just live in a report - they translate into concrete actions across Retention, Product, Brand, and Acquisition.

Who You Are:

• You think like a business owner - you prioritize based on incremental revenue and LTV impact, not just channel-level metrics.


• You combine consumer psychology with hard behavioral data to find opportunities others miss.


• You're proactive - you bring solutions to the table before they become fire drills.


• You're comfortable being hands-on while simultaneously building the team and systems needed to scale.


• You build strong cross-functional relationships - Brand, Growth, Product, CX, Data all trust you and work well with you.

Experience & Skills:

• 7-10+ years in Retention, Lifecycle/CRM, or Subscription growth within DTC e-commerce, including several years in a senior or leadership capacity.


• Proven track record managing a subscription book of 25,000+ active subscribers, or a clear, defensible reason your trajectory doesn't fit that exact benchmark (e.g., took a brand from 0 to meaningful scale, or ran retention for a high-LTV/lower-volume premium brand).


• Demonstrable retention impact - a specific, defensible track record of moving NRR, gross churn, or LTV by meaningful points, and generating $25M+ in retention-driven revenue.


• Deep, hands-on expertise across the modern retention stack: Klaviyo (email), Attentive or equivalent (SMS), Recharge/Skio/Stay or equivalent (subscription), Shopify, and the data infrastructure that connects them.

Nice to have:

• Background in health, wellness, supplements, beauty, or premium lifestyle DTC.


• Track record designing and executing loyalty programs at scale.

Why Alpha Lion:

Alpha Lion is a fast-growing, performance-driven brand focused on helping people unleash their Superhuman potential. We are building scalable systems, raising the bar on execution, and creating long-term competitive advantage in our category. This role offers the opportunity to work on high-impact initiatives, learn rapidly, and grow alongside a company that values ownership, curiosity, and results. If you're excited by optimization, experimentation, and building systems that scale, Alpha Lion is a place where your work will matter.

Compensation:

We believe in competing at a high level - and that includes how we approach pay. This is a remote-first role, open to candidates in the US or LATAM.

The expected base salary range for this position is $130,000-$150,000 USD. Your offer will reflect your experience, skill set, and where you live - we calibrate pay to ensure fairness and alignment with local markets.

Beyond base pay, team members may be eligible for performance bonuses, growth incentives, and benefits built to support their health, wellness, and professional goals.