VP, Customer Data Strategist (Hybrid)

A+E Global Media; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 234,216 - 274,033; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

401k matching

Range of other benefits

Job summary

A+E Global Media in the United States seeks a VP, Customer Data Strategist to define how first-party audience data becomes a strategic asset across marketing, product, and revenue. You will lead the Analytics Engineering function, shaping a composable CDP and identity infrastructure, ensuring data is a core input for leadership decisions.

You will drive a roadmap for data activation, collaborate with Digital, Marketing, and New Business, and champion data governance and privacy across channels.

Qualifications

• 10+ years leading technical teams (analytics engineers)
• 7+ years in customer data strategy, CDP/MarTech, or marketing analytics
• 5+ years of people management experience
• Knowledge of composable CDP platforms and identity resolution concepts
• 5+ years directing data engineering on cloud warehouses and visualization tools
• Experience integrating first-party data with activation platforms

Responsibilities

• Define strategic roadmap for composable CDP and identity resolution capabilities.
• Activate audience journeys to drive engagement and revenue per user.
• Oversee Analytics Engineering to build activation pipelines to downstream tools.
• Partner with data platforms to connect owned signals with paid media performance.
• Embed first-party data into campaigns, product decisions, and growth initiatives.
• Provide updates to leadership on data infrastructure and identity resolution capabilities.

Skills

Data strategy

Chief data leadership

Marketing analytics

People management

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Hightouch

Snowflake

Iterable

Adobe

Job description

Work Locations:

With the exception of some select roles that have in-office requirements, A+E Global Media operates on a flexible model that allows for remote, hybrid or full time in office work (in certain locales).

Office locations include New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Stamford, CT.

Our list of eligible states in which employees may work remotely includes: California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Division Story

Do numbers tell you stories? Can you relay complex information in bite-sized nuggets to non-researchers? Do you enjoy influencing business decisions by providing fact-based recommendations infused with intuition? Our Research and Insights Team is comprised of wizards who practice the craft of “art and science.” We spend much of our time looking back at performance — and even more time looking forward making actionable recommendations for growing our business. We specialize in content, audience and revenue insights across all platforms. Come check out our pioneering work in predictive modeling, performance marketing and algorithms. Pocket protectors not required.

Job Description

THE ROLE: VP, Customer Data Strategist

In this pivotal role, you will define how A+E turns its rapidly growing first-party audience data into a strategic business asset — designing the audience frameworks, use cases, and measurement models that connect our data to marketing, product, and revenue outcomes across the company. You will oversee our Analytics Engineering function, translating strategy into a working composable CDP and identity infrastructure, and will work to ensure that Digital, Marketing, and New Business leadership treat first-party data as a primary input that shapes strategy from the outset. You will work in close coordination across the enterprise on shared business challenges and emerging analytical approaches.

More About What You'll Do

• Define the strategic roadmap for our composable CDP and identity resolution capabilities, prioritizing use cases that drive measurable business value as new data sources come online
• Design and activate Audience Customer Journeys that increase engagement and revenue per user, defining the logic behind lifecycle stages, churn risk, and high-value customer segmentation
• Oversee our Analytics Engineering team, directing the build of activation pipelines that flow into Iterable, Adobe, and other downstream marketing and personalization tools
• Partner with our media agency's data platform (e.g., BLU) to connect owned audience signals with paid media performance, strengthening measurement of paid-plus-owned impact
• Champion first-party data as a starting point for strategy, not a downstream add-on — embedding it early into how Digital, Marketing, and New Business teams plan campaigns, product decisions, and growth initiatives
• Act as the senior voice in strategic planning conversations with Digital, Marketing, and New Business leadership, pushing toward decisions grounded in first-party data rather than assumptions or third-party proxies
• Define the KPIs and ROI frameworks — including lifts in engagement, retention, and conversion — that prove first-party data investments are driving business outcomes, sharing findings with leadership across the enterprise
• Apply AI and advanced analytics judgment to identify new opportunities from expanding first-party data, directing Analytics Engineering to bring them to life
• Maintain a strategic view of the identity, CDP, and data activation landscape, evaluating new AI-driven platforms and approaches relevant to A+E's data strategy
• Enact strategies that grow AEGM's first-party data footprint
• Design identity resolution and data architecture to accommodate new customer data sources as the business evolves — including potential new business lines, products, or organizational combinations
• Build governance and onboarding frameworks that allow new first-party data sets to be integrated into the existing CDP and identity infrastructure without re-architecting from scratch
• Provide periodic updates to Media Solutions on first-party data infrastructure and identity resolution capabilities as they evolve
• Share relevant success stories from first-party data-driven marketing targeting that may inform future Media Solutions product thinking
• Partner with Legal and Media Solutions to understand data usage rights and restrictions across distribution partners, informing what's realistically activatable
• Participate in regular working sessions with Media Solutions to explore potential first-party data applications as infrastructure matures
• Work with Legal to ensure data privacy laws (GDPR/CCPA) are strictly governed across all channels

What Success Looks Like

• Digital, Marketing, and New Business leadership consistently bring first-party data into strategic planning from the start
• A clear, prioritized set of high-ROI audience use cases, backed by a composable CDP and identity resolution foundation that scales cleanly as new data sources come online
• An identity and data architecture flexible enough to absorb new customer data sources — new business lines, products, or larger-scale organizational change — without requiring a rebuild
• Demonstrated lift in engagement, retention, or conversion tied directly to first-party-data-driven strategy, with clear ROI frameworks in place
• A measurable, evidence-backed connection between owned audience signals and paid media performance, demonstrated through the BLU/agency partnership
• A high-functioning Analytics Engineering team delivering a reusable audience activation infrastructure adopted across Iterable, Adobe, and other downstream platforms, rather than one-off builds per team
• Recognition as the senior voice and trusted advisor on first-party data and audience strategy across Digital, Marketing, and New Business

Basic Qualifications

• At least 10 years of experience leading and managing technical teams (e.g., analytics engineers), even if not hands-on with the code personally
• At least 7 years of experience in customer data strategy, CDP/MarTech, or marketing analytics
• At least 5 years of direct people management experience
• Working knowledge of composable CDP platforms (e.g., Hightouch), identity resolution concepts (deterministic vs. probabilistic matching), and applied AI/ML — enough to direct and evaluate technical work, without requiring hands-on coding
• At least 5 years of directing data engineering work on cloud data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake) and visualization tools (e.g., DOMO) to bring strategy to life
• At least 5 integrating first‑party data strategy with activation platforms such as Iterable and Adobe

The Ideal Candidate Will Be/Have

• Master communicator and change agent who can shift how leaders think about data — from reactive reporting to proactive, first‑party-data‑led strategy
• Executive presence with the ability to advise and influence Digital, Marketing, and New Business leaders as a peer, not a support function
• Strong point of view on applying AI and machine learning to audience data, with the judgement to separate genuine opportunity from hype
• Experience integrating first‑party data strategy with activation platforms such as Iterable and Adobe
• Familiarity with agency‑side data ecosystems and paid media measurement platforms

Compensation

Annual Pay Range: $234,216 - $274,033

Annual Incentive Target: 25.00%

The annual/hourly pay range displayed serves as a good faith estimate of the minimum and maximum base pay range for this role. Compensation for the role will be based on a number of different factors such as a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, location, and experience. A+E offers a competitive total compensation package, which includes healthcare coverage, 401k matching, and a range of other benefits. Learn more at www.aegm.com/careers.

• healthcare coverage
• 401k matching
• range of other benefits

A+E Global Media proudly provides equal employment opportunity for all employees and job applicants, and makes employment decisions consistent with this principle. The company’s employment actions and decisions – including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, demotion, compensation, transfer, layoff, and termination – are made without regard to an employee’s race, color, religion, creed, age, national origin, ancestry, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, alienage or citizenship status, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, family and medical leave status, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

A+E Global Media is a joint venture of the Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

We are proud to be an Affiantive Action/Equal Opportunity Employer/Disabled/Veterans.