Director, Retention

Who are we:
Caraway is a home goods brand on a mission to craft well-designed, non-toxic kitchenware that thoughtfully raises the standards of what you cook with. We’re passionate about creating elevated products, free of chemicals, that are better for you, your family, and the world. We prioritize a holistic approach to the creation of Caraway products. We partner with ethical manufacturers where their employees are safe, paid fairly, given benefits, and work regulated hours. Our eco-friendly manufacturing process releases less CO2 into the environment than traditional non-stick coatings and we engage in sustainable packaging practices, free of single-use plastics and ship in packaging made from recycled materials. We pride ourselves on continuously striving to do and be better - for you and the planet - every step of the process. 

Since launching in November 2019, we’ve become one of the fastest growing digitally-native brands of the last decade and are now sold in retailers including Target, Bloomingdale’s, Crate and Barrel, Container Store, Costco, Zola, and many more.

We’ve amassed over 70,000+ five-star reviews from happy customers and hundreds of press hits from the likes of Vogue, Domino, Good Housekeeping, Food and Wine, Architectural Digest, PureWow, Fortune, CNN. 

Caraway is a fully-remote company filled with motivated and hardworking innovators and doers. We’re continually developing programs to support our distributed team to ensure a successful remote experience. If you’re looking to join a brand that folks love, read on and apply! 

The Opportunity:
Caraway is seeking a Director of Retention to lead and optimize our retention and lifecycle marketing strategies. This person will oversee our Retention Manager, providing mentorship and coaching in a high-performing, rewarding environment. This role will be responsible for maximizing customer lifetime value by optimizing key retention touch points across email, SMS, lightboxes, logged in accounts, post-purchase, loyalty, referral, direct mail, app, and more. 

The Director of Retention will play a key role in developing and executing our email, SMS, referral and review programs. They will bring deep experience building automations and dynamic functionality into tools like Klaviyo, Postscript, and Okendo, and are familiar with measurement strategies to ensure every campaign, flow, or referral widget is driving incremental value. This role will ensure that every customer journey is meticulously optimized to deliver a seamless and personalized experience that keeps our customers engaged and loyal.

Your success will be measured by your ability to own and drive key KPIs, including: 

• List size
• Customer LTV (aggregate and by product)
• Repeat Purchase Rate
• Review Rate
• Referral Rate

This position will collaborate across teams to align retention strategies with broader business goals, ensuring that our marketing efforts not only drive repeat purchases but also contribute to building long-term brand loyalty and household-level recognition. Our team is dynamic, data-driven, and constantly experimenting with new strategies to understand what truly resonates with our customers. We are looking for someone who can take our retention efforts to the next level, ensuring that Caraway continues to grow as a generational brand with a passionate and loyal customer base.

Who You Are: 
You are a seasoned digital and eCommerce expert who has led the retention function at a fast-growing consumer business. You know the latest and greatest email and SMS tactics to drive increased repeat rates, and also have a strong vision about how to build a retention ecosystem that enables multi-product purchasing and natural LTV growth. You know that list size is only one variable and you have the strategy to design a retention program to move someone from lead → purchaser → evangelizer. You are skeptical of typical reporting techniques and work with data teams to connect the dots of the incremental effects on revenue of your channels’ touchpoints. You’re comfortable collaborating cross-functionally to develop comprehensive programs or tests. You have the ability to work autonomously, proactively identifying opportunities and making sound, data-driven decisions. You love developing and mentoring team members, constantly raising the standards for them and their work. You navigate uncertainty and drive progress effectively, using the end goal to chart clear and impactful paths to success.

Responsibilities:
Owning the Full Retention Stack
You will own all retention channels, including email and SMS (Klaviyo and Postscript), reviews (Okendo), referrals (Revo), and list growth. You'll explore and make a recommendation for launching a loyalty program, designing a seamless customer account experience to ensure exceptional value across all touchpoints.
Leadership, Team Management, and Coaching
You will lead our retention team, mentoring your Retention Manager and providing strategic direction. You'll drive the execution of experiments and leverage data, offering hands-on support when needed. You will manage key partners and agencies that support retention programs, ensuring alignment and maximizing program effectiveness.
Measurement and Analytics
You will own repeat and existing customer revenue targets, collaborating with digital product, creative, brand, finance, operations, and growth teams. You'll work with our testing partner, Haus, to design experiments and guide the team in leveraging data to optimize business performance.
Growing Customer Segments
Collaborate with the data team to segment our record list into high-impact cohorts, prioritizing key segments based on opportunity. Regularly test and optimize lightbox offers and messaging to drive list growth and improve list health.
Maximizing Caraway LTV
Analyze customer touchpoints and journeys to optimize timing, messaging, and product recommendations for LTV growth. Proactively work with data and creative teams to update and optimize campaigns and flows.
Leading GTM, Campaign Execution, and Business-Wide Events
Own journey mapping for new product launches, sitewide events, and brand-wide campaigns. Strategically introduce new products to relevant customer segments to maximize upsell opportunities and LTV growth.
Resource Planning and ROI Management
Own resource planning for retention initiatives, ensuring efficient allocation of budget and resources. Monitor and assess the ROI of all retention activities, making data-driven adjustments to maximize impact and ensure positive returns on investment.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Experience:
  • 8+ years of experience in retention/CRM/lifecycle marketing or related roles, with a minimum of 4 years in a management role
  • Experience working across retention channels and tactics to augment LTV and increase brand engagement
  • Strong experience in launching and scaling new retention channels, with a thorough understanding of associated measurement methodologies and performance metrics
• Analytical Skills:
  • Proficient in advanced marketing analytics, comfortable with ingesting multiple inputs to triangulate performance and assess channel impact
  • Experience with incrementality testing to gauge causal impact of various marketing efforts
• Technical Expertise:
  • Expert using Klaviyo
  • Experience using Postscript, Okendo, Revo and measurement platforms (Looker) and Shopify ecosystem/apps, preferred
• Leadership: 
  • Exceptional leadership and communication skills - your team’s success is your success and you love mentoring and coaching team members. 
  • Proven track record in managing diverse marketing teams and driving measurable success in retention, ideally within the DTC/e-commerce industry
• Attitude: 
  • Quick thinking, self-starting, relentlessly positive - we’re a startup, we are quick to fail, quicker to learn and always look forward to raise the standards of our process, our teams and our business

Nice to haves:
 

• Experience in DTC and eCommerce
• Experience with Looker, Heap and other tools leveraged internally for reporting 

The anticipated base salary range for this role ​is $150,000 - $190,000 - Final compensation will depend on a variety of factors determining the base pay at offer, including but not limited to: skills, qualifications, experience. This range provides the opportunity to progress as you grow and develop within a role.

Caraway Life: Caraway is an exciting, fully remote DTC retail startup company that is bringing kitchenware and home goods into the modern era, leading from a non-toxic and sustainable foundation.

Team: You will be joining a passionate and collaborative fully-remote team that prides itself on high-quality work, supporting one another, sharing our successes, and building a brand we truly love, together.
Culture: At Caraway, we value continuous learning and career growth. We strive to continually optimize our processes, ensuring that we’re thoughtful in everything we do, both internally and externally. We listen to our employees, celebrate our wins, and constantly look for ways to be better for our team, and the world. 
Workplace: Being a fully-remote company, we have no headquarters and are truly distributed across the country. Our leadership team sits on both the East and West Coast and we have folks in a variety of states. We offer a monthly stipend towards co-working space should folks need to switch up their working environment every now and then.
Benefits: We value you and your family. With this in mind, full-time eligible employees are provided: 

• Health, dental, and vision offerings for you and your dependents
• Equity for full time employees
• Unlimited PTO 
• 11+ paid holidays
• 3 months Parental leave
• Fully Remote Company
• Company-sponsored monthly wellness stipend
• Company-sponsored monthly coworking stipend
• Pre-tax Commuter and FSA/Dependent Care FSA, and HSA options
• 401(k) plan
• High quality home and kitchen product + swag, FandF discounts

Caraway is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status