Maverick Insider Retention Manager

Job Advert Summary

Do you have a knack for organising and understanding subscriber trends? Is maximising member experience and reducing churn your field of expertise? If yes, the Maverick Insider Retention Manager role at Daily Maverick may be right for you!

The Retention Manager will own the retention strategy for the Maverick Insider membership programme, with a particular focus on reducing involuntary churn caused by failed payments and preventing voluntary cancellations through proactive engagement.

The successful candidate will monitor subscription performance daily, identify retention risks, develop recovery campaigns, improve payment success rates, and work closely with the technology, customer support, and finance teams to maximise member lifetime value.

Minimum Requirements

Essential

• 1-3+ years of experience in retention marketing, subscriptions, CRM, lifecycle marketing, or customer success.
• Experience managing payment recovery or subscription retention programmes.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills.
• Experience using CRM and marketing automation platforms.
• Excellent written communication skills.
• Ability to work with large datasets and translate insights into action.
• Strong project management and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred

• Experience in reader revenue, media subscriptions, membership organisations, SaaS, or recurring revenue businesses.
• Experience with payment platforms and subscription billing systems.
• Familiarity with SQL, Google Analytics, marketing automation tools, and customer data platforms.
• Experience with A/B testing and lifecycle optimisation.

Personal Attributes

• Highly analytical and data-driven.
• Detail-oriented and operationally rigorous.
• Curious and proactive problem solver.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Passion for journalism and independent media.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Payment Recovery & Subscription Operations

• Monitor daily subscription payment performance across all payment providers.
• Track payment success rates, failure rates, recovery rates, and outstanding failed payments.
• Identify trends in payment failures and recommend improvements.
• Manage automated and manual payment recovery programmes.
• Develop card-update, payment retry, and billing recovery journeys.
• Coordinate with payment providers and technology partners to resolve recurring payment issues.
• Maintain reporting on failed payments, payment recovery, and revenue at risk.

Retention Marketing

• Develop and execute retention campaigns aimed at reducing member churn.
• Build targeted communication journeys for members at risk of cancelling.
• Design and optimise email, WhatsApp, and in-app retention campaigns.
• Create win-back campaigns for lapsed members.
• Test messaging, offers, and interventions to improve retention outcomes.
• Manage lifecycle communications related to membership renewals and account updates.

Churn Reduction

• Analyse cancellation trends and member feedback.
• Identify key drivers of voluntary and involuntary churn.
• Develop retention initiatives to improve member satisfaction and engagement.
• Build predictive models and segmentation strategies to identify at-risk members.
• Work with editorial and product teams to improve member value propositions.

Data & Reporting

• Produce daily, weekly, and monthly retention reporting.
• Monitor key metrics including:
• • Membership retention rate
    • Churn rate
    • Failed payment rate
    • Payment recovery rate
    • Renewal rate
    • Member lifetime value
    • Net member revenue growth
• Conduct cohort and behavioural analysis to identify retention opportunities.
• Present recommendations and performance insights to leadership.

Member Experience

• Collaborate with customer support teams to resolve membership issues.
• Identify friction points in payment, onboarding, and membership management journeys.
• Improve processes that help members maintain uninterrupted access and support.
• Ensure retention communications are member-centric and aligned with Daily Maverick's brand and mission.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Growth, Product, Finance, Data, Technology, and Editorial teams.
• Contribute to broader reader revenue and membership growth initiatives.
• Support the implementation of new payment methods, subscription products, and retention tools.