Director, Marketing & Communications

# **About AL‑MONITOR**

AL‑MONITOR (AL‑MONITOR.com) is an award‑winning media service founded in 2012 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Jamal Daniel. Its mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the Middle East through world‑class reporting and analysis from and about the region. In its second year, AL‑MONITOR received the International Press Institute’s Free Media Pioneer Award, becoming the only American media outlet exclusively covering the Middle East to earn this distinction.

AL‑MONITOR is widely read by U.S., international, and Middle East decision‑makers at the highest levels, as well as by media, thought leaders, experts, and students. Its audience includes institutions such as the White House, Harvard University, NATO, the World Bank, and foreign and defense ministries around the world. With a multilingual platform that includes Mandarin Chinese, AL‑MONITOR reaches a global audience seeking trusted, in‑depth coverage of the region.

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# **The Role**

The Director, Marketing & Communications leads AL‑MONITOR’s subscription growth engine, owning the end‑to‑end strategy across acquisition, lifecycle, retention, and brand. This role carries significant commercial accountability and requires a highly strategic marketer who is equally confident interpreting data‑driven signals and shaping campaign creative.

Reporting to the Head of Business, the Director serves as the operational owner of subscription revenue growth and the strategic partner on revenue innovation and digital marketing strategy. The Director personally owns newsletter audience growth and acquisition strategy (Editorial owns the content), email program operations in HubSpot, leads ongoing HubSpot optimization, designs strategic segmentation and personalization frameworks, and runs paid retargeting and advertising programs.

They manage the Customer Success Manager and serve as the HubSpot point of contact for Editorial on list selection, segmentation, and email workflows in collaboration with Engineering.

This role heavily revolves around subscription growth strategy, hands‑on CRM and email execution, AI‑enabled marketing innovation, and cross‑functional collaboration across Product & Engineering, Editorial, Events, Accounting, and Legal.

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# **What You’ll Do**

– **Campaign management** — Lead end‑to‑end campaign planning, execution, optimization, and measurement aligned with business goals.
– **Subscription marketing** — Own acquisition, conversion, lifecycle, retention, and brand growth strategy.
– **Newsletter ecosystem leadership** — Drive newsletter audience capture and conversion in partnership with Editorial.
– **HubSpot ownership** — Operate HubSpot end‑to‑end: segmentation, personalization, automation, list hygiene, and platform configuration.
– **Lifecycle program design** — Build onboarding, engagement, retention, and winback programs with support from the Customer Success Manager.
– **Product collaboration** — Partner with Product & Engineering on personalization, paywall, gating, and conversion experiences.
– **Paywall strategy** — Define gating logic, run experiments, and optimize funnel conversion.
– **A/B testing** — Continuously test and optimize email, site, paywall, copy, and lifecycle programs.
– **Paid acquisition** — Run retargeting, abandoned cart, behavioral, lookalike, search, social, display, and programmatic campaigns.
– **Pricing & packaging** — Develop subscription pricing recommendations for quarterly review.
– **Cross‑functional leadership** — Serve as the link between marketing, editorial, product, CRM, analytics, and leadership.
– **Marketing calendar management** — Manage intake, identify bottlenecks, and coordinate multi‑channel campaigns.
– **AI integration** — Integrate AI across workflows for content, segmentation, lifecycle, competitive analysis, and productivity.
– **Team leadership** — Inspire, coach, and develop a high‑performing team.
– **Customer Success oversight** — Manage the Customer Success Manager and lead new‑hire enablement for marketing and tech tools.
– **Competitive analysis** — Conduct industry research and bring forward new ideas and experiments.
– **SEO partnership** — Collaborate with Editorial on SEO, content distribution, and audience insights.
– **Brand voice collaboration** — Work with Editorial on copy standards across subscriber‑facing communications.
– **Marketing compliance** — Partner with Legal on TOS, privacy, email compliance, GDPR/CCPA.
– **Budget management** — Manage the marketing budget and translate data into insights for leadership.

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# **What You Need to Succeed**

– 7–10 years in subscription, lifecycle, or growth marketing at a subscription media, membership, or B2C/B2B subscription business.
– 3–5 years of people management experience.
– Deep hands‑on experience with HubSpot or comparable CRM platforms.
– Familiarity with subscription billing platforms (ChargeBee, Recurly, Stripe Billing, etc.).
– Proven ownership of email and lifecycle program design and execution.
– Direct experience with paywall and gating strategy.
– Hands‑on experience with paid retargeting and acquisition.
– Cross‑functional experience with product, editorial, legal, or finance teams.
– Strong analytical mindset and comfort with subscription metrics and A/B testing.
– Hands‑on operator comfortable with both strategy and execution.
– Strategic self‑starter with initiative and curiosity.
– Authorization to work in the United States.

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# **Nice to Have**

– Experience in subscription media, membership organizations, or D2C subscription businesses.
– Interest in policy, foreign affairs, or journalism.
– Strong newsletter intuition.
– High‑energy self‑starter.
– Strong communication and presentation skills.

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# **What We Can Offer You**

Join AL‑MONITOR for meaningful work on a respected, award‑winning publication, based in Washington, DC or New York City. Benefits include:

– Competitive compensation
– Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage (dental and vision fully employer‑paid)
– HSA savings available
– Generous PTO that grows with tenure
– 11 paid holidays
– Fully‑paid life insurance and short‑term disability

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# **How to Apply**

Email your resume and a brief cover note (why this role, why AL‑MONITOR) to **[email protected]** with **“Director, Marketing & Communications”** in the subject line. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

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# **Additional Information**

AL‑MONITOR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, protected Veteran status, or other factors protected by law.