Director, Lifecycle & Organic Growth

About KOHO

We’re on a mission to make financial services better for every Canadian. That means no hidden fees, no predatory interest rates - just financial products designed to help our users spend smart, save more, and build real wealth. We’re a performance organization with a strong heart: we care deeply about outcomes, and everything ties back to our mission - to financially empower a generation of Canadians.

At KOHO, we’re not your average 9-5. We believe real impact comes from people who are trusted, empowered, and supported to do their best work - without sacrificing their lives to do it. We prioritize work-life integration, not just work-life balance. That means asynchronous collaboration, flexible hours, and a remote-first setup built around autonomy and high trust.

KOHO is entering its next chapter - leaner, smarter, more AI-integrated. We’re building for impact, not bureaucracy. If you thrive in environments that value clarity, ownership, and bold thinking, you’ll fit right in.

About The Role

Lifecycle and Organic Growth own two things at KOHO: how Canadians find us without paid media, and every message they get from us after they sign up. As Director, Lifecycle & Organic Growth, you'll set the strategy for both and lead the teams that deliver it. On the Lifecycle side that means email, push, in-app, and SMS. On the Organic side it means koho.ca, SEO, GEO, the App Store and Google Play, and content marketing.

You won't be starting from scratch. Lifecycle already measures its impact with a randomized global control group, tied to company KPIs like activation, power users, retention and contribution margin rather than open rates. It has a documented operating model, two-part peer QA on every send, a tiered legal review process, and an incident and continuity framework designed for a regulated financial institution. Your job is to scale what's working: grow incremental impact, bring the same measurement rigour to Organic, and connect the two into one owned-channel growth engine.

You'll report to the Chief Growth Officer and lead a team of seven. You'll work closely with Product, Data, Legal & Compliance, Creative, Integrated Marketing, Performance Marketing and Engineering.

What You'll Do

Strategy and outcomes

• Own the strategy, roadmap and targets for Lifecycle and Organic Growth. You're accountable for business outcomes (registrations, activation, engagement, retention and contribution margin).

• Lead lifecycle programs across the whole customer journey: onboarding, activation, cross-sell and upsell, reactivation, retention and servicing.

• Set direction for organic acquisition across koho.ca, SEO, GEO (visibility in AI-powered search), app store optimization and content, alongside the senior domain lead who runs it day to day.

• Bring Lifecycle-grade measurement to Organic: clear definitions, metrics anyone can reproduce, and reporting that connects organic presence to registrations and activation.

• Connect owned channels with Paid, Affiliates and Product so the customer journey works end to end, not just channel by channel.

Measurement and experimentation

• Steward the global control group and the incrementality program. Make sure every result the team reports is causal and holds up to scrutiny.

• Own the experimentation roadmap (A/B tests, holdouts, multivariate journeys) and turn results into decisions.

• Present performance and strategy to the executive team in regular business reviews.

Operations, governance and risk

• Own the Lifecycle operating model: intake, prioritization, spec, peer QA, legal review tiering, launch and post-launch measurement.

• Partner with Legal and Compliance so every customer communication is accurate, compliant and auditable, in both English and French.

• Own incident response and business continuity for customer messaging, including fallback sending and escalation paths.

• Own website governance: who can publish, how changes are reviewed, and how releases are protected.

• Own the owned-channel martech stack and its vendors, with Braze as the core platform. That covers contracts, renewals and platform health.

People

• Lead, develop and retain a team of senior managers and specialists, and hire as the team grows.

• Keep the career ladder clear, and keep the team's engagement and growth high.

What You'll Need

• 10+ years in lifecycle, CRM or retention marketing at a B2C consumer tech, fintech or subscription business, including 4+ years leading managers.

• A track record of moving business metrics through owned channels, backed by incrementality evidence (holdouts, control groups) and not just engagement rates.

• Deep, hands-on fluency with a modern customer engagement platform (Braze strongly preferred): journey architecture, segmentation, Liquid personalization, and data integration through a CDP such as Segment.

• Working fluency in organic growth: SEO and technical SEO fundamentals, ASO, content strategy, and how AI search is changing discovery. You don't need to be a career SEO, but you do need to set strategy and challenge how results are measured.

• Strong analytical judgment. You're comfortable in SQL or working closely with Data, and you can tell when a number doesn't hold up.

• Experience in a regulated industry (financial services, insurance, health or telecom) where marketing goes through legal and compliance review.

• An operator's instinct: you've written the playbook, not just followed it.

• Executive communication that's clear and concise, and you raise bad news early.

• A record as a manager people want to work for, with the retention and engagement to show it.

• You're already using AI in your day-to-day work.

• Experience with Canadian financial services regulation and CASL.

• Experience with predictive or ML-driven personalization (churn, propensity, send-time).

Nice to Have

• Professional working proficiency in French

• Experience with a headless CMS (e.g. Sanity) and on-site experimentation

The posted salary range for this role is $175,000 – $210,000 CAD / year.

At KOHO, we are dedicated to providing pay transparency to all candidates. Compensation at KOHO is determined through various factors including but not limited to: comparable salary market data within Canada, technical skill assessment, a holistic view of previous work history, and internal pay equity with other KOHO team members.

Job Description in French (translated)

Director, Lifecycle & Organic Growth

About the Role

At KOHO, the Lifecycle and Organic Growth teams are responsible for two things: how Canadians discover us without paid media, and each message they receive from us after signing up. As Director, Lifecycle & Organic Growth, you will define the strategy for these two areas and lead the teams that carry it out. On the Lifecycle side, this includes email, push notifications, in-app messages and text messages. On the Organic side, it includes koho.ca, search engine optimization (SEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), the App Store and Google Play, and content marketing.

You won't be starting from scratch. The Lifecycle team already measures its impact using a randomized global control group, linked to company KPIs such as activation, power users, retention and contribution margin rather than open rates. It has a documented operating model, two-step peer quality control for every send, a tiered legal review process, and an incident and continuity framework designed for a regulated financial institution. Your role will be to grow what works: increase incremental impact, bring the same measurement rigour to Organic, and bring the two together into a single owned-channel growth engine.

You will report to the Chief Growth Officer and lead a team of seven people. You will work closely with the Product, Data, Legal & Compliance, Creative, Integrated Marketing, Performance Marketing and Engineering teams.

What You'll Do

Strategy and outcomes

• Own the strategy, roadmap and targets for Lifecycle and Organic Growth. You are accountable for business results (registrations, activation, engagement, retention and contribution margin).

• Lead lifecycle programs across the entire customer journey: onboarding, activation, cross-sell and upsell, reactivation, retention and servicing.

• Set the direction for organic acquisition across koho.ca, SEO, GEO (visibility in AI-powered search engines), app store optimization and content, working with the senior domain lead who manages it day to day.

• Bring Lifecycle-level measurement to Organic: clear definitions, metrics anyone can reproduce, and reporting that links organic presence to registrations and activation.

• Connect owned channels with Paid, Affiliates and Product so the customer journey works end to end, not just channel by channel.

Measurement and experimentation

• Manage the global control group and the incrementality program. Ensure every result the team reports is causal and withstands scrutiny.

• Own the experimentation roadmap (A/B tests, control groups, multivariate journeys) and turn results into decisions.

• Present performance and strategy to the executive team in regular business reviews.

Operations, governance and risk

• Own the Lifecycle operating model: intake, prioritization, specifications, peer QA, legal review tiers, launch and post-launch measurement.

• Work with Legal and Compliance so every customer communication is accurate, compliant and auditable, in both English and French.

• Own incident response and business continuity for customer messaging, including fallback sending and escalation paths.

• Own website governance: who can publish, how changes are reviewed, and how releases are protected.

• Own the owned-channel martech stack and its vendors, with Braze as the main platform. This includes contracts, renewals and platform health.

People management

• Lead, develop and retain a team of senior managers and specialists, and hire as the team grows.

• Keep the career ladder clear and the team's engagement and growth high.

What You'll Need

• More than 10 years of experience in lifecycle marketing, CRM or retention marketing at a B2C consumer technology, fintech or subscription company, including at least 4 years leading managers.

• A proven track record of improving business metrics through owned channels, backed by incrementality evidence (control groups, holdouts) and not just engagement rates.

• Deep, hands-on expertise with a modern customer engagement platform (Braze strongly preferred): journey design, segmentation, Liquid personalization, and data integration through a customer data platform (CDP) such as Segment.

• Working knowledge of organic growth: SEO and technical SEO fundamentals, ASO, content strategy, and how AI search is changing discovery. You don't need to be a career SEO specialist, but you must be able to set strategy and question how results are measured.

• Strong analytical judgment. You are comfortable with SQL or working closely with Data, and you can tell when a number doesn't hold up.

• Experience in a regulated industry (financial services, insurance, health or telecom) where marketing goes through legal and compliance review.

• An operator's mindset: you have written the playbook, not just followed it.

• Clear and concise executive communication, and the habit of raising bad news early.

• A track record as a manager people want to work for, with the retention and engagement results to prove it.

• You already use AI in your daily work.

• Experience with Canadian financial services regulation and CASL (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation).

• Experience with predictive or machine learning-based personalization (churn, propensity, send timing).

Assets

• Professional working proficiency in French

• Experience with a headless CMS (e.g. Sanity) and on-site experimentation

Compensation

The posted salary range for this position is $175,000 – $210,000 CAD per year.

At KOHO, we are committed to pay transparency for all candidates. Compensation is determined by several factors, including comparable salary market data in Canada, technical skills assessment, the candidate's overall work history, and internal pay equity with other KOHO team members.

KOHO is for builders.

If you're energized by challenge, motivated by mission, and want to be part of a team that punches above its weight - we want to hear from you.

The KOHO culture is one of collaboration, creativity, and diverse perspectives. We are committed to building and fostering an inclusive, accessible environment for everyone. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding accessibility needs, please contact peopleaccessibility@koho.ca and the People and Culture team will be happy to help.

AI Disclosure: KOHO uses artificial intelligence (AI) in certain aspects of its recruitment process to screen, assess, or select applicants. For any questions or concerns, please contact us at talent@koho.ca.

Note: this posting is for an existing vacancy that we are seeking to fill.

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