Director of Customer Growth & Insights
The Director of Customer Growth & Insights is responsible for driving customer growth at Pet Food Express through data-driven insights, strategic marketing initiatives, and ongoing testing and optimization of marketing performance. Reporting to the Chief of Merchandising and Marketing, this role serves as the strategic bridge between customer behavior, merchandising priorities, and marketing execution.
By analyzing customer data across loyalty, ecommerce, marketing campaigns, and store behavior, this leader identifies opportunities to increase customer acquisition, store traffic, visit frequency, and lifetime value. The Director of Customer Growth & Insights translates those insights into clear marketing strategies and growth initiatives that are executed through the marketing, digital, and creative teams.
This role provides leadership and direction for the Integrated Marketing, Customer Marketing & Digital, and Creative functions, ensuring alignment across campaigns, customer engagement strategies, and brand storytelling. The role partners closely with Merchandising, Visual Merchandising, and Store Operations to ensure marketing initiatives are aligned with business priorities and grounded in customer behavior.
Please Note: This position is a hybrid role, involving on-site work each week at our corporate headquarters in Concord, CA. Candidates who are fully remote or outside of reasonable commuting distance will not be considered at this time.
Responsibilities:
Customer Insights & Data Strategy
Analyze customer data across loyalty, ecommerce, and campaign performance to identify actionable growth opportunities and inform marketing decisions.
Evaluate customer purchase behavior, category penetration, migration patterns, visit frequency, and lifetime value to uncover trends and opportunities.
Translate customer insights into clear, actionable recommendations that shape marketing priorities and campaign direction.
Identify underpenetrated customer segments and opportunities to increase engagement and conversion across categories and channels.
Customer Growth Strategy
Develop and drive initiatives that increase customer acquisition, traffic, visit frequency, retention, and lifetime value.
Recommend marketing priorities based on customer insights, commercial opportunities, and business goals.
Partner with merchandising to align category priorities with customer demand and growth opportunities.
Collaborate with vendor partners to develop data-informed co-marketing initiatives and align customer insights with Joint Business Plan (JBP) priorities.
Marketing Performance & Optimization
Use performance data to evaluate campaigns and identify opportunities to improve results and scale what is working.
Use performance data to adjust campaigns in market, improving messaging, channel mix, and promotional effectiveness.
Refine marketing strategies, promotions, and customer programs based on performance insights.
Identify opportunities to improve effectiveness across channels, including in-store, digital, and vendor-supported marketing.
Strategic Campaign Direction
Guide campaign direction to ensure marketing initiatives are informed by customer insights and aligned with growth priorities.
Shape marketing themes, customer moments, and storytelling that drive engagement and traffic.
Partner with Digital and Creative teams to ensure alignment across lifecycle marketing, messaging, and execution.
Marketing Leadership
Provide leadership, direction, and prioritization for the Integrated Marketing, Customer Marketing & Digital, and Creative teams.
Set clear marketing priorities across campaigns, loyalty, digital engagement, and brand initiatives.
Ensure marketing initiatives are aligned with business priorities, merchandising strategy, and customer insights.
Build a collaborative, accountable, and high-performing marketing organization focused on driving customer growth.
Cross-Functional Leadership
Partner with Merchandising, Marketing, Digital, Creative, and Store Operations to align marketing strategies with business priorities.
Influence marketing and merchandising decisions through data-driven insights and clear recommendations.
Share customer insights with merchandising and vendor partners to inform joint strategies that drive category growth.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing or related field
- 8+ years of experience in marketing strategy, customer growth, analytics, or related roles, with demonstrated impact on business performance.
- Experience in a multi-channel retail or consumer business environment.
- Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate customer insights into actionable growth initiatives.
- Highly analytical with the ability to interpret customer behavior, identify trends, and connect data to business decisions.
- Experience driving customer acquisition, retention, and engagement strategies across marketing channels.
- Demonstrated ability to generate new ideas and marketing approaches that drive traffic, engagement, and sales.
- Strong business acumen with understanding of how marketing, merchandising, and vendor strategies impact financial performance.
- Ability to influence cross-functional teams and align stakeholders across marketing, merchandising, and operations.
- Clear and effective written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present insights and recommendations to leadership.
- Strong leadership skills with experience managing and developing teams.
- Sound judgment and problem-solving skills, with the ability to make decisions in a fast-paced environment.
- Ability to operate with a sense of urgency, manage multiple priorities, and adapt to changing business needs.
- Customer-focused mindset with a strong understanding of customer behavior and motivations
- Proactive, self-starter with the ability to work independently and collaboratively.
- Pet Friendly Workplace - bring your well-behaved pup!
- Generous in-store employee discount that extends to your family
- Full range of health insurance options: Medical, dental, vision, life, long-term disability insurance. FSA and HSA options.
- 401(k) plan with employer match
- Paid holidays and “unlimited” PTO
This job summary is intended to describe the general nature and level of work associates/leaders assigned to this job perform. It is not intended to include all duties and responsibilities.
Pet Food Express is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against employees or applicants based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law. This applies to all Pet Food Express activities, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, compensation, assignment, training, promotion, performance evaluation, discipline and discharge. Pet Food Express also provides reasonable accommodation of religion and disability in accordance with applicable law. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Pet Food Express is a place where everyone can learn and grow. However you identify and whatever your background, please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come to work every day.
For applicants in our San Francisco, or Los Angeles locations: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, as well as the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, we will consider for employment, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in a manner consistent with the law.