Director, Product Management, Subscriptions & Marketing Technology

About Hearst Newspapers

With more than 3,000 employees across the nation, Hearst Newspapers publishes a broad portfolio of trusted local news brands serving communities across the United States.

It is our mission to be the most trusted, most respected, and most accurate source of news and information in the communities we serve.

About the Product Development Team

The Hearst Newspapers Product Development team builds and evolves digital products that balance audience experience, business growth, editorial integrity, and operational scalability. Our cross-functional teams include product managers, engineers, QA, data specialists, UX researchers, designers, and operations partners working closely with Marketing, Reader Revenue, Editorial, Data, Technology, and Revenue teams.

We operate in a complex, multi-brand environment where strong product leadership requires clarity, disciplined execution, technical fluency, and the ability to translate ambiguity into actionable plans.

About the Role

Hearst Newspapers is hiring a Director, Product Management – Subscriptions & Marketing Technology to lead a portfolio of high-impact initiatives across reader revenue, subscription platforms, marketing technology, identity, entitlement systems, customer data, retention, experimentation, and onsite marketing experiences.

This is a senior product leadership role for someone who can operate across both strategy and execution: setting direction, aligning stakeholders, managing complex technical programs, and ensuring teams stay focused on outcomes. The Director will partner closely with Marketing, Marketing Operations, Product, Data, Engineering, Finance, Customer Service, and external vendors to modernize the systems that support digital subscription growth and develop great customer experiences across our core and new products.

The role will own the marketing technology roadmap, overseeing major platform and product initiatives including subscription management modernization, retention tooling, dynamic paywall capabilities, membership development, marketing operations tooling, customer data platform evaluation, and identity and entitlement modernization.

The ideal candidate is a strong communicator and product operator who can translate complex technical and business problems into clear priorities, lead both executive and technical conversations, and keep cross-functional teams moving toward actionable outcomes.

Why This Role Matters

This role sits at the center of Hearst Newspapers’ next phase of reader revenue growth. Subscriptions, retention, identity, customer data, marketing operations, experimentation, and membership all depend on a modern and coherent technology foundation.

The Director, Product Management, Subscriptions & Marketing Technology will help Hearst move from legacy, fragmented systems toward a more flexible, scalable, and data-informed platform ecosystem. This work will enable faster experimentation, better subscriber experiences, stronger retention, more effective marketing operations, and new reader revenue opportunities across the portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

• Subscription Modernization & Identity: Own the comprehensive product roadmap for subscription and marketing technology and Lead the end-to-end migration of legacy subscription and identity systems (billing, checkout, authentication, and entitlements) to scalable platforms that support flexible bundling, product packaging, and seamless print/digital continuity.
• Growth & Retention Strategy: Drive the product roadmap for AI-driven retention, dynamic paywalls, and lifecycle marketing; partner with Data and Marketing to deploy high-impact experiments, customer segmentation, and automated churn-reduction triggers.
• New Revenue, Subscriptions & Memberships: Spearhead the discovery and delivery of new subscription and membership models (e.g., ad-free, app-based, or event-driven) by translating business strategy into MVP requirements and scalable patterns across the Hearst portfolio.
• MarTech Operations & Tools: Modernize the marketing stack by implementing low-code/no-code tooling for onsite messaging and campaign configuration, reducing manual operational risk and increasing execution speed for Marketing Ops.
• CDP & Data Ecosystem: Evaluate and optimize the Customer Data Platform (CDP) and marketing stack to ensure a unified ecosystem for personalization, data privacy, and cross-channel activation.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Serve as the primary bridge between Engineering, Marketing, Design, and Leadership to align technical roadmaps with business goals, ensuring all experimentation and platform changes are measurable and tied to revenue outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of product management experience, preferably in subscription, consumer revenue, marketing technology, identity, customer data, e-commerce, media, or scaled digital platforms.
• Demonstrated track record of leading complex platform migrations, vendor implementations, and modernization programs across multiple integrations.
• Strong ability to translate complex technical and business problems into clear requirements, roadmaps, decisions, and executive-ready communication.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and have strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to tailor communication for executives, technical teams, marketers, analysts, and operational partners.
• Strong product discovery and delivery discipline, including requirements definition, prioritization, acceptance criteria, rollout planning, and iteration.
• Ability to see the forest through the trees: balancing long-term platform strategy with near-term execution needs.

Bonus Points if you have… 

• Hands-on experience with specific MarTech/Subscription platforms (e.g., Auth0, Sailthru, Chargebee, BlueConic).
• Experience with AI-driven marketing, personalization, or predictive modeling tools.
• Comfort working with technical architecture concepts, APIs, cloud platforms, data flows, and internal platform modernization.

Core Competencies

Trusted Strategic Partnership: Acts as a high-integrity bridge across departments; builds deep credibility by aligning technical roadmaps with business goals and maintaining a reputation for high ownership and follow-through.

Elite Communication & Synthesis: Masterfully translates high-density technical complexity into clear, executive-ready plans; excels at tailoring communication for diverse audiences to ensure shared clarity on priorities and decisions.

Collaborative Leadership & Influence: Navigates high-ambiguity environments with a structured, calm approach; proactively identifies risks and dependencies to drive consensus on difficult trade-offs while setting realistic expectations.

This position does not provide sponsorship. All applicants should have the right to work in the U.S. without immigration sponsorship.

In accordance with applicable law, Hearst is required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role if hired in New York, NY. The reasonable estimate is $170,000 - $200,000. A final decision on the successful candidate’s starting salary will be based on a number of permissible, non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to skills and experience, training, certifications, and education.

Our Benefits: At Hearst Newspapers we not only support our employees through personal and professional development, but we also believe in promoting each individual’s physical, financial and emotional wellbeing (and that of their family).  Our industry-leading benefits include:

• Physical Wellbeing: Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage to keep you and your family healthy.

• Invest for the Future: Competitive retirement plan with matching program in most markets.

• Generous Paid Time Off: Recharge with ample time off, including holidays and vacation.

• Paid Parental Leave: Support for growing families, with paid leave for new parents.

• Monthly Child & Dependent Care Reimbursement: Financial support for the care of your loved ones.

• Emotional Wellbeing: Be your best self with our mental wellness benefits.

• LGBTQ+ & Inclusive Health Services: Inclusive healthcare designed for every individual’s unique needs.

• Fertility Coverage & Menopause Support: Helping you along every step of your family journey.

• Pet Wellness Reimbursement & Rover Credits: We care about your pets, too – helping you keep them happy and healthy.

• And more, click here for additional benefits and details.

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