Manager, Marketing Automation and Operations

TITLE:  Manager, Marketing Automation & Operations

DEPARTMENT:  Marketing

REPORTS TO:  Senior Director, Lifecycle Marketing

LEVEL:  Manager

TYPE:  Full-Time Regular

FLSA:  Exempt

ROLE TYPE:  Individual Contributor

OUR CLUBS 

Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC are united as one soccer family, driven by a shared commitment to excellence, growth, and impact on and off the pitch. Each club has independently forged a rich history of performance while connecting deeply with the community. Our clubs are continually pushing the boundaries of what's possible while fostering an inclusive culture- championing causes and building community connections to expand our reach and impact. Each match is an opportunity to bring together our community, celebrating our resilience, inclusivity, and a commitment to excellence. United in professional dedication- we are two clubs with one shared vision of progress and greatness. 

POSITION SUMMARY 

The Manager, Marketing Automation & Operations is the technical and strategic owner of the clubs' marketing automation platform within the Lifecycle Marketing team, accountable for platform architecture, configuration, governance, deliverability, and privacy compliance across email, SMS, mobile push, in-app messaging, and paid media audiences. This person joins as the clubs complete their transition from Salesforce Marketing Cloud, supports the final cutover, and then builds the new platform into the foundation for Sounders FC and Reign FC. They build the lifecycle stage model, lead scoring, and cross-channel journeys inside the platform, turning the clubs' growth goals into always-on programs measured by the ticket, membership, and renewal revenue they drive. They partner closely with Business Intelligence (BI), which owns the clubs' data pipelines, integrations, and enterprise reporting, to define what data the platform needs, where engagement data goes, and how results are reported. Working with Lifecycle Marketing, Ticketing, Digital, IT, and other internal stakeholders, this role sets the standards that let marketers build and launch campaigns independently while protecting data integrity, brand control, and compliance across both clubs.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

Platform ownership and build-out

• Serve as the primary owner and administrator of the clubs' marketing automation platform (Braze, Customer.io, or similar) for Sounders FC and Reign FC, including workspace and project structure, user roles and permissions, data schema, API keys, and integration configuration. Own platform health and roadmap, including audits, troubleshooting, feature adoption, and management of the platform vendor and implementation partners.
• Partner with the migration lead, implementation partner, and platform vendor through the final stages of the transition from Salesforce Marketing Cloud, including validating migrated audiences, journeys, and consent records during the parallel-run period, then lead the post-launch build-out.

Standards, enablement, and compliance

• Set and enforce campaign production and governance standards across both brands, including segmentation, setup, QA, launch, naming conventions, permission management, audit trails, and the campaign calendar, and serve as the escalation point for complex or revenue-critical sends.
• Partner with Marketing Managers and the Lifecycle Marketing team to build and deliver highly targeted acquisition, retention, and member programs, and train and enable marketers on both teams to build campaigns independently, including effective and responsible use of the platform's AI and automation features, through platform documentation, onboarding, and certification paths.
• Own email deliverability for both clubs, including sending domain and IP strategy, separate sender reputations per club, domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI), IP warming, and ongoing monitoring and remediation.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for GDPR, CCPA, CAN-SPAM, and other applicable privacy regulations, owning compliance workflows, consent management, and suppression strategies across both clubs.

Journeys, data, and lifecycle programs

• Design, build, and maintain complex cross-channel journeys across email, SMS, mobile push, in-app messaging, and paid media audiences, including frequency and suppression rules coordinated with the Braze instance bundled with Jump for ticketing messages.
• Partner with Business Intelligence (BI), which owns the clubs' data pipelines, integrations, and reporting infrastructure, to define the platform's data requirements, including the Amperity fan ID as the primary profile key, event and attribute schemas, inbound data feeds, and engagement data returned to the data warehouse for reporting. Own data quality within the platform and partner with BI to resolve upstream issues across sources such as Jump, Salesforce, Shopify, and Fanatics.
• Lead experimentation and optimization programs, including A/B and multivariate testing, holdout groups, and incrementality measurement, and translate results into insights and recommendations for Marketing Managers.
• Build and maintain the lifecycle stage model and lead scoring logic in the platform, as defined by Lifecycle Marketing in partnership with Ticketing, including MQL definitions, score decay, routing and writeback to Salesforce CRM, and suppression of fans in active sales conversations.

Reporting, AI, and automation

• Own recurring weekly, monthly, and quarterly campaign and journey performance reporting that connects programs to ticket and membership revenue, renewals, and lifecycle stage movement, with views for each club and consolidated executive reporting.
• Configure, govern, and measure AI and machine learning features, such as send-time optimization, predictive scoring, and generative copy assistance, with brand guardrails and human approval in place, and evaluate technologies that integrate with the platform to identify automation opportunities and reduce tool overlap.
• Use AI agents for routine campaign production work, maintaining the context they rely on and reviewing output before it reaches fans.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE   

No specific degree is required. We hire for experience and judgment over credentials.

Required:

• 5+ years in marketing operations and automation, including 3+ years administering a marketing automation platform.
• Experience integrating a marketing automation platform with a CRM, including lead management, lead scoring, and bi-directional data sync.
• Hands-on experience with email deliverability, including domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and IP warming.
• Experience running automation for two brands in one instance.
• A track record of running marketing operations work through AI agents and automation, with the context, review steps, and data guardrails to do it safely.

Preferred:

• Experience with Salesforce CRM.
• Experience with lifecycle models and audience segmentation inside a marketing automation platform.
• Experience with Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or Braze.
• Experience with customer data platforms such as Amperity.
• Experience with email testing tools, Google Analytics, and BI tools such as Tableau.
• Experience in sports or live events is a plus given the fast-paced, matchday-driven environment.

COMPETENCIES, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Energized by building: would rather design a better system than work around a broken one, and leaves every process, journey, and playbook better than they found it.
• Exceptional attention to detail and careful with data. One wrong segment or broken link can reach thousands of fans, and “it works” is not the same as “it’s safe to send.”
• Strong strategic and analytical skills; interprets campaign and revenue data and turns it into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Strong judgment; knows what matters most, when to act and when to ask, and when a result looks right but isn’t. Weighs speed against risk to fans, data, and the brand.
• Self-directed; goes looking for what needs improving rather than waiting to be assigned it.
• Takes personal ownership of what’s launched; documents it, watches how journeys and automations perform, and fixes them when they break.
• Steady under pressure: makes sound, fast calls when a critical send, deliverability issue, or data problem needs fixing against a tight timeline.
• Collaborative; builds trust with internal partners who rely on this role for their own work, and works with them to adopt shared standards.
• Clear communicator, oral and written; explains technical decisions and process to colleagues and business partners in non-technical language and adjusts to the audience.
• Comfortable with change; keeps work moving through a platform migration, shifting priorities, and incomplete information.
• Stays current on how marketing technology and AI are changing and looks to companies leading this work in other industries for practical ideas, not hype.
• Committed to principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, and to living our organizational values and mission: Create Moments, Enrich Lives, and Unify & Uplift Through Soccer.

WORK ENVIRONMENT   

• This role is on-site at our Headquarters & Training Facility in Renton, WA, Monday through Thursday, with flexibility on Fridays and periodically as needed.
• Evenings, weekends, and holidays are required periodically to meet business needs, such as season requirements, campaign launches, and critical sends, and may include supporting a match.
• Must reside within Washington state upon date of hire. 
• Must be able to facilitate own local travel. 
• Must be eligible to work in the US without sponsorship. 

COMPENSATION, BENEFITS AND PERKS 

We offer competitive compensation and an engaging, supportive environment that prioritizes the health and well-being of our people. 

The salary range for this position is $110,000 - $160,000. Positioning within the range at time of offer is based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, internal equity, and current market conditions. 

In addition to financial compensation, we provide a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your overall well-being and professional growth, including:

• Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage: We offer 100% employer-sponsored medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and your dependents. For employees enrolled in our HSA healthcare plan, we provide employer contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA) — $1,000 per year for employee-only coverage and $2,000 per year for spouse or family coverage.
• Generous Paid Time Off & Leave: We offer unlimited paid vacation, paid company holidays, and paid sick leave in compliance with Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time ordinance. We also provide paid bereavement leave and paid jury duty leave to support you during life’s critical moments.
• Retirement Planning Support: 401(k) retirement plan matching, helping you secure your financial future with ease.
• Fertility & Family-Building Support: We provide a $10,000 lifetime maximum fertility benefit through our healthcare plan to support employees in their family-building journeys. This benefit includes coverage for infertility treatment, IVF, IUI, embryo transfer, fertility preservation, and related medications.
• Inclusive Parental Leave: Our gender-neutral parental leave program provides 12–16 weeks of paid leave, inclusive of Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML), giving new parents the time and support they need during this important life stage.
• Peace of Mind Coverage: Employer-paid long-term disability coverage, as well as basic life insurance and accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) coverage, providing financial protection and peace of mind for you and your family.
• Exclusive Perks: Enjoy complimentary tickets to matches and employer-funded ORCA cards for public transit, making it easier for you to experience the excitement firsthand.
• Continuous Growth Opportunities: We invest in your learning and development through various programs and resources.
• Community Engagement: We provide a variety of volunteer opportunities that align with our social impact goals and RAVE Foundation initiatives, empowering you to make a meaningful difference in the Seattle community.