Senior Manager, Lifecycle Marketing (Temporary)

About New York Times Games

The New York Times is looking for a Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager to join the New York Times Games team, reporting to the Executive Director of Marketing, Games.

In 2025, players completed more than 11 billion games across our portfolio, led by hits like Wordle and Connections, alongside the iconic New York Times Crossword, which has existed in print since 1942.

Games is one of the largest and fastest-growing businesses among our portfolio of products, including Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic and News.

About the Role

We need a senior lifecycle marketer to lead how we keep Games players engaged over time across email, push (app and desktop), display and other channels. You will focus on deepening engagement with our existing players (non sub + sub)  and reducing churn. 

You will lead the end-to-end marketing lifecycle strategy for Games players, from onboarding and activation through ongoing engagement, win-back and reactivation. You will design and run cross-channel programs that create timely, relevant, and personalized experiences for our players, grounded in data and insight. You will work closely with product, growth marketing, product marketing, data and creative partners to bring these programs to life.

This is a temporary hybrid role based in our New York City headquarters, reporting to the Executive Director, Marketing, Games. You can typically expect to come into the office 3 days per week.

Responsibilities

Lifecycle Strategy and Planning

• Define the lifecycle marketing strategy for Games, including goals for activation, engagement, retention and reactivation.
• Map player journeys and identify key moments where lifecycle programs can deepen engagement and reduce churn.
• Partner with product and product marketing to ensure lifecycle programs align with feature launches, game updates and the broader Games roadmap.

Channel Execution and Optimization

• Lead the planning and execution of lifecycle campaigns and automations across email, push, display and other channels, from brief through launch, in partnership with channel owners. 
• Work with channel owners to build, test and optimize always-on programs (onboarding flows, engagement nudges, winback journeys) that drive meaningful changes in player behavior.

Data, Measurement and Insights

• Own key lifecycle metrics for Games, including retention, reactivation, engagement and churn, and build reporting that gives the team a clear view of performance.
• Partner with analytics and data science teams to use segmentation, cohort analysis and predictive signals to inform targeting and personalization of lifecycle programs.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Build strong relationships with product, product marketing, growth marketing, media team and channel owners, audience insights, data analytics, engineering and creative to align on shared goals, design and launch lifecycle programs.

Player Experience and Brand Stewardship

• Champion the perspective of our players, bringing research and behavior insights into planning and creative development.
• Balance performance goals with a thoughtful, respectful approach to frequency, personalization and offers. 

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in lifecycle marketing, CRM, retention marketing or related fields, with a track record of driving measurable improvements in engagement and retention.
• Experience owning cross-channel lifecycle programs (email, push, and at least one additional channel such as display or in-app messaging) for consumer products or subscription services.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with data to build hypotheses, design tests and interpret results.
• Operate in cross-functional environments and collaborating with product, analytics, media partners and creative teams