Black & White Zebra is hiring: Director, Audience in Chicago

Base pay range $150,000.00/yr - $200,000.00/yr About the Role We’re looking for a Director of Audience to build, lead, and grow the engine that powers our publications — helping us attract new subscribers, deepen reader engagement, and expand our cross‑channel reach. You will lead our content teams across multiple BWZ brands and channels including editorial, video, podcasts and content marketing. You’ll report directly to senior leadership and play a central role in how we grow our audience, strengthen our brand voice, and convert readership into subscribers and revenue. This is an audience growth role, not a purely editorial one. Your job is to make sure our content, newsletters, and distribution channels work together as a predictable audience growth and engagement machine. You’ll shape what gets published, how it gets packaged, where it gets distributed, and how it performs. The Director of Audience will shape the systems that run our publications, define our editorial voice, build our growth engine, and help our brands become indispensable destinations in their niches. If you love building and running a modern content engine and have hands‑on experience growing audiences across email, social, podcasts, video and on‑site content — then you’ll thrive here. Who You Are You’re a strategic, hands‑on leader who knows how to grow digital audiences. You’ve run content engines before — including newsletters, blogs, and social and you understand how packaging, distribution, storytelling, and system design come together to drive subscriber growth and engagement. You can zoom out to define strategy and zoom in to give direct feedback on a headline, hook, or weekly content plan. You’re energized by building playbooks, improving quality, coaching creators, and helping brands feel “alive.” You also bring calm, clarity, and sound judgement to content teams. You move fast but care deeply about quality, narrative, voice, and insight. Most importantly: You know how to turn content into audience growth. What You’ll Be Doing Drive subscriber growth and audience acquisition across the portfolio Lead all content, packaging, and distribution efforts that grow the ICP subscriber base Ensure Content Marketing prioritizes formats that reliably convert: roundups, lead magnets, community insight content, and audience‑product content Build subscriber‑growth playbooks, systems, and frameworks that make acquisition predictable Strengthen newsletter CTAs, landing pages, onboarding, and incentives Identify high‑conversion content formats across brands and scale them Build systems & templates that make high‑quality subscriber‑acquisition content repeatable Increase return‑visitor engagement by elevating content quality, clarity & experience Own narrative, clarity, structure, visuals, packaging, and hooks across all content Act as the “quality guardian” — refining angles, narrative flow, and clarity so content feels truly worth returning to Maintain and evolve the serious‑fun, human, insight‑rich BWZ editorial voice Raise and enforce quality standards (“sniff test”) across site, newsletter, and social Prototype and showcase “what great looks like” to guide the team Improve content journeys and UX by collaborating with Design/UX Help the team build engaging franchises that drive weekly/daily return visits Grow non‑organic traffic through world‑class multi‑channel distribution Own distribution across newsletter, social, Discover, Slack, communities, podcasts, partnerships, and Digital PR Guide newsletter packaging: hooks, intros, subject lines, CTAs, block order Partner with Editors on Discover‑friendly story angles and timing Build reusable workflows for repurposing content into clips, threads, email insights, and social snippets Identify breakout formats and scale them across brands Ensure all content is packaged for maximum reach across all ICP‑relevant channels Lead, coach, and scale a high‑performing multi‑disciplinary team Set priorities, weekly cadences, and production rhythms across Content Marketing and Editors Give direct, constructive feedback on writing, clarity, story craft, and packaging Build team capability in interviewing, SME extraction, narrative craft, visual packaging, and distribution Develop and evolve the systems, playbooks, templates, and governance models that drive consistency and quality Identify capacity gaps and hire accordingly Foster a culture of creative experimentation, skill growth, and continuous improvement Build authority through insight‑led content, SME networks, and proprietary assets Grow and maintain a SME network that regularly feeds insights into content pipelines Ensure teams extract operator insights → turn insights into patterns → turn patterns into stories → turn stories into subscriber growth Lead creation of lead magnets, benchmarking reports, and proprietary insight content Partner with Digital PR on earned media, backlinks, authority building, and distribution amplification How Your Success Will Be Measured Subscriber Growth (non‑organic, monthly) Return Visitor Engagement (RFV) — how often readers come back Non‑Organic Traffic Growth (direct, referral, social, email, Discover) Your Skillset Includes Extensive experience leading audience growth teams in digital media or B2B SaaS Proven experience growing audiences through newsletter strategy, content publishing, and multi‑channel distribution Experience directly managing and coaching large teams of internal writers, editors & content marketers Experience operating at daily or weekly publishing cadence Strong editorial instincts: hooks, angles, headlines, narrative flow, packaging Experience creating playbooks, templates, and content systems that scale Comfort with analytics and evaluating performance to guide decisions Nice to Haves Experience at a modern media company or equivalent B2B SaaS brand Experience with AI‑powered content or editorial workflows Experience building contributor/SME programs Experience with podcast or video editorial Experience of both event and membership‑based business models and how content drives membership acquisition and retention Experience in public speaking, representing brands at events, panels, and conferences Salary Statement This full‑time position is available as a remote role that offers an annual base salary in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 USD. The range is a guide for the expected skills, knowledge, and experience for new hires based in USA only. Seniority level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, and alignment with market data. This means ranges will vary for candidates based outside of the US and/or at different seniority levels. In addition to annual salary, full‑time employees are eligible for a discretionary bonus and a comprehensive benefits package. About Us We’re a rapidly growing, independent media tech company headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. Since 2012, our portfolio of influential digital publications has been helping millions of people succeed at work. Our brands cover thought leadership for executives in project management, people management, product management, tech, marketing and many others – with the goal of connecting people with knowledge, skills and tools they need to succeed professionally in the age of AI. We got our start in 2011 as The Digital Project Manager blog, founded by our CEO Ben Aston. Since then, we’ve grown into an international team of 70+ creators, strategists, and innovators with a portfolio of more than 15 online publications. We enjoy an impact‑driven environment that combines the agility of a startup with the creativity of an agency and the diversity of a global company. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Black and White Zebra is an equal opportunity employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, marital status, military or veteran’s status (including protected veterans, as may be required by federal law), sexual orientation or any other category protected by law. We celebrate all backgrounds and attributes that continue to help make our team impactful, iterative, adaptable, and fun! Seniority level Not Applicable Employment type Full‑time Job function Other #J-18808-Ljbffr