Executive Director, Slate Product Strategy Director

Job Summary / Purpose

The Director will lead end-to-end marketing and portfolio growth strategy for a credit card portfolio, translating business goals into customer-centric plans across acquisition, engagement, spend, retention, and profitability. This role requires superior analytical skills and a deep, practical understanding of credit risk management to ensure growth strategies are both impactful and responsibly managed—particularly across mass-market credit products, including poor-to-fair credit segments. The Director partners closely with Product, Analytics, Finance, Risk, Compliance/Legal, Brand/Creative, Channel owners, and Operations to develop strategies, identify growth opportunities, and drive integrated go-to-market and lifecycle initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Portfolio strategy & planning: Own annual/quarterly portfolio marketing strategy (target segments, value propositions, offers, channel mix, messaging frameworks) aligned to P&L, credit performance, and product roadmap.
• Risk-informed growth strategy: Partner with Credit Risk and Analytics to ensure acquisition and lifecycle strategies are aligned to risk appetite, underwriting, line management, and loss/profitability outcomes—especially for mass-market and poor-to-fair segments.
• Lifecycle marketing leadership: Develop strategies across the lifecycle—prospecting/acquisition, onboarding, activation, engagement/spend growth, retention, hardship-aware retention where applicable, and win-back.
• Customer & market insight: Lead insight-driven strategy using customer behavior, credit performance signals, competitive landscape, and market trends; translate findings into actionable plans and positioning.
• Offer & value proposition strategy: Shape offer strategy (e.g., rewards, pricing, benefits, promos) with strong understanding of economics and risk trade-offs; partner with Finance/Risk to build business cases.
• Go-to-market (GTM): Lead integrated GTM plans for new features/benefits and major campaigns; align cross-channel execution (digital/owned/paid/partner channels as applicable).
• Performance management & analytics: Define KPIs and measurement plans; monitor performance (including credit and profitability metrics), diagnose results, run test-and-learn agendas, and iterate strategy based on outcomes.
• Cross-functional leadership: Drive alignment across Product, Risk, Compliance/Legal, Analytics, Brand/Creative, Tech, and Channel teams; manage governance, approvals, and delivery timelines.
• Executive communication: Build crisp narratives for senior stakeholders—strategy decks, business cases, results readouts, and roadmap updates.

Required Qualifications

• MBA or equivalent graduate degree (or commensurate strategic/portfolio leadership experience in lieu of a formal MBA-equivalent program, if your posting standards allow).
• 8+ years of experience in product marketing, portfolio marketing, lifecycle marketing, or growth marketing, with substantial experience in credit cards and/or mass-market consumer credit products.
• Extensive experience serving mass-market credit customers, including poor-to-fair credit segments (e.g., near-prime/subprime populations), with demonstrated ability to drive growth while managing risk and economics.
• Superior analytical skills with demonstrated ability to translate complex data into strategy and action; experience partnering with analytics teams on segmentation, experimentation, and optimization.
• Very extensive understanding of credit risk management, including how underwriting, risk appetite, loss dynamics, and portfolio controls interact with acquisition and lifecycle marketing.
• Proven ability to influence stakeholders and lead in a highly matrixed environment; strong written and verbal executive communication.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience operating within regulated financial services and navigating Risk/Compliance/Legal review processes for marketing.
• Familiarity with rewards economics, pricing/fee structures, and profitability drivers for credit cards across mass-market segments.
• Experience launching new products/features and leading high-visibility portfolio initiatives.
• People leadership experience (if role includes direct reports) or strong track record of mentoring and leading through influence.

Success Metrics (examples)

• Growth outcomes: booked accounts, activation, spend/engagement lift, retention/win-back performance
• Efficiency outcomes: acquisition efficiency, channel mix optimization, test-and-learn velocity
• Risk/economics outcomes: credit quality mix within appetite, loss/profitability impact, sustainable contribution margin, offer ROI, account NPVs, OS
• Delivery outcomes: on-time, compliant delivery of GTM and lifecycle programs