Director, Lifecycle Marketing

Job description

Kindred is a members-only home swapping platform that unlocks the ability to live a travel-rich lifestyle through the power of community. By exchanging primary residences with trusted peers, renters and owners alike can match with Kindred spirits and explore new destinations without breaking the bank. Kindred is revolutionizing the “third option” of travel accommodation, compared to short-term rentals and hotels. Since launching in 2022, Kindred has grown to a global community of 300,000 members across 150+ cities and puts home swapping on the map as a radically more affordable, responsible, and connected way to travel. To support that momentum, Kindred has raised over $150M in capital from some of the most credible investors in Silicon Valley, including Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, Caffeinated Capital, Elad Gil, and founders of companies like Opendoor, Figma, ClassPass, and more. Kindred’s co-founders are proven leaders from the early team at Opendoor ($15B+ exit), who have each built and scaled products that today generate $1B+ annual revenue combined. We’re looking for the world’s top builders, executors, and believers to help us make travel more meaningful. You can learn more about us in Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescawalton/2026/02/03/home-swap-startup-kindred-raises-125-million-in-fresh-funding-as-travelers-seek-creative-ways-to-save-money/ and The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/realestate/is-your-apartment-nice-enough-for-this-home-swapping-app.html. THE ROLE We're hiring a Director of Lifecycle Marketing to define and scale our member communications strategy. In this role, you'll build a best-in-class, global omni-channel lifecycle engine, optimizing the member experience while developing the strategy, systems, and playbooks that drive engagement across our hosting and traveling flywheel. You'll partner cross-functionally to connect a strong digital product experience with the storytelling and emotional connection of a lifestyle brand, creating personalized customer journeys that deepen engagement and drive long-term loyalty. This is a player-coach role: you'll be hands-on to build Kindred’s lifecycle marketing foundation before scaling impact through a team you hire and develop. As such, success in this role requires equal parts thought leadership and execution. You'll constantly prioritize opportunities, identify the highest-leverage member problems to solve, and build the systems and experiences that drive meaningful business impact. This role is ideal for someone who combines creativity with strong technical, analytical, and operational skills and thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative startup environment. You will be Kindred’s first Lifecycle marketing hire, where you will establish and lead Kindred’s lifecycle marketing function and report into the Head of Growth. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own hosting and travel activation communications experience: Own the strategic roadmap, execution, and optimization of customer communications across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, and emerging lifecycle channels. Optimize existing programs, as well as leverage insights to iterate and launch new strategies to activate Kindred members across various audience segments. - Establish Lifecycle function. Establish cross-functional processes for campaign execution, measurement, and reporting. Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics to develop actionable lifecycle performance insights and evolve the data infrastructure that powers personalization, automation, and decision-making. Define lifecycle messaging best practices to deliver consistent, customer-centric experiences, and proactively identify and advocate for the people, tools, and resources needed to support the team's growth and long-term success. - Hone our GTM muscles. Develop messaging playbooks in partnership with PMM for new product launches and marketing campaigns, continuously improving with each iteration. Partner across Product, Engineering, Creative, and Marketing to bring together technical, creative, and lifecycle requirements and deliver seamless, end-to-end customer experiences. - Be a thought leader on existing members. Serve as the voice of the member by translating lifecycle performance into actionable insights. Regularly share results, learnings, and customer trends to deepen the organization's understanding of member segments, their journeys, and the behaviors that drive hosting, travel activation and long-term engagement. - Build a world-class lifecycle engine. Continually evolve the strategic direction of Kindred's lifecycle marketing discipline by bringing the latest advances in AI, personalization, experimentation, and marketing technology into our member experience. Champion new ways of working that improve efficiency, increase relevance, and unlock step-function growth. WHAT'S REQUIRED - 12+ years of experience in lifecycle marketing and CRM strategy, ideally in consumer marketplace, membership, or network-based products. - Proven track record in building high volume lifecycle programs that drive measurable business outcomes. - You've worked closely with PM’s, Brand, Data, and Engineering teams and have strong project management and communication skills. You can write actionable engineering requirements and creative briefs in the same week. - Analytical mindset, with proven ability to gain insights from high-volume, complex, and omni-channel existing programs, and turn them into actionable results. Strong point of view on lifecycle data infrastructure and pipelines. - Mobile-first experience preferred. Deep experience with mobile and app channels – push, in-app, SMS, WhatsApp – with a strong point of view on channel strategy. - Hands-on experience in building campaigns and workflows, and working knowledge of optimal build-out of canvases, customer segments, and automations. - Equally comfortable rolling up sleeves to execute campaigns on an ongoing basis as you are building a strategy - Scrappy and self-directed: you don't wait for perfect data or a perfect brief. You can make progress toward goals even when there’s ambiguity or a lack of existing process. - Must have experience with Braze, CDP integrations, AI personalization and localization tooling. OUR BENEFITS: At Kindred, we know that good things happen when we look out for one another. We offer a thoughtful, human-first benefits package designed to support health, wellbeing, and connection. Our openings may span more than one career level. The base salary offered depends on factors such as experience, transferable skills, business needs, impact, and market data. - Competitive cash compensation and equity - Comprehensive health benefits - Flexible time off, plus 12 paid holidays per year - 21 credits per year to stay in Kindred homes - $4,000 annual travel stipend to help offset travel-related costs - Remote-first and remote-flexible work environment, with opportunities to work from anywhere and gather in person, including at Kindred HQ in San Francisco - Regular team and company offsites to connect, collaborate, and build together - A vibrant, inclusive, and highly skilled team that ferociously protects team chemistry - A culture of high standards, feedback, and continual growth We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. Kindred does not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic, including race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, age, disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, medical condition, genetic information, family care or medical leave status, marital status, domestic partner status, military and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by US federal, state or local laws, or the laws of the country or jurisdiction where you work. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.