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Summary/Objective

The Director, Membership & Customer Engagement is responsible for leading with a people-centric approach while planning, developing, and executing inventive membership recruitment and retention strategies. In this role you will partner with front line business leaders to innovate, implement, and deploy member-centric systems focused on supporting existing client relationships and fostering membership expansion to drive brand loyalty. To thrive in this role, you will need a flexible skillset, including the ability to collaborate across many teams, levels, and situations.

Essential Functions

• Responsible for hiring, training, onboarding, and performance management of direct reports
• Establishes the strategic direction of membership sales initiatives and executes this strategy in collaboration with executive leadership
• Utilizes data to project sales, determine profitability and targets, and identify potential new markets
• Analyzes member preferences and value proposition to execute marketing strategies
• Develops and implements key performance metrics to drive engagement, retention, and recruitment for sustainable membership growth
• Builds brand loyalty through high responsiveness to membership needs throughout all stages of the business relationship
• Supports sales efforts by ensuring the fulfillment of all Concierge Services product requests
• Ensures timely fulfillment of hardship and emeritus membership requests
• Collaborates with cross functional teams to identify opportunities to increase membership value; suggests products, or services that will meet those needs
• Responsible for organizing customer conversion efforts during IFT sponsored events
• Exhibits online social community presence to support membership growth
• Oversees the collection and distribution of member turnover reports; including marketing strategy effectiveness, product development, and membership acquisition
• Establishes holistic customer support strategies ensuring data integrity
• Ensures the availability of technical talent by identifying and coordinating cross training for team members on all critical processes. Creates training programs as needed
• Responsible for accurate forecasting and performance prediction
• Develops, implements, and enforces key performance metrics, milestones, documentation, reporting requirements and budgets
• Responsible for identifying, analyzing, and communicating membership trends to key stakeholders
• Actively participates in all regular business review meetings and forecast calls
• Through effective management, cultivates an environment that allows for a strong and productive employee experience

Competencies

• Strong knowledge of sales strategy and product expertise in the food industry setting
• Strong knowledge of data literacy and data management skills
• Proven leadership and management skills with a passion to develop team members
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with an emphasis on the ability to give constructive feedback and concise instruction
• Excellent attention to detail
• Exceptional interpersonal and customer facing skills; highly professional yet empathetic in addressing concerns or issues particularly on behalf of members and team members
• Efficient time management, planning, and organizing skills
• Strong knowledge of budgeting and financial management
• Proven self-motivator with the ability to meet deadlines and produce results
• Ability to function independently in a high-paced and at times stressful environment while remaining professional and calm
• Ability to prioritize and handle a variety of tasks for customer experiences
• Actively models all IFT Core Values

Management Responsibilities

• Oversees a team of 3+ managers

Travel Required

• Occasional travel to events and meetings inside and outside of the Chicagoland area is expected

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in data Analytics, Business, Management, Communications, or equivalent
• 5+ years experience working in an association space or related field
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite
• Proficient in various social media platforms and tools

Preferred Experience

• Data mining algorithms
• Tableau, Alteryx and other data visualization programs
• Experience in R, Python, SQL
• Database management and reporting
• Regression Analysis (linear and multiple)
• Origin, SPSS, Minitab or equivalent
• Advanced GA Certification

Other duties

This position, and all others at IFT, may be modified at any time. To ensure operational efficiency and meet the changing needs of our customers and our Business, other duties may be assigned as needed.

About Institute of Food Technologists

Since 1939, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has been a forum for passionate science of food professionals and technologists to collaborate, learn, and contribute all with the goal of inspiring and transforming collective scientific knowledge into innovative solutions for the benefit of all people around the world. As a scientific community grounded in purpose, IFT feeds the minds that feed the world.

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