Ancient + Brave
Head of CRM
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ABOUT US
Ancient + Brave is a female founded, mission-driven wellness brand with an award-winning range of collagen, supplements and functional blends. Rooted in ancient wisdom and validated by science, our simple daily rituals support our community in nurturing whole body health.
Ancient + Brave has been recognised in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies for three consecutive years - most recently placing 7th - and ranked 4th in the Oresa Retail Growth Index in 2025. It's a reflection of the quality of what we build, the community we serve, and the discipline with which we operate.
Social and environmental responsibility has always been at the heart of the business and woven into how we operate. We're a certified B Corp, a member of 1% for the Planet, and through the Made By Brave Foundation we direct 1%+ of all revenue to environmental and social causes.
As an equal-opportunity employer we are committed to an inclusive and diverse workplace culture, where we are brave, connected and intentional - and lead with integrity. Please find out more by reading our JEDI statement which can be found here.
We operate from beautiful head offices overlooking the river Ouse in Lewes, East Sussex.
THE ROLE
The Head of CRM owns the commercial performance of the Ancient + Brave customer base. Where acquisition brings customers in, this role is accountable for what happens next: how many stay, how long they stay, how much they spend, and how many products they take.
It is a strategy and ownership role. The Head of Lifecycle, Loyalty & CRM sets the lifecycle and loyalty strategy across DTC across all markets, owns the retention and lifetime value (LTV) targets that sit behind it, and is the person the board looks to on repeat revenue. Delivery runs through the Senior CRM Manager and the CRM team, which frees this role to spend its time on the questions that decide the numbers.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Lifecycle & Retention Strategy
- Own the end-to-end lifecycle strategy from first purchase to long-term retention, across DTC and across all trading markets, setting the plan that the Senior CRM Manager translates into delivery.
- Map the full customer journey - first order, second order, subscription conversion, product expansion, lapse and win-back - and set the intervention, channel and message at each stage.
- Define the segmentation model the business works to, moving beyond engagement segments to behavioural and value-based cohorts (new, developing, established, at-risk, lapsed, high-value).
- Set the contact strategy and the rules that govern it, including how often and for what reason subscribers are contacted, balancing incremental revenue against retention risk.
- Own the lifecycle testing agenda, deciding which questions are worth answering, sizing the prize before the test is built, and making sure conclusions change the plan.
Subscriber Growth, Churn & Upsell
- Own the subscriber base as a commercial CRM asset: acquisition-to-subscription conversion, active subscriber numbers, churn rate, average subscription tenure and revenue per subscriber.
- Diagnose churn by cohort, tenure, product, discount entry point, market and trigger event and build a prioritised programme of interventions against the causes, not the symptoms.
- Build and own the pre-cancellation and cancellation experience: skip, pause, swap, downgrade, frequency change and save offers, with a clear view of the margin trade-off on each.
- Design the product expansion strategy - which second and third products to promote, to whom, at what point in tenure, and through which channel - and own the cross-sell and upsell targets that come with it.
- Own subscription proposition development in partnership with ecommerce, product and finance: tiers, benefits, frequency options, bundle construction and pricing architecture.
- Set the win-back strategy for lapsed subscribers and one-time purchasers, and know what each recovered customer is worth.
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Loyalty & Rewards
- Co-own with the Customer Experience team the loyalty strategy for the business: what the brand rewards, why, and how that reward is funded.
- Build the commercial case for loyalty mechanics - credit, gifting, tenure benefits, tiering, early access, community and lifetime pricing - modelling cost, margin impact and payback with finance before anything is committed.
- Take the loyalty proposition from concept to launch, working across product, packaging, supply, customer service, ecommerce and brand, and own the ongoing measurement of whether it pays.
- Reduce the business's dependence on discount as a retention tool, replacing acquisition-led discounting with value the customer feels and the business can afford.
- Own the reward and benefit relationship with the highest-value customers, including advocacy, referral and community programmes.
Commercial Ownership & Forecasting
- Own the repeat and subscription revenue forecast, contributing the retention and LTV assumptions that sit inside the wider trading and budget plan.
- Set and defend LTV, retention, churn and repeat-rate targets at board level, and report against them with a clear explanation of what moved and why.
- Own the payback and margin logic on every lifecycle incentive, from welcome discount through to lifetime pricing, and be prepared to argue for removing incentives that do not earn their cost.
- Work with finance on customer-level profitability, cohort payback and the relationship between customer acquisition cost (CAC) and LTV, so that acquisition and retention decisions are made against the same numbers.
Data, Insight & Measurement
- Own the definition of the metrics the business uses to talk about customers - retention, churn, cohort revenue, LTV, repeat rate - so that one version exists and everyone uses it.
- Build and maintain subscriber and cohort reporting that gives the leadership team a live view of base health, and bring the insight to the weekly business review.
- Set the customer research and voice-of-customer agenda for retention: exit surveys, cancellation reasons, post-purchase feedback and qualitative work, and turn what comes back into action.
- Champion the data the business needs to do lifecycle properly, partnering with tech and analytics on customer data infrastructure, identity, event tracking and warehouse reporting.
Channel & Programme Oversight
- Hold the Senior CRM Manager accountable for delivery of the CRM roadmap across email, SMS and other first-party channels, setting the standard and stepping in on the decisions that matter.
- Set the governance framework for lifecycle communications: quality standards, brand consistency, regulatory compliance (GDPR and regional equivalents) and consent management.
- Own the lifecycle and loyalty technology stack, including the email service provider (ESP), subscription platform, loyalty or rewards tooling and personalisation capability - evaluating, selecting and building the investment case for what the business needs next.
- Make sure lifecycle activity is joined up with trading, brand and acquisition calendars rather than running alongside them.
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Team Leadership & Development
- Lead, develop and grow the CRM and lifecycle function, with the Senior CRM Manager as the operational lead for the team.
- Set clear objectives and standards, run regular reviews, and build a development and succession path for a growing function.
- Shape the structure of the team as the lifecycle and loyalty agenda expands, making the case for the roles, skills and external partners required.
- Delegate delivery with confidence while retaining accountability for the commercial outcome.
Cross-functional & Stakeholder Leadership
- Act as the senior voice for the existing customer inside the business, and the counterweight to a purely acquisition-led view of growth.
- Work as a peer with acquisition, ecommerce, Amazon, brand, product, supply, customer service and finance, building the relationships that a cross-functional loyalty agenda depends on.
- Present to the founder, the leadership team and the board on base health, retention performance and the loyalty roadmap, with a clear narrative and a clear ask.
- Manage agency, consultant and platform partner relationships in the lifecycle and loyalty space.
WHO YOU ARE
To be successful in this role, you will need the following skills / knowledge / experience:
- 10+ years in CRM, lifecycle or retention marketing, including experience leading a team and owning a strategy end-to-end.
- Direct experience of a subscription business - ideally consumer subscription or replenishment - with a demonstrable track record of reducing churn and growing subscriber lifetime value.
- Commercially fluent. Comfortable building and defending a model that shows what a retention or loyalty initiative costs and what it returns, and confident in a conversation with finance.
- Proven experience designing or materially improving a loyalty or rewards proposition, including the cross-functional work required to launch one.
- Strong analytical background. Able to interrogate cohort and subscription data independently, form a view, and reduce it to something a board can act on.
- Advanced working knowledge of a modern ESP (Klaviyo or comparable) and subscription tooling, with enough hands-on credibility to lead and challenge the team's work.
- Experience of multi-market and multi-channel lifecycle activity, including marketplaces such as Amazon where first-party data is limited.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with experience presenting to founders, executive teams or boards.
- Experience of segmentation, personalisation and customer data management best practice, including data privacy and consent.
- A genuine interest in the customer, and the instinct to go and find out why they left rather than assume.
Further, to truly thrive at Ancient + Brave you will need to embody the spirit of our brand and align with our company culture. For us that is a series of shared beliefs:
WE BELIEVE IN BRAVERY
- We are: Courageous, Bold, Experimental
WE BELIEVE IN INTEGRITY
- We are: Honest, Accountable, Ethical
WE BELIEVE IN CONNECTION
- We are: Collaborative, Inclusive, Open
WE BELIEVE IN INTENTION
- We are: Purposeful, Proactive, Focused
WAYS OF WORKING
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