Director - Audience

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 & Editorial 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:

1. 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 prioritize 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

$150000 - $200000 a year

Salary Statement:

This full-time position is available as either a remote or hybrid position (depending on location) with an annual salary in the range of $150000 to $200000 CAD. The range is a guide for the expected skills knowledge and experience for new hires based in Canada only. Seniority level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education experience knowledge skills and abilities of the applicant equity with other team members and alignment with market data. This means ranges will vary for candidates based outside of Canada 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.

We’ve previously ranked #30 in The Globe and Mail ’s Fastest Growing Company list as well as Deloitte's Fast 50 program received a CMI award for Best Digital Publication for The Digital Project Manager—and we’re listed in both Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers and Best Employers in BC!

All of this growth is driven by our commitment to our mission: In a world of evolving skills practices and technology we’re creating a playbook for the future of work and empowering communities to create it with us.

Want to learn more? Watch this video to learn why the team love working at BWZ!

Diversity Equity and 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!