The Kyiv Independent is looking to fill a Newsletters & Email Marketing Manager position within the Marketing team.
The Kyiv Independent is Ukraine's largest English-language news outlet. It was founded in November 2021 by a team of reporters and editors who were fired from the Kyiv Post for defending editorial independence. Today, the team consists of over 90 people, mostly based in Kyiv. Publishing in English, we serve as Ukraine's voice in the world and the world's window into Ukraine.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced and strategic Newsletters & Email Marketing Manager to join our growing Marketing team. In this role, you will own the growth and performance of our editorial newsletters and email marketing, from growing our contactable base to designing new formats, automated journeys, and experiments that turn readers into engaged subscribers and members. You will work closely with the editorial, reader revenue, audience, and product teams, and report to the Head of Marketing.
The ideal candidate combines a product mindset with hands-on email marketing expertise, is comfortable with data and A/B testing, and understands how newsletters can serve both great journalism and sustainable reader revenue. Within your first months, you will audit our newsletters and emails, establish baseline KPIs, and present a six-month growth roadmap to leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Newsletter & Email Product Innovation:
- Lead product innovation for editorial newsletters: design, test, and scale new formats, content models, and engagement loops.
- Lead product innovation for non-reader-revenue email marketing, including new formats and automated journeys with defined conversion goals.
- Support the launch of new editorial newsletter products with clear target metrics.
- Work with the editorial team to ensure newsletters stay aligned with our journalism and editorial standards.
Audience Growth:
- Own organic subscriber growth and the overall growth of our newsletters.
- Own and grow the email marketing contactable base.
- Audit and optimize sign-up and conversion paths across the website in collaboration with the Audience and Product teams.
- Plan and run product, marketing, and communications initiatives to grow the contactable base, including cross-channel campaigns to extend reach.
Reader Revenue & Experimentation:
- Drive reader revenue growth from editorial newsletters and email marketing through A/B testing and new initiatives, in collaboration with the Reader Revenue team.
- Build and run an A/B testing pipeline: define KPIs, run tests, and report on impact to retention, engagement, and sign-up rates.
- Benchmark our newsletters and emails against the media industry and track performance against agreed targets.
Strategy & Collaboration:
- Develop and present a rolling quarterly growth roadmap aligned with company objectives and marketing strategy.
- Present results and roadmap updates to leadership every month.
- Lead a regular cross-team meeting with Product, Marketing, and Reader Revenue focused on email and newsletter data, automation, and growth.
- Mentor and support team members involved in newsletter and campaign execution to ensure operational stability.
Candidate Requirements and Criteria
Experience & Technical Skills:
- 3+ years of experience in newsletter, email marketing, or CRM roles, ideally in digital media, publishing, or a subscription business.
- Proven track record of growing an email subscriber base and improving engagement and conversion metrics.
- Hands-on experience with email service providers (e.g., Mailchimp or similar), including automation, segmentation, and list hygiene.
- Strong experience designing and analyzing A/B tests, with confidence in setting KPIs and reporting on results.
- Comfortable with analytics tools and working with data to inform decisions.
- Understanding of reader revenue and membership models is a strong plus.
- Basic HTML knowledge for email is a plus.
Soft Skills:
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; Ukrainian is a plus.
- A strategic thinker who can turn a roadmap into measurable results.
- Ability to build buy-in and collaborate across editorial, product, and commercial teams.
- A proactive, organized, and detail-oriented approach with strong time management.
- Experience mentoring or supporting other team members is a plus.
- Shared commitment to independent journalism and the Kyiv Independent's mission.
What We Offer
- Market-level compensation;
- Working with a young and value-driven team in an award-winning media outlet;
- A role with real ownership and a clear path to a senior title and to building out a dedicated newsletter team;
- Professional development opportunities, including external training in marketing and leadership;
- Busy but flexible work schedule;
- Medical insurance for team members based in Ukraine;
- Mental health support program for full-time employees;
- Hybrid work in Kyiv: 3 days in the office and 2 days remote.
Thanks for taking the time to apply to work with the Kyiv Independent. If you are among the qualified candidates, you will receive an email from a member of our hiring team to schedule an interview. Please note that while we would like to meet with all applicants, we may not be able to do so due to the volume of applications we receive.