Head of Customer Analytics

About Us

The Independent is an online news publisher that was established in 1986 as a national newspaper independent of party-political affiliations or proprietorial influence. In 2016, The Independent became a fully digital publisher, moving away from print in pursuit of sustainability, and to safeguard its values and journalism for the future.

The Independent has always thrived through innovation and change. It was the first British newspaper to add a Saturday magazine; the first to give photography the same prestige as news copy; the first to challenge the Westminster lobby system of closed briefings; the first broadsheet to move to the more compact ‘tabloid’ format; the first to launch a concise quality compact paper; and the first – and only – major newspaper to pull off a successful transformation to fully digital publishing.

Through The Independent, Independent TV, eCommerce, indy100, subscriptions and other ‘reader revenues’, The Independent plans to continue the work of many decades, bringing much-needed independent journalism to over 100 million unique global visitors a month, make its voice ever louder and more insistent the world over. We have an international editorial team with our main offices in London and New York.

In 2024 The Independent’s portfolio of brands increased through a new licensing partnership with BuzzFeed Inc. to operate the BuzzFeed brands in the UK – BuzzFeed UK, Tasty, Seasoned and HuffPost UK. The additional brands echo the existing business ethos and allow for increased audiences and a further strategic diversification of revenue streams.

The Data & Marketing Department

The Data & Marketing department is the intelligence powerhouse of the business, representing the customer. Our goal is to inspire, engage and grow a loyal readership by harnessing data-driven insights and innovative marketing to deliver personalised, impactful content experiences that builds lasting trust, diverse revenue streams, and a thriving future for quality journalism. The department consists of four teams: Data Science & Engineering, Data Intelligence & Monetisation, Research & Insight and Customer Marketing.

Job Purpose

As The Independent continues to evolve as a data-informed, diversified media business, the Head of Customer Analytics is needed to lead the development and growth of our Reader Revenues (Customer Marketing) propositions and Anonymous-to-Known (A2K) strategy for collecting first-party data in the UK, US and ROW. This role spans our reader subscription base, as well as those who contribute and our registered user base, and will be critical in ensuring consistent and profitable growth through deep analytical insight.

About You

A highly motivated, results-orientated and commercially astute analytics leader, with a proven track record in a high-performing customer / data team. You are experienced in user acquisition, retention, and overall customer base management. Resilient and adaptable, you can thrive in a fast-paced environment, are comfortable working across multiple business functions, and possess the ability to assess both the benefits and risks of new initiatives to the wider business.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• We champion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. As a growing and global brand, we must have a workforce that’s more representative of our readers, viewers, clients and partners, and a workplace that creates a sense of belonging for everyone
• We are committed to hiring and developing a diverse workforce regardless of background, and we support our people to thrive in their careers here.

The Independent is an equal opportunities employer, if you require any reasonable adjustments to complete your application, please do not hesitate to advise us accordingly.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• Lead all customer analytics, performance, insight, optimisation, and forecasting across all Independent Media brands globally and for additional brands where Publisher Support Services contracts exist, with a specific focus on analysing and forecasting acquisition, churn, and net growth across the reader revenues portfolio. A key part of this role is to ensure that insights go beyond data accuracy to tell a strategic story that focuses on the \’why’, communicating these findings effectively to SLT and C-suite teams while also developing this skillset within the team and the wider department.
• Develop a deep understanding of the drivers of trading performance at a customer segment level.
• Ensure the trading performance management structure runs effectively, overseeing trading meetings and insight packs to ensure week-to-week performance movements are incorporated into forecasts and remedial actions are triggered.
• Use expertise to deliver accurate forecasts and ensure an accurate outlook.
• Identify new opportunities and make tactical and strategic recommendations across data, marketing, product, editorial and finance teams to drive outcomes against short, mid and long-term goals.
• Manage and develope a team of Customer Data Analysts.

Skills and Experience

• A minimum of three years in a ‘Head of’ role with proven experience in using data to drive business investment / customer marketing decisions
• Strong team player, with a focus on finding forward-thinking (segmentation) approaches to maximise revenue, reach and engagement.
• Experience in defining and articulating customer KPIs such as APRU, CLTV etc
• Experience in converting anonymous users to known customers
• Experience in membership and subscription models within the publishing industry
• Excellent commercial skills and ability to communicate clearly and concisely upwards, across other teams and externally to partners.
• Working in close partnership with other internal teams to achieve desired outcomes: editorial, commercial, video, finance, technical, audience.
• Proficiency with Piano, Braze, Google Big Query (SQL).
• Familiarity with The Independent brand, websites and products on and off-platform is an advantage.

Our Values – you will deliver across all our values

Inclusive: We champion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. Working as a team, we put transparency and effective communication at the heart of everything we do.

Innovative: From the very beginning, The Independent has been breaking the mould. We take risks and are always looking to try new ideas in pursuit of excellence.

Independent: Nobody tells us what to think; we make up our own minds and aren’t afraid to do things differently. Like our readers, we value honesty and integrity above outside influences.