Head of Customer Engagement

We currently work to a hybrid model requiring a mandatory minimum of 3 days per week working in the office based in Southwest London and as part of this, Mondays and Tuesdays are ‘anchor days’ where all staff are obliged to work from the office.

World Tennis is the global governing body of tennis. Founded in 1913, its purpose is to ensure the long‑term growth and sustainability of the sport, delivering tennis for future generations in association with its 214 national and regional member associations. World Tennis oversees the rules and regulations that govern international and national competition.

World Tennis is responsible for the worldwide development of tennis through its highly regarded Development Programme, its Science and Technical department which monitors equipment and technology, and its Officiating department which oversees the education and advancement of officials. World Tennis is the owner and co‑owner of the two largest annual international team competitions in tennis, the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup (BJKC) by Gainbridge and manages the Olympic and Paralympic Tennis Events on behalf of the IOC and IPC. World Tennis organises over 3,500 weeks of men’s, women’s and junior tournaments on the World Tennis Tour, World Tennis Beach Tour, UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour and the World Tennis Masters Tour. World Tennis upholds the highest standards of integrity and is a partner in the International Tennis Integrity Agency.

The ITF recently re‑branded to World Tennis.

Overview of the Department

The Digital department is a unit within World Tennis responsible for developing, coordinating and delivering the digital strategy and roadmap to ensure the growth of World Tennis’ online tennis community and expansion of customer‑focused digital products and services, driving long‑term value. We are in the middle of one of the most significant digital transformations in our history, building the infrastructure, data capability and digital products to serve our global community better than ever before. A once‑in‑a‑generation evolution of our brand is also underway, creating an opportunity to help shape how the world’s biggest tennis organisation presents itself and connects with its audiences going forward.

This is a rare opportunity for a senior digital leader to join at the inflection point, with the strategy defined, the vision set, and the real work of building just beginning.

Overview of the Role

The Head of Customer Engagement is the responsible lead for developing, implementing and optimising a data‑driven omni‑channel strategy to acquire, engage, retain and monetise our different target audiences across our digital ecosystem. Working with Digital Channel/Product owners, the Head leads the development to build out best‑in‑class, connected digital experiences for World Tennis and its sub‑brands, serving our fans, recreational and pro players, coaches etc. with relevant services that create engagement, loyalty, long term value and new revenue streams. Our digital vision is to build the world’s biggest tennis community, and our customer data ambition is to know and engage that community better than anyone. Success measures will include: growth in registered users, increased engagement frequency across owned channels and conversion into revenue‑generating products or services.

Key Responsibilities

Audience Growth & Engagement

• Build and manage the relationships we have digitally with all our audiences through our owned channels and platforms, supporting new ways to commercialise their experiences to our benefit.
• Lead the development of a clear segmentation and targeting framework across our core audiences such as fans, players, coaches, officials etc, using customer data insights.
• Define acquisition, engagement and retention strategies that grow World Tennis’ digital community and drive measurable funnel performance across owned channels.
• Act as the internal voice of our audiences, ensuring data and insight shape digital product and services priorities, content strategy and commercial decisions across the organisation – our ambition is to create a single, shared view of who our community is and what they care about, so we better serve them relevant products, experiences, services and value.
• In partnership with key stakeholders, turn investment into digital platforms, martech and services into increased engagement and revenue from direct audience relationships.
• Develop and optimise the CRM and lifecycle strategy across all owned channels, including email, push notifications and in‑product messaging.
• Shift the organisation from product‑led communications to customer‑led journeys, with a clear contact strategy, personalisation framework and lifecycle automation programme built on behavioural, transactional and preference data.
• Define content requirements for CRM and lifecycle programmes and set governance standards for audience communications.
• Ensure our martech platforms are exploited to their full capability to drive tangible output and lifetime value.
• Develop and optimise the customer data vision, defining how we capture, structure, enrich and activate our customer data to power personalisation and audience engagement at scale.
• Set clear business requirements for the IT and Data teams, translating audience objectives into technical deliverables (incl data analysis, profiling et), directing the effective management and use of World Tennis’s customer data platform (‘CDP’) database and tools.
• Task the World Tennis Data Team to produce the customer data analytics & insight reporting required to understand target audience segments and customer needs to inform the CRM strategy.
• Work collaboratively with IT/ Data team on the Single Sign‑On (SSO) initiative as the foundation for a unified customer view across our digital products and platforms.
• Develop audience‑led value propositions and multi‑channel data activation strategies driving long‑term value and stronger relationships with all our customers.
• Set and track global and product‑specific KPIs for customer activity & growth – continuously measure success, value, and adapt strategy and tactics to achieve objectives.
• Devise and implement tactics to increase data capture and the quantity and quality of strategic and commercial data.

Team Management, Stakeholders & Future Scope

• Manage the CRM manager, providing clear direction, measurable objectives and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Over time, ensure Customer service processes and feedback are connected to the customer engagement strategy to enable continuous improvement and a single customer view.
• Collaborate and build strong relationships with IT, Digital Product, Content, Coms and Commercial colleagues to ensure data‑driven audience strategy is embedded across the organisation and to ensure suitability of content delivery across audience groups.
• Support our global partner strategies across both World Tennis and Davis Cup.
• Provide internal strategic direction and influence so that audience insights and data feed into product design, journey mapping, and satisfaction improvements over time.

You will have: Essential

• Senior experience in digital marketing, CRM and audience development, ideally within a global B2C organisation operating at scale.
• Proven successful expertise in CRM and lifecycle marketing strategy, from segmentation and contact strategy through to advanced automation, personalisation and measurement.
• Strong command of customer data strategy, including data capture, data analytics understanding, customer journeys and activation.
• Hands‑on experience with Microsoft Dynamics or equivalent enterprise CRM and/ or CDP and marketing automation platforms.
• Track record of leading high‑performing teams and influencing cross‑functional stakeholders in a complex, global (or federated) organisation.
• Experience managing marketing and martech budgets (and agencies) and reporting ROI.
• Deep experience working with IT, Data and Technology teams setting business requirements to achieve long‑term value through successful, connected customer journeys.
• Commercially minded, with demonstrable experience connecting audience engagement to revenue outcomes.
• Solid working knowledge of GDPR, data governance and consumer data regulation.
• Degree‑level education or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience in sport, media, entertainment or a global membership organisation.
• International experience, working across diverse audiences and markets.
• Solid technical and data analytics understanding.
• A genuine interest in tennis or sport more broadly.

What we offer

• Group personal pension scheme, Life assurance and Wellbeing allowance
• Health Cash Plan
• Free lunch when working in the office (up to £9 per day)
• Complimentary healthy snacks and fresh fruit when working in the office
• Ride2Work Scheme
• Working hours: based on a 35 hours per week. Normal office hours are 09:00 – 17:00 Monday to Friday. Flexible working hours possible with core hours of 10am – 4pm (although weekend work and longer hours are a part of the role when travelling)

Equality, diversity & inclusion (EDI) is a fundamental priority for World Tennis. Our philosophy focusses on embedding inclusive behaviours and processes across every element of our business practices.

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