Retention specialist Jobs in Toronto, ON

Position Title: Senior Manager, Customer Retention and Engagement

Line of Business: Customer Growth

Duration: 2 years (Possibility of Extension)

Location: Downtown Toronto - Hybrid 3 days in office Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

This role is best suited for candidates with a strategy background and those who have previously owned a customer retention mandate, not solely marketing or campaign execution.

Reporting to the Director of Customer Growth this role is accountable for materially reducing customer attrition by developing and executing a clear, enterprise-wide retention strategy. The role owns the end-to-end customer retention agenda—from strategy evolution through adoption, measurement, and continuous improvement—partnering across analytics, marketing, product, technology, and frontline leaders. Success is defined by measurable reductions in attrition, stronger customer and frontline engagement, and consistent application of retention behaviours at scale.

What You’ll Own

• End to end ownership of the Customer Retention Strategy, with clear priorities, sequencing, and measurable outcomes.

• Execution leadership across functions, translating strategy into initiatives, campaigns, tools, and system changes delivered through analytics, marketing, product, technology, and frontline partners.

• Design and evolve the enterprise customer retention operating model, defining clear roles, decision rights, governance, prioritization frameworks, and cross-functional cadences to ensure consistent execution at scale.

• Proactively identify potential drivers of attrition and customers who may be at risk. Develop strategies, campaigns, and tools to mitigate attrition, utilizing data-driven insights to inform decision-making.

• Frontline playbook on customer retention, owning its design, ongoing evolution, and practical usability ensuring it drives real frontline decisions. Partnering closely with regional and branch leaders to embed retention behaviours into daily routines, conversations, and performance expectations.

• Translation of analytics into action, converting attrition insights, models, and indicators into clear frontline triggers, cues, and prioritized actions.

• Define accountability for integrating attrition models, indicators, and insights into frontline systems, prompts, and prioritization logic that directly shape customer conversations and actions.

• Identification and scaling of best practices, surfacing what works in market and rapidly replicating nationally.

What Success Looks Like

• A clearly sequenced retention and engagement strategy operating as an integrated system across proactive engagement, at-risk interception, service recovery, and reactive support, supported by clear ownership and governance.

• Consistent adoption of retention tools and playbooks across regions, with clear improvement in usage where attrition risk is highest.

• Proactive interception of at risk customers shifting from ad hoc activity to model driven, prioritized outreach that occurs earlier in the customer lifecycle.

• Retention outcomes embedded into performance management, with attrition metrics clearly linked to accountable stakeholders.

• Retention outcomes and leading indicators (e.g., engagement, save attempts, intervention timing, save effectiveness) embedded into performance management, with clear accountability by segment, channel, and region.

• Demonstrable reduction in preventable attrition, supported by improved save effectiveness, relationship led conversations, and earlier intervention.

Experience Required

• Demonstrated ability to operate at both the strategic and hands-on execution level—setting direction while remaining close to initiatives, metrics, and frontline realities.

• Deep experience owning customer retention, churn reduction, or lifecycle management in a complex, customer facing organization.

• Strong ability to develop a holistic strategy around customer retention then getting the buy-in of leadership and stakeholders

• Proven ability to drive execution across distributed teams without direct authority, influencing analytics, marketing, product, technology, and frontline leaders.

• Strong grounding in using data, models, and insights to prioritize actions and guide frontline behaviour—not just reporting results.

• Demonstrated success leading teams, enablement and change, including adoption of tools, playbooks, and new ways of working.

• Comfort operating at the intersection of strategy, operations, and execution, with a bias toward shipping, learning, and refining.

• Executive level communication skills with the ability to simplify complexity and drive alignment.

Skills & Qualifications

• 8+ years experience in strategy, consulting, growth, or retention-focused roles within financial services or customer-centric industries.

• Prior accountability for customer retention, churn reduction, or lifecycle outcomes with measurable impact.

• Strong strategic capability paired with demonstrated execution and delivery ownership.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• ·Experience in banking, or fintech is preferred

• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and lead cross-functional teams without direct authority.

• Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills, translating insights into action.

• Executive communication and storytelling skills; strong PowerPoint and Excel proficiency.

• Experience driving change in complex, matrixed organizations.

• Master’s degree preferred (MBA an asset)