Performance Marketing Lead, Principal Associate

About the role

Do you like moving the needle with marketing? We are looking for a high-impact Channel Marketing Manager whose single North Star is closing merchant acceptance gaps and reactivating dormant B2B merchants across our marketplace. We have an established foundation in outbound offline channels—Telemarketing, Site Visits, and Mystery Shopping—and we are ready to turn them into a high-performing, well-oiled engine. You will own our existing vendor channel strategy while leading the charge to audit, optimize, and scale it. This is a role for an operator who is equally comfortable writing a high-converting phone script, managing enterprise vendor SLAs, and digging into the data to optimize unit economics and matchback attribution. We’re looking for a rare mix of persuasion skills (copywriting, sales psychology), data fluency (P&L tracking, conversion testing), and enterprise execution.

Responsibilities

• Audit existing Telemarketing, Site Visit, and Mystery Shopping programs to establish baseline Cost Per Reactivation (CPR), conversion volume, conversion rates, and vendor performance.
• Revamp campaign copy, objection-handling frameworks, phone scripts, and field briefs using B2B persuasion tactics to increase dormant merchant win-backs by 25%.
• Direct third-party call centers and field agencies, holding them accountable to strict SLAs, conversion standards, script compliance, and daily volume targets.
• Expand outbound channels beyond broad sweeps into hyper-segmented, localized pushes.
• Partner with internal teams (e.g., Issuer Readiness) to execute targeted field visits, phone calls, and mystery shopping that solve specific business needs.
• Align timing, triggers, and messaging across telemarketing calls, site visits, and mystery shopping so inactive merchants experience a unified, multi-touch outbound push.
• Partner with analytics teams to establish tracking systems that connect physical site visits, mystery shopping touchpoints, and phone calls directly to online merchant transaction data.
• Own media planning and dynamic budget allocation across the $2.5M–$3.5M annual vendor spend, continually optimizing trade-offs between telemarketing, field reps, and mystery shopping to maximize return.
• Own channel unit economics (CAC, CPR, payback), execute statistically significant testing on vendor scripts and merchant incentives, and eliminate vanity activity metrics (e.g., "calls completed").
• Partner closely with Legal, Compliance, and Brand to ensure all vendor scripting, field briefs, and mystery shopping workflows meet enterprise risk standards without stalling campaign velocity.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors Degree or military experience
• At least 5 years of performance marketing, channel management, or outbound marketing experience in Financial Services, Fintech, Payments or other highly regulated industry
• At least 2 years working experience with Salesforce, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or Pardot

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelors in Marketing, Advertising, Communications or Consumer Behaviors
• 3+ years of vendor management
• Strong project management skills and attention to detail
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple stakeholders and working cross functionally
• Experience writing or auditing direct-response call scripts, field briefs, and objection-handling documentation.
• Experience navigating regulatory or legal compliance reviews for marketing operations.

Benefits

Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being.

Pay

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked. Chicago, IL: $109,900 - $125,400 for Principal Associate, Marketing Riverwoods, IL: $109,900 - $125,400 for Principal Associate, Marketing Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of