Revenue Operations Lead

Chicago Public Media is one of the nation’s largest local nonprofit news organizations. Home to WBEZ 91.5FM, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Vocalo, it reaches more than 3.3 million people weekly across broadcast, print, and digital platforms. As a mission-driven, 100% community-funded newsroom powered by nearly 97,000 members, Chicago Public Media is dedicated to independent journalism essential for a healthy democracy.

About the role

As Revenue Operations Lead, you will manage the operational systems, governance, and performance infrastructure that support Chicago Public Media’s membership revenue engine across all brands, platforms, and audience touchpoints. This role designs and governs operational systems for scalable membership growth and lifecycle operations, including audience governance, attribution standards, reporting integrity, operational readiness, and revenue infrastructure management.

The Revenue Operations Lead serves as the operational coordination layer across Growth & Acquisition and Lifecycle & Retention engines, ensuring audience data, supporter communications, and revenue reporting remain accurate, coordinated, and trusted across teams and systems. The role partners closely with Enterprise Systems, Insights, Product, Marketing, Development, and Membership leadership.

Responsibilities

• Audience & CRM Governance (Business Rules)
  • Own the governance of audience data, segmentation structures, and CRM business rules across Membership.
  • Define and maintain audience segments, lifecycle stages, donor classifications, and revenue categories.
  • Establish standards for audience targeting, suppression logic, segmentation accuracy, and operational consistency.
  • Maintain documentation and policies that guide CRM and audience usage across teams.
  • Conduct operational audits across audience setup, targeting logic, and lifecycle configuration.
  • Coordinate audience governance standards across Membership and Development workflows.
  • Partner with Enterprise Systems to ensure CRM structures align with organizational governance standards and infrastructure requirements.
• Operational Readiness & Execution Governance
  • Establish standards that support accurate and scalable acquisition and lifecycle execution across Membership.
  • Validate audience setup, suppression logic, tracking configuration, and operational readiness prior to launch.
  • Maintain governance protocols, operational standards, and execution frameworks across membership activities.
  • Ensure acquisition and lifecycle initiatives follow established segmentation, attribution, and communication policies.
  • Identify operational risks, inconsistencies, and workflow gaps before audience-facing deployment.
  • Support scalable execution across channels, platforms, and audience touchpoints.
• Reporting, Attribution & Revenue Integrity
  • Own the business governance layer for membership reporting, attribution methodology, and revenue validation across acquisition and lifecycle activities.
  • Define revenue classifications, attribution standards, and reporting methodologies across channels and audience programs.
  • Standardize campaign naming conventions, tracking structures, and operational reporting practices.
  • Validate reporting accuracy and ensure alignment between operational reporting and booked revenue.
  • Partner with Insights to support dashboards, forecasting, cohort analysis, and performance reporting.
  • Maintain trusted reporting standards and business definitions across Membership.
  • Identify reporting discrepancies, operational inconsistencies, and revenue tracking gaps.
• Revenue Infrastructure & Vendor Governance
  • Own the operational governance and business oversight of membership revenue infrastructure, payment systems, and operational vendors.
  • Manage operational relationships and performance standards across payment, messaging, fulfillment, and revenue platforms.
  • Establish operational standards, SLA expectations, and accountability frameworks across vendors and systems.
  • Define business rules governing payment routing, retry logic, fraud prevention, and transaction governance.
  • Partner with Enterprise Systems on technical implementation while retaining ownership of business requirements, operational governance, and vendor accountability.
  • Oversee donation platform governance to ensure alignment with audience experience, conversion performance, and operational standards.
  • Support long-term operational scalability across membership revenue infrastructure.
  • Oversee donation platform and payment vendor performance to ensure reliability, scalability, and alignment with organizational goals.
• Operational Governance & Compliance
  • Serve as the governance authority across Membership systems, workflows, and revenue activities.
  • Standardize operational frameworks across Growth & Acquisition and Lifecycle & Retention.
  • Enforce audience governance, attribution standards, suppression logic, and operational policies.
  • Maintain consistency across segmentation, reporting, and communication governance practices.
  • Approve operational readiness across acquisition and lifecycle initiatives.
  • Identify operational risks, workflow gaps, and cross-team inconsistencies.
  • Support scalable infrastructure capable of sustaining long-term audience and revenue growth.
• Revenue Operations Accountability
  • Accurate and trusted revenue reporting across acquisition and retention activities.
  • Governance of audience segmentation, attribution, and CRM standards.
  • Coordination of supporter communication practices across teams.
  • Reduction of operational errors and workflow inconsistencies.
  • Documented operational standards and governance processes.
  • Scalable infrastructure that supports long-term audience and revenue growth.

Requirements

• Experience managing CRM governance, operational workflows, and revenue operations within membership, subscription, or audience-based organizations.
• Strong understanding of audience segmentation, attribution frameworks, and revenue reporting methodologies.
• Experience designing scalable operational systems and governance processes.
• Strong analytical, operational, and process management capabilities.
• Ability to establish and enforce operational standards across cross-functional teams.
• Experience working across CRM, payment, reporting, and revenue operations systems.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to operational accuracy and data integrity.
• Ability to translate operational complexity into scalable workflows and governance frameworks.

Pay

The expected pay range for this position is $69,800 - $97,000 per annum. Pay offered will be determined based on factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate qualifications, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographical location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Vacation, holidays, life insurance, and disability coverage.
• Retirement savings plan.
• Commuter benefits plan.