Director, Marketing Strategy & Planning

Job Type: Location Type: Remote: open to residents of any country

 

Job Description:

About Rakuten International

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California with more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the Rakuten International business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community.

About Rakuten Rewards
Rakuten is a leading shopping platform that offers Cash Back on purchases from all your favorite brands. By partnering with thousands of brands in apparel, health and beauty, dining, grocery, travel, on-demand services, subscription boxes and more, Rakuten helps members save and get more on everyday purchases. Since its founding in 1999, Rakuten has become the largest and most rewarding shopping experience, and its members have earned $4.6 billion in Cash Back just for shopping through Rakuten. For more information, visit Rakuten.com.

Job Summary:
We’re seeking a Director of Strategy & Planning to serve as the strategic engine behind Rakuten Rewards’ Marketing organization. This high-impact role will drive cross-functional alignment, strategic planning, budgeting, performance tracking, and operational discipline across the marketing function. Reporting to the VP of Marketing Operations, you will partner closely with senior marketing leaders, finance, revenue planning, and analytics to ensure that Rakuten Rewards’ marketing investments are efficient, effective, and future-focused.

Key Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Strategic Planning & Road mapping

• Lead the development of annual and quarterly marketing strategic plans, including goal setting, resource allocation, and cross-team prioritization
• Align functional teams (Brand, Product Marketing, Growth, Loyalty & Retention, Partnerships, etc.) to strategic priorities and timelines
• Facilitate strategic planning processes and ensure alignment in strategy and execution

Performance Management & Operational Excellence

• Establish and maintain marketing KPIs and dashboards to monitor progress against goals on weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual timelines
• Identify gaps, risks, and opportunities across marketing programs and budgets
• Drive cross-functional processes to address departmental operational gaps as needed
• Drive quarterly business reviews, executive updates, and post-mortem evaluations

Budgeting, Forecasting & ROI Analysis

• Partner with Finance to manage the marketing budget: forecasting, tracking spend, and ensuring return on investment
• Partner with Analytics to conduct marketing ROI analysis to guide spend reallocation and optimization decisions
• Drive resource to return efficiencies across the department
• Provide proactive financial insights that help leaders balance growth and efficiency

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Act as a connective tissue between Marketing, Product, Sales, Finance, and Executive teams
• Lead strategic initiatives that require collaboration across multiple functions (e.g., go-to-market prioritization, tool implementation, resource planning)
• Support business cases and marketing initiatives with data-driven insights and decision support

Executive-Level Storytelling & Influence

• Synthesize complex information into clear, executive-ready presentations and recommendations
• Develop frameworks that guide decision-making and drive clarity across senior stakeholders
• Help leadership focus on what matters most through structured thinking and strategic foresight

Qualifications:

• Proven ability to lead strategic planning, budgeting, and cross-functional projects in a complex organization
• Strong business acumen, particularly in consumer-facing digital businesses (e-commerce, fintech, loyalty preferred)
• Experience working with senior stakeholders and distilling insights into actionable strategy
• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills; experience with BI tools (e.g., Tableau) are critical
• Highly organized, analytical, and adaptable-able to manage ambiguity and prioritize effectively
• Strong communicator with excellent interpersonal, facilitation, and influence skills

Minimum Requirements:

• 8-10+ years of experience in strategy, marketing operations, business planning, or management consulting
• Bachelor’s Degree Required
• Master’s Degree Preferred

#LI-CW1

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve, Always Advance – Only be satisfied with complete success – Kaizen
Passionately Professional – Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize – Practice – Validate – Shikumika – Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction – The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! – Always be conscious of time – take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws.

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

USD $113,157.00 – $211,032.00 annually