LION Publishers is hiring a Membership Success Associate

Status: Full-time salaried non-exempt (eligible for overtime), with 90-day introductory period (see details below)

Reports to: Director of Membership

Location: Remote within USA

Compensation: $55,000–$65,000, eligible for benefits (see details below)

Job Summary

If you love to provide a great product experience by digging into systems, processes and customer support and value a workplace that strives to provide work/life balance, we want to talk with you about our first-ever Membership Success Associate role. 

Our professional journalism association serves more than 430 (and growing every week!) independent news publishers across the U.S. and Canada who have started their own news businesses to serve their communities. Many of these publishers don’t have formal training running a business, which is where LION comes in: We provide them with membership services, education and training as they build and develop sustainable news businesses. 

This role’s mission gets to the heart of LION’s mission as an association: To ensure LION’s membership systems, processes and customer support operate efficiently and smoothly to ensure a good product experience for existing and prospective members. 

Our ideal candidate understands how to go beyond the transactional nature of customer support— you understand how to listen to members’ challenges, identify their needs and, based on LION’s capacity and existing services, make relevant recommendations for them. 

The role will report to our Director of Membership and work closely with our Community Manager and other members of the programming team. Below is a summary of key responsibilities of the position:

Key Responsibilities

• Processing membership applications (30% of time)
  • Manages the membership application process by reviewing, denying or following up on prospective applications 
  • Supports the membership renewal process for existing members
• Provide membership support (40% of time)
  • Is the primary lead on answering questions and providing customer service to existing and prospective members about LION membership, application, program eligibility and other relevant systems and processes
  • Manages member requests related to Facebook and Google platform/tools troubleshooting
  • Triages incoming customer support requests to the appropriate internal resource
• Ensure smooth membership operations (10%)
  • Supports the identification of process pain points/gaps and recommends potential solutions
• Support on member-facing projects (20%)
  • Supports our annual LION Awards program and ceremony
  • Supports the logistics and coordination of in-person and virtual member meetups
• Other duties as assigned

LION is an Equal Opportunity Employer

LION believes that a team with diversity of backgrounds and experiences will generate the most innovative ideas and ultimately do the best work in support of our mission. This is why we welcome contractors, vendors, staff and board members who contribute to a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment. We understand diversity as multi-dimensional and intersectional, encompassing aspects of our identities including race and ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, class, geography, lived experiences and more. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply to opportunities at LION so that we build a team that reflects the diversity of independent news entrepreneurs we wish to serve.

We know there are great candidates who might not check all the boxes listed below or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. 

Skills and Qualifications for The Role

• Delivers empathy-centered customer service. Manages prospective member questions and interest in a way that builds empathy and trust, particularly with those from historically underrepresented backgrounds
• Artful and clear communicator: Crafts excellent verbal and written communication, and is adept at tailoring messaging to diverse member audience styles and needs
• Detail oriented: Pays close attention to seemingly small details to ensure a high-quality member experience
• Prioritization: Understands that not everything can get done at once and knows how to quickly prioritize the highest impact work
• Technically proficient: Can quickly learn and navigate systems including Salesforce, Memberful and other relevant data and communications tools

Skills and Expectations for Teamwork at LION

• Work in a way that upholds and reflects our organizational values: Being data-informed, equitable and inclusive, people-centered, systems thinkers, transparent and iterative
• Use digital tools and platforms to stay organized, communicate transparently, and collaborate with team members remotely 
• Collaborate strategically with others, clearly defining processes for decision making
• Give and receive constructive feedback to help the team produce its best work
• Celebrate our wins and learning moments
• Take on an experimental mindset and demonstrate flexibility to iterate on our work, systems, and processes 
• Be willing and able to ask for help when needed, and demonstrate an ability to learn and grow in the role

Physical Requirements and Environmental Conditions

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position, at a desk or similar, 90% of the time. Time spent in stationary location includes operating a computer and relevant peripherals and communicating via phone.

Travel Requirements

• Available to travel for staff retreats 2 times per year (approx. 2–3 days per retreat)
• Available to travel for LION member meetups (approximately twice a year for up to 2 days).
  

About LION

Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional journalism association for independent news publishers. While most of our 400+ members across the U.S. and Canada run local news businesses, we also have members who serve larger regions and specific identity-based communities across geographies. LION provides teaching, resources and community to independent news entrepreneurs as they build and develop sustainable businesses. One of our core values is being people-centered, and here are some ways we build that culture for our staff. 

90 Day Introductory Period

The first 90 days of employment is a probationary period, during which the new hire has clear goals, criteria for successful work product, and regular feedback from their manager. As a result of the new hire’s 90 day self-reflection and manager’s assessment, the two will discuss whether the new hire will stay on with LION and whether it will be in the role as originally scoped.

Benefits

• Medical PPO, Vision & Dental fully paid by employer; 50% paid for dependents
• Short-term disability, long-term disability, life, and worker’s compensation insurance paid by employer
• Flexible Spending Account and Dependent Care HSA
• Paid Time Off (including sick days) is 20 days per year 
• Paid holidays (including week of July 4 and Christmas Eve through New Years Day) is 17 days in 2023

• Up to 12 weeks fully paid family/caregiver leave
• 401K with employer match up to 3.5%
• Flexible working hours
• No-meeting Fridays
• Annual professional development budget
• Monthly work-from-home stipend
• For new hires: Health insurance stipend until eligible for employer medical coverage to begin
• Employees with start date before July 1 are eligible for year-end, surplus-dependent bonus

Application Materials

Submit your materials using this form by 11 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday, Nov. 10. 

• Your resume
• Any online links that show your work (a Twitter profile, a portfolio page, etc.)
• Answers to the following questions:

• Why are you interested in supporting LION’s members, specifically independent news entrepreneurs?
• Tell us about a time you had to handle a difficult situation with a customer or client. What challenge did they come to you with? How did you help resolve it? What did you learn or how might you have handled it differently if you could do it again? We’d especially love to hear if your interaction was with someone from a historically underrepresented community based on the people and/or communities you were working with. 
• Tell us about a time you’ve improved an existing system or process. What was the problem you were trying to solve for? How did you solve for it? What was the impact of that solution on your colleagues and/or team? What might you do differently next time?
• Tell us about a time you had too many things to get done at once that all felt too important. How did you prioritize your work? 

If you have questions about this role, reach out to Stephanie Martinelli at [email protected] to learn more.