About Chicago Public Media

Home to WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Public Media is the largest local non-profit news organization in the country. WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times serve more than 2 million people weekly across broadcast, print, and digital platforms. As a mission-driven organization, we aspire to become the essential and most trusted news source that Chicago turns to each day for understanding the people, events, and ideas that shape our community.

WBEZ is home to local and national news programming as well as a growing portfolio of popular podcasts. WBEZ serves the community with fact-based, objective news and information, and its award-winning journalists ask tough questions, dig deep for answers and expose truths that spark change and foster understanding. WBEZ is supported by more than 86,000 members, hundreds of corporate sponsors and major donors. In 2022, WBEZ received more than 20 awards for its journalism, including two prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Chicago Sun-Times is Chicago’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper serving Chicago and is known for its hard-hitting investigative reporting, in-depth political coverage, timely behind-the-scenes sports analysis, and insightful entertainment and cultural coverage. Chicago Sun-Times is the winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes and countless other awards. In recent years, the Sun-Times has focused on a digital transformation to deliver its news and content to a growing digital audience. Most recently, the Sun-Times dropped the paywall on suntimes.com to expand access to its journalism, and shifted to a community-funded digital membership program supported by voluntary member donations.

Chicago Public Media believes independent journalism is essential to a well-functioning democracy and access to fact-based, objective news and information is a right of every citizen. We serve the public interest by creating diverse, compelling content that informs, inspires, and enriches. We connect diverse audiences and help them make a difference in the community, the region and the world. And, we employ 300+ staff who want to belong to an organization that inspires, supports, and challenges them to do their best work.

For more information, please see the Chicago Public Media Annual Report.

The Opportunity

We are hiring a Senior Vice President of Enterprise Systems & Revenue Operations to lead the transformation of our audience-facing business systems. This includes the architecture and integration of our CRM, eCRM, fundraising tools, subscription systems, and advertising/sponsorship infrastructure.

This is a strategic systems leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of audience engagement, operational design, data architecture, and revenue growth. You’ll lead the overhaul and integration of fragmented tools and workflows across our membership, subscription, development, and advertising teams — bringing them into one coherent and scalable infrastructure that powers our mission and sustains our future.

Key Responsibilities

Systems Architecture/Integration

Evaluate, unify, and modernize the constellation of CRMs, eCRMs, donor management systems, and subscription tools across both WBEZ and the Sun-Times.
Create a roadmap for integrating and/or replacing platforms to ensure a seamless flow of user data across teams.
Serve as a hands-on systems strategist who can assess current tools, define requirements, and roll up your sleeves when needed to fix or implement critical integrations.

Revenue Enablement & Operational Efficiency

Oversee the technical and operational foundations that power membership, donations, subscriptions, sponsorships, and ad sales.
Reduce silos and manual workarounds; implement automation, data governance, and process improvements to scale revenue efforts.
Help teams move faster, personalize smarter, and track performance more accurately.

Advertising/Sponsorship Infrastructure

Partner with sales and ad-ops teams to collaborate across fragmented ad systems, clean up inventory management, and enable cross-platform selling.
Unify digital, on-air, and print ad offerings into clean, visible inventory and accurate reporting.
Ensure systems support both direct sales and future growth in programmatic or sponsorship-style revenue.

Funnel Design

Be part of the team that helps us reimagine the full audience journey — from first-time visitor to loyal donor, subscriber, or sponsor.
Work with leadership and membership on building the backbone for lifecycle marketing, segmentation, and personalized engagement across platforms.
Work closely with leadership to support membership and subscription growth strategies.

Collaboration & Leadership

Act as a connective tissue across Membership, Development, Finance, Ad Sales, Marketing, and Product.
Lead a rigorous requirements-gathering and change management process that aligns stakeholders and reduces resistance.
Set the tone for how we work together across brands and functions — in service of shared data, shared goals, and shared audiences.

Qualifications

10+ years leading enterprise systems, revenue operations, or digital transformation projects in mission-driven, media, or multi-stakeholder organizations.
Expertise in CRM, eCRM, and fundraising/subscription technologies — including hands-on experience scoping and implementing tools and platforms.
Familiarity with optimization of workflows relevant to advertising/sponsorship, including inventory systems, reporting tools, and operational challenges.
Deep experience integrating systems across marketing, development, and finance — with a clear POV on how to make data flow across teams.
Strong grasp of data strategy: segmentation, personalization, data governance, automation, reporting, and performance tracking.
A track record of cross-functional leadership: you know how to move work forward across departments and disciplines, even without direct authority.
Strategic storytelling skills — you can explain why systems matter to people in language that resonates.
Comfort with ambiguity and complexity — you’re energized by working in spaces that haven’t yet been neatly defined.

Compensation

The expected pay range for this position is $170,000 to $200,000 per ANNUM.

Chicago Public Media provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the organization reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographical location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

Working at Chicago Public Media

At Chicago Public Media, we care deeply about our employees as we know attracting, developing, and growing talent is key to our success and enhancing our impact.

Our culture is one where collaboration, diversity of ideas, and innovation are encouraged. We value colleagues who will enhance our culture by bringing new ideas, divergent experiences, and talents to our dynamic workplace.

At Chicago Public Media we believe dedication to a great workplace includes supporting our employees and their families. As a result, we provide a broad and generous benefits package for employees at hire and in the years to come.

Our benefits include a competitive salary and benefits package which includes medical, dental, vision, vacation, holidays, life insurance, disability coverage, retirement savings, and a commuter benefits plan.

Chicago Public Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we actively seek and welcome people from all backgrounds, orientations, and life experiences to join our team.

The essential functions described above are not all-inclusive and are not intended to create any contractual or other legal commitment. Chicago Public Media may change the content or format of this job at any time in its sole and exclusive discretion without notice.

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Senior Vice President, Enterprise Systems & Revenue Operations