Cards & Retail Loyalty Expert

Engagement Details:

• Job Title: Cards and Retail Loyalty Expert
• Client: Global Cards & Payments Firm
• End-Client: Leading Bank in KSA
• Employment Type: Initial 12-month contract with strong potential for extension
• Location: Onsite in Riyadh, KSA
• Experience Level: 12–18 years

Role Overview:

Our client, a Global Cards & Payments firm, is engaged with a leading bank in Riyadh and is seeking a Cards & Retail Loyalty Expert who will act as a strategic advisor and trusted partner to the client, ensuring they achieve measurable business outcomes through their loyalty and customer engagement platform.

The role will drive platform adoption, deliver tangible value, and foster long‑term relationships that result in improved customer engagement, retention, and growth. The consultant will also serve as the connecting link between client stakeholders and internal teams, bringing together marketing, CRM, loyalty, analytics, and operations to ensure that expectations, SLAs, and strategic objectives are consistently met.

Key Responsibilities:

Loyalty & Engagement Strategy

• Define the end-to-end loyalty strategy for cardholders and retail customers, aligned to acquisition, activation, spend growth, and retention objectives.
• Design tiering, earn & burn mechanics, benefits, and partner offers optimized for different customer segments.
• Own the loyalty roadmap, including short-term quick wins and longer-term platform evolution.

Drive Adoption & Value

• Evangelize the loyalty and customer engagement platform with client stakeholders.
• Monitor platform usage, performance and customer behavior, and proactively recommend strategies to improve engagement, retention, and ROI.

Customer Lifecycle & Portfolio Engagement

• Drive engagement across the full customer lifecycle: onboarding, activation, usage growth, maturity, and retention.
• Develop usage stimulation programs (spend boosters, campaigns, challenges, targeted rewards).
• Reduce attrition and inactivity through data-led retention and re-engagement strategies

Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned accounts.
• Build trusted, long‑term relationships with stakeholders across Marketing, CRM, Loyalty, and Executive teams.
• Strategic Guidance
• Provide best practices, playbooks, and use cases for loyalty program success, grounded in data and leading market standards.
• Translate data‑driven insights into clear recommendations for the client’s loyalty and customer engagement strategy.

Program Governance

• Lead and coordinate regular business reviews (e.g., QBRs) and status updates via calls, presentations, and onsite meetings.
• Align and coordinate internal resources (e.g., product, analytics, operations) to meet client objectives and SLAs.

Growth & Retention

• Identify opportunities for account expansion and cross‑sell solutions where appropriate.
• Drive renewal readiness, ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction and relationship health.

Internal Collaboration & Alignment

• Work closely with internal product, analytics, and operations teams to address client feedback and prioritize roadmap items that enhance program performance.
• Ensure that client requirements and outcomes are clearly documented and communicated internally.

Data, Analytics & Performance Management

• Define and track KPIs including activation rate, spend per active card, redemption, breakage, retention, ROI, and profitability.
• Partner with analytics teams to drive segmentation, propensity-based targeting, and personalization.
• Translate insights into actionable campaigns and product enhancements.

Digital & Omnichannel Engagement

• Ensure loyalty and engagement are embedded across mobile apps, online banking, CRM, and sales channels.
• Support real-time and event-driven engagement (e.g., behavioral triggers, spend milestones, personalized offers).
• Improve customer experience and transparency of rewards, offers, and benefits.

Stakeholder & Partner Management

• Work closely with Cards, Marketing, Digital, CRM, Sales, Risk, Compliance, and Finance teams.
• Manage relationships with loyalty vendors, rewards partners, and card network offers.
• Ensure alignment with regulatory, compliance, and data-privacy requirements.

Knowledge and Skills

• 12–18 years of experience in loyalty, cards portfolio management, customer engagement, CRM, or retail banking strategy.
• Proven experience designing or managing loyalty programs for cards and/or retail customers
• Strong understanding of card economics, customer lifecycle management, and engagement levers.
• Experience working in GCC / Middle East banking environments is strongly preferred
• Experience working on loyalty, CRM, marketing or customer engagement programs.
• Strong exposure to commercial models and the ability to connect program performance to business outcomes.
• Proven track record in driving client adoption of platforms or SaaS solutions and delivering measurable business value.
• Experience managing multiple client stakeholders (including Marketing, CRM, Loyalty and Executive teams).
• Familiarity with marketing technology or fintech ecosystems, including APIs, integrations, CRM, customer engagement and loyalty solutions, analytics tools, and customer data platforms.
• High comfort in working with analytics dashboards, interpreting data, and turning insights into concrete actions and recommendations.
• Strong commercial acumen and ability to link loyalty program performance to financial and strategic outcomes.
• Advanced analytical and problem‑solving skills (both quantitative and qualitative)
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to prepare and deliver compelling presentations.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship‑building skills across senior and cross‑functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, projects, and stakeholders in a fast‑paced environment
• Cross‑functional leadership skills to align products, analytics, and operations around client objectives.
• High level of organization, discipline, and follow‑through for governance, QBRs, and action tracking.