Direct Response Data Manager

Are you ready to harness the power of data to drive real-world change? We are seeking a meticulous data professional to step into a high-impact role where your precision and strategic insight will directly empower non-profits to reach their goals and build lasting community relationships. In this dynamic position, you will act as the vital bridge between strategic vision and technical execution, ensuring that critical campaign data is flawless and every fundraising initiative achieves its maximum potential.

About the Partner & Client

Aquent is proud to partner with a pioneering agency at the absolute forefront of direct response fundraising. This purpose-driven organization is dedicated to crafting deeply impactful campaigns that connect vital causes with passionate supporters. By leveraging cutting-edge, data-driven strategies, they consistently maximize philanthropic efforts and catalyze lasting global change. Joining this team means dedicating your talents to a mission that truly matters, helping non-profits thrive during a crucial campaign window from October 26, 2026, to January 31, 2027.

The Opportunity

In this pivotal role, you will be the guardian of campaign data integrity, translating strategic briefs into precise, executable technical instructions. You will collaborate closely with strategists, creative teams, and data engineers to safeguard campaign schedules, resolve complex data challenges, and uphold the highest standards of data governance. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment where your attention to detail directly influences the success of meaningful, real-world initiatives, this is the perfect opportunity to make your mark.

What You'll Do

• Review diverse client strategies to author, update, and validate comprehensive data instructions for strategists and the data engineering team, ensuring seamless alignment with campaign goals.
• Maintain and manage the organization's data guidebook and line-by-line data dictionary, proactively capturing new business rules, identifying missing or conflicting logic, and translating strategic briefs into precise, executable technical instructions.
• Support strategists during grid creation, donor select generation, and campaign brief handoffs, ensuring clean and accurate data inputs from the very beginning of each project.
• Perform rigorous quality control on data files returned from data processing and meticulously audit mail entry outputs to ensure strict campaign fidelity and accuracy.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for all data quality issues, ensuring technical questions are resolved collaboratively with client teams before data processor execution.
• Uphold the highest standards of data governance, security, and PII handling on every client engagement, protecting sensitive information and maintaining trust.
• Build and refine standardized data instruction templates and process documentation throughout the engagement, facilitating seamless knowledge transfer and operational efficiency for staff.

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in direct response data management, including expertise in donor segmentation, selects, suppressions, merge/purge rules, source coding, and writing error-free data instructions.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with SQL and relational databases.
• Working knowledge of ETL builds, data warehousing, and data quality practices.
• Comfort learning proprietary data platforms combined with a service-oriented mindset and the discipline required for a role accountable for production-bound mail files.
• Immediate availability for start on October 26, 2026.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background as a Technical Project Manager, Data Project Manager, or Business Analyst. (Data Engineers will be considered, but must possess strong client-facing communication skills - this is not a hands-on data engineering role).
• Experience with enterprise CRM platforms, with hands-on Salesforce experience strongly preferred. Comfort learning donor/constituent management systems quickly.
• Exposure to AWS data services, cloud data warehousing, or lakehouse tooling is a plus (role will not build ETL pipelines directly).