Director of Membership Experience

Role Overview

The Director of Membership Experience is the owner of the congregation’s membership health, engagement strategy, and long-term growth trajectory, including how and where the congregation shows up in the broader community.

This is a senior, thought-partner role charged with stabilizing the community in the near term and designing the systems and programs required for sustainable growth over time. The role carries significant responsibility and influence, including the mandate to challenge existing assumptions and reshape what engagement looks like. If you believe community doesn’t grow by accident, and that clergy-led programming alone is not a membership strategy, this role is for you.

The Problem You’ll Be Solving

The congregation is at an important moment of opportunity. Leadership is focused on strengthening and evolving the membership experience to support long-term vitality and growth. This role exists to bring intentional ownership, clear strategy, and thoughtful design to how people connect, belong, and stay engaged over time.

This role exists because the Temple recognizes that:

• Membership experience must be owned, not diffused
• Retention and growth require designed systems, not just good intentions
• Meaningful belonging does not emerge from program volume alone

You will be hired to address this thoughtfully, humanely, and durably.

What You’ll Own

Membership Strategy, Retention & Growth

• Own the end-to-end membership strategy, with accountability for retention and long-term growth
• Design differentiated engagement pathways for distinct member segments
• Identify early indicators of disengagement and implement proactive, relationship-centered retention strategies
• Build scalable models that foster member-to-member connection, reducing over-reliance on clergy and staff

Community & Relational Design

• Launch and steward havurot, circles, and relational initiatives with clear purpose and follow-through
• Develop non-ritual cultural, social, and intellectual programming that deepens belonging
• Create intentional senior and intergenerational offerings that strengthen the community fabric
• Regularly assess what is actually creating connection, and stop what isn’t
• Identify and develop low-barrier, repeatable touchpoints that create everyday visibility and connection beyond formal programs

New Member Experience

• Fully own the new-member journey, from first inquiry through meaningful integration
• Ensure consistent follow-up, warm handoffs, and clear next steps
• Redesign the first year of membership to feel personal, navigable, and welcoming — not transactional or opaque

Data, Insight & Decision-Making

• Track engagement, retention, and membership trends using CRM data and qualitative insight
• Translate insight into action, refining strategy, programming, and outreach based on evidence
• Provide clear, candid reporting to senior leadership and the Board to support informed decisions

Leadership & Collaboration

• Serve as a thought partner to clergy and senior leadership, bringing an independent POV on membership health
• Collaborate across teams to align communications, development, and programming with lived member experience
• Advocate for the membership lens in institutional decisions, including respectfully pushing when needed

Why You’ll Want This Job

• You will own something that matters. This is not a supporting role; you are accountable for the health of the community itself.
• You are hired to think. The Temple is explicitly seeking a leader with a point of view, not a program executor.
• You get to work on the real problem. Stability alone is not the end goal; this role exists to build momentum.
• You have permission to push. Improving engagement requires challenging habits, assumptions, and inertia. That mandate is built into the role.
• Your work will compound. Strong membership systems create a durable impact well beyond any single program cycle.
• You’ll have the opportunity to help the congregation become a visible, natural part of everyday Jewish life across the Peninsula, not just a place people visit intentionally.

What Success Looks Like

Success is measured across both membership health and growth momentum. While not all outcomes are directly controllable, this role is accountable for building the systems and signals that lead to growth.

Key indicators include:

• Improved new-member onboarding, early engagement, and long-term retention
• Sustainable participation in relational initiatives (havurot, circles, cohorts)
• Increased awareness of the congregation and its offerings within the surrounding community
• Stronger engagement and inquiry from prospective members across the local catchment area
• Clearer pathways from interest to membership, with improved follow-through and conversion
• Shared visibility for leadership and the Board into engagement and growth trends

This role is not expected to “manufacture” growth, but to create the conditions that make growth possible.

Required Skills & Experience

• Demonstrated experience owning and improving a membership, engagement, or community system
• Proven ability to design engagement pathways that move people from initial interest to sustained belonging
• Strong point of view on what creates real connection, and the judgment to stop what isn’t working
• Comfort operating as a thought partner to senior leadership
• Experience using data and CRM tools to inform decisions, while keeping the focus on human relationships
• Ability to translate insight into action, building systems, testing ideas, and iterating over time
• High emotional intelligence, discretion, and credibility across diverse stakeholders

Ideal experience includes:

• Work in a mission-driven, membership-based organization where engagement, retention, and growth were not guaranteed
• Experience in environments that required active outreach, visibility, and community presence, not just internal programming
• Background in Jewish communal life, cultural institutions, or other relationship-centered organizations

Position Details

• Full-time role
• Competitive, senior-level compensation commensurate with experience
• Reports to ED/CCO and works closely with clergy and Board leadership

medical, dental, optical, and 401K

English is a must; Hebrew is helpful.