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Email Marketing Lead, Principal Associate

Capital One · Chicago, IL · Full time

Posted Oct 1, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

Tell me about an email or CRM program you built from the ground up. What would you do differently?

What they are checking: Whether they have real ownership experience and can reflect on it honestly.

What would you do

You'd stand up the email service provider instance from scratch. Walk me through how you'd plan that with engineering, compliance and IT.

What they are checking: Whether they know what an ESP setup involves, from data feeds to domain authentication to approvals.

Compliance asks for changes to your email copy the day before a send. How do you handle it?

What they are checking: Whether they work well with compliance and plan reviews so last-minute changes are rare.

About the work

What would you do to protect deliverability on a brand-new sending domain?

What they are checking: Whether they understand warm-up, authentication like SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and list quality.

The audience is US and Canada merchants. How do CAN-SPAM and Canada's anti-spam law change what you can send?

What they are checking: Whether they know CASL's stricter consent rules and how they shape list building and journeys.

How would you design a trigger-based email journey that lines up with telemarketing outreach to the same merchant?

What they are checking: Whether they can coordinate channels so merchants get a sensible sequence, not overlapping messages.

The posting says to look at conversion, not just opens and clicks. What would you measure for a merchant email program?

What they are checking: Whether they tie email to business outcomes like merchant sign-ups or activations.

Write me a quick SQL query in words: how would you find merchants who opened an onboarding email but never completed setup?

What they are checking: Whether they can actually use SQL to build audiences and answer questions themselves.

How do you write a subject line and email for a busy small business owner?

What they are checking: Whether they still have strong copywriting basics and know their audience.

How would you set up an A/B test for an email journey and decide the winner?

What they are checking: Whether they understand testing basics and choose a meaningful success metric.

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The full job description

As published by Capital One.

Email Marketing Lead, Principal Associate If you’re a ‘builder’, consider yourself highly organized (yet scrappy at heart), and love getting inside the mind of your customer, look no further. We’re looking for an end-to-end customer relationship management (CRM) marketer (with a focus on email marketing) who will be part of our expansion to digital channels. You’ll play a critical role in not only owning this channel, but also building the system from the ground up. You’ll own standing up the email service provider (ESP) instance, collaborating with engineering, compliance, IT, and more to build our email marketing infrastructure, and then be the end-to-end orchestrator of what we hope is a robust CRM program to our critical audience of US and Canada merchants. We’re looking for both a proven track record in owning an email and/or CRM program, as well as someone who ‘leans into’ data instead of away: you look for conversion metrics, NOT just vanity metrics of opens and clicks. You’ve been known to be dangerous enough with SQL or HTML (you know who you are). That said, at a baseline you are a marketer and haven’t forgotten your basic marketing skills (copywriting, eye for design, and attention to detail). What You'll Do • Email journeys: Design automated, trigger-based email sequences that seamlessly align with offline marketing touchpoints, including telemarketing calls, site visits, and direct mail campaigns. • Project management: Project manage enterprise ESP rollouts and migrations, serving as a functional bridge between marketing requirements and engineering builds. • SQL anyone? Write custom SQL queries for dynamic audience segmentation and directly inspect/troubleshoot HTML/CSS templates and copy. • Lower funnel for the win: Evaluate campaign performance using lower-funnel conversion metrics—such as reactivation volume, Cost Per Reactivation (CPR), conversion rates, and funnel velocity—rather than relying on vanity opens and clicks. • Attention to detail: Manage campaign Quality Assurance (QA), cross-client rendering checks, dynamic data validation, and strict alignment with regulatory compliance standards. • Collaborative: Collaborate effectively across cross-functional engineering, analytics, and marketing teams while maintaining a continuous testing agenda and a curious, growth-oriented mindset. • Copywriting & persuasion: Apply direct-response copywriting principles and sales psychology to write clear, persuasive email copy that drives customer action. Basic Qualifications: • Bachelors Degree or military experience • At least 5 years of marketing operations and CRM experience, specifically leading the technical setup of email service provider (ESP) instances and managing data syncs with Salesforce. • At least 4 years of hands-on experience with Salesforce architecture, Pardot (Account Engagement), or Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), including defining CRM fields and system integrations. • At least 4 years of experience in direct-response email copywriting • At least 5 years of experience evaluating marketing performance using lower-funnel conversion metrics (reactivation volume, CPR, velocity) Preferred Qualifications: • Bachelors in Marketing, Advertising, Communications or Consumer Behaviors • Strong project management skills, organization skills, and attention to detail • Demonstrated experience managing multiple stakeholders and working cross functionally • At minimum 1 year of hands-on experience writing SQL queries for database segmentation and troubleshooting HTML/CSS templates • Excellent communication skills, paired with constant testing and a curious, growth mindset • Experience writing or auditing direct-response call scripts, field briefs, and objection-handling documentation. • Experience navigating regulatory or legal compliance reviews for marketing operations • 2+ years of vendor management At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position. The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked. Chicago, IL: $109,900 - $125,400 for Principal Associate, Marketing Riverwoods, IL: $109,900 - $125,400 for Principal Associate, Marketing Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter. This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan. Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website . Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries. If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations. For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to Careers@capitalone.com Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site. Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).

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