Senior Paid UA Manager in Mobile app studio

Applause is a profitable, well-capitalized operator of consumer subscription apps across privacy, security, health, productivity, and accessibility. The model is simple: acquire high-retention, category-leading apps and scale them. The portfolio includes PicSafe, Nomorobo, Meditation Moments, Strongbox, and Voice Dream.

The apps already have top 1% retention, strong brands, and high organic traffic, so paid growth compounds on proven products instead of propping up weak ones. There is real budget behind growth that works.

The company has raised $100M+ across debt and equity and runs remote-first with ~40 people worldwide (roughly 40% US, 50% Europe, 10% elsewhere). It is now building its growth function from the ground up.

This is execution role in paid user acquisition. The primary mandate is to plan, launch, and optimize paid campaigns that drive installs and new subscription revenue across the portfolio — starting with one to two apps and expanding as you prove results.
 

Area of influence

• Run paid UA campaigns hands-on: owns profitable paid acquisition, starting with Meta and TikTok, then coordinating ASA and Google with existing owners.
• Own creative testing end to end: build the testing roadmap, brief and iterate on ad creatives, dissect what wins and why, and feed learnings back into the next cycle.
• Monitor performance daily in the MMP and ad platforms, catch anomalies early, and reallocate spend toward what pays back.
• Support the measurement setup: event configuration in the MMP, SKAN/postback hygiene, and web-versus-app attribution checks, so the numbers you optimize against are trustworthy.
• Bring your own experiment ideas — new channels, angles, and audiences — size them by expected payback, and run them without waiting for a task list.
• Report results and learnings in writing on a weekly cadence; the culture is writing-first and async.
   

Who are we looking for

• 3+ years of hands-on paid UA experience for consumer mobile apps, with subscription apps strongly preferred; you have personally managed meaningful budgets and owned the outcomes, not just watched dashboards.
• Working knowledge of the modern app-growth stack: an MMP (AppsFlyer, Adjust, or Singular), Amplitude or Mixpanel, and paywall/subscription tooling (Superwall, RevenueCat) — with opinions on the tradeoffs, not just tool names.
• Thinks in payback and cohorts rather than platform-reported ROAS; comfortable pulling their own data before making a call.
• Uses AI tools daily to move faster — reporting, creative iteration, analysis — and has current opinions on which ones actually help.
• Scrappy and independent: startup, indie, or small-team background rather than big-company process; figures things out without hand-holding.
   

Team & Background

You join at the ground floor of the growth function, working directly with the VP of Performance Marketing and alongside the senior growth hire as the team takes shape. Strong performers grow with the portfolio: more apps, more budget, more scope — Applause promotes people who are not bound by their job description. The path from specialist to senior operator (and eventually toward GM-level ownership of an app) is real and intended.
 

Comp. Competitive monthly base (USD) + performance bonuses tied to the growth you drive. Full-time engagement, structured as a contractor arrangement