Email Deliverability Specialist

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Competency Questions

1 of 17

Sender reputation & mailbox provider policies

Translates provider policies into actionable sending rules and monitors reputation indicators.

Why this level

Directly aligns with mid-level scope of monitoring and implementing rules to sustain reputation, supporting key outcomes like reduced spam events and improved placement.

Describe how you monitor and analyze sender reputation metrics across multiple mailbox providers to identify trends and potential issues.

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Assuming 5 minutes per question response

Attitude Questions

1 of 24

Feedback Openness

The willingness and ability to actively seek, receive, and thoughtfully consider feedback from colleagues, data, and processes to improve email deliverability strategies and performance.

Tell me about a time when you received critical feedback about an email program you owned. How did you respond and what did you change?

Select Interview Round

Assuming 5 minutes per question response

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
Sender reputation & mailbox provider policies	Explains basic reputation factors and checks provider guidelines before changes.	Translates provider policies into actionable sending rules and monitors reputation indicators.	Diagnoses reputation dips across providers and leads corrective plans.	Sets enterprise reputation strategy and negotiates policy interpretations with providers.
List acquisition vetting & hygiene controls	Runs routine list hygiene jobs and suppresses risky contacts.	Implements acquisition checks and periodic list audits with defined thresholds.	Designs hygiene policies tied to engagement and risk signals.	Owns enterprise list governance strategy aligned with compliance and risk.
Blocklist monitoring & remediation playbooks	Monitors alerts and follows remediation steps for low-severity listings.	Correlates listings with sending behavior and drafts delisting cases.	Leads cross-functional remediation and root cause elimination.	Defines preventive controls and provider engagement strategies to avoid relistings.
Send cadence, throttling & segmentation guardrails	Applies defined cadence and throttling rules for sends.	Tunes rules per provider and segment based on observed signals.	Designs adaptive guardrails responsive to real-time deliverability indicators.	Institutionalizes guardrails as policy with automated enforcement.
Engagement signals & reputation drivers analysis	Reports basic open/click/complaint trends.	Segments signals by provider and audience for insights.	Builds multi-signal models to explain reputation shifts.	Sets KPI frameworks tying engagement to program-level reputation strategy.
Domain/IP strategy (shared vs dedicated, alignment)	Identifies sending identities and IP pools used per program.	Recommends pool/domain allocation based on risk and volume.	Designs multi-domain and IP pool strategies with clear routing rules.	Owns enterprise identity architecture and long-term routing policy.
Feedback loop integration & complaint rate controls	Monitors FBL notifications and applies basic suppressions.	Automates complaint ingestion to drive near-real-time suppression.	Designs complaint thresholds and upstream prevention controls.	Formalizes complaint governance and provider partnerships to reduce complaints.
Sender identity setup (From, Return-Path, subdomain strategy)	Identifies headers and validates identity configuration.	Implements subdomain patterns for program separation.	Optimizes identity strategy for alignment and deliverability outcomes.	Defines enterprise identity standards across brands and regions.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

Sender reputation & mailbox provider policies

Explains basic reputation factors and checks provider guidelines before changes.

Translates provider policies into actionable sending rules and monitors reputation indicators.

Diagnoses reputation dips across providers and leads corrective plans.

Sets enterprise reputation strategy and negotiates policy interpretations with providers.

List acquisition vetting & hygiene controls

Runs routine list hygiene jobs and suppresses risky contacts.

Implements acquisition checks and periodic list audits with defined thresholds.

Designs hygiene policies tied to engagement and risk signals.

Owns enterprise list governance strategy aligned with compliance and risk.

Blocklist monitoring & remediation playbooks

Monitors alerts and follows remediation steps for low-severity listings.

Correlates listings with sending behavior and drafts delisting cases.

Leads cross-functional remediation and root cause elimination.

Defines preventive controls and provider engagement strategies to avoid relistings.

Send cadence, throttling & segmentation guardrails

Applies defined cadence and throttling rules for sends.

Tunes rules per provider and segment based on observed signals.

Designs adaptive guardrails responsive to real-time deliverability indicators.

Institutionalizes guardrails as policy with automated enforcement.

Engagement signals & reputation drivers analysis

Reports basic open/click/complaint trends.

Segments signals by provider and audience for insights.

Builds multi-signal models to explain reputation shifts.

Sets KPI frameworks tying engagement to program-level reputation strategy.

Domain/IP strategy (shared vs dedicated, alignment)

Identifies sending identities and IP pools used per program.

Recommends pool/domain allocation based on risk and volume.

Designs multi-domain and IP pool strategies with clear routing rules.

Owns enterprise identity architecture and long-term routing policy.

Feedback loop integration & complaint rate controls

Monitors FBL notifications and applies basic suppressions.

Automates complaint ingestion to drive near-real-time suppression.

Designs complaint thresholds and upstream prevention controls.

Formalizes complaint governance and provider partnerships to reduce complaints.

Sender identity setup (From, Return-Path, subdomain strategy)

Identifies headers and validates identity configuration.

Implements subdomain patterns for program separation.

Optimizes identity strategy for alignment and deliverability outcomes.

Defines enterprise identity standards across brands and regions.

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
Deliverability alerting & dashboards	Uses dashboards and acknowledges alerts.	Builds dashboards and tunes alert thresholds.	Designs monitoring strategy and cross-signal correlation.	Standardizes observability across programs and teams.
Runbooks, escalation & on-call workflow	Follows runbooks and records actions.	Improves runbooks and clarifies escalation triggers.	Owns on-call process and post-incident updates.	Institutionalizes governance and metrics for operational readiness.
Cross-functional training & enablement content	Delivers established training content.	Creates role-specific modules and updates content with new policies.	Builds curricula tied to common failure modes and metrics.	Operationalizes enablement programs at org scale.
Case management & provider escalation interfaces	Files cases with sufficient logs and context.	Prioritizes and drives cases to resolution with clear updates.	Optimizes case templates and SLAs with providers.	Builds formal escalation relationships and governance.
Knowledge base and documentation lifecycle	Keeps docs updated during changes.	Establishes review cadences and owners.	Defines documentation standards and templates.	Implements governance and metrics for knowledge quality.
Tooling access, roles and administration	Requests and validates correct access.	Manages role mappings and audits access.	Designs least-privilege role structures and reviews.	Integrates access governance with enterprise IAM.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

Deliverability alerting & dashboards

Uses dashboards and acknowledges alerts.

Builds dashboards and tunes alert thresholds.

Designs monitoring strategy and cross-signal correlation.

Standardizes observability across programs and teams.

Runbooks, escalation & on-call workflow

Follows runbooks and records actions.

Improves runbooks and clarifies escalation triggers.

Owns on-call process and post-incident updates.

Institutionalizes governance and metrics for operational readiness.

Cross-functional training & enablement content

Delivers established training content.

Creates role-specific modules and updates content with new policies.

Builds curricula tied to common failure modes and metrics.

Operationalizes enablement programs at org scale.

Case management & provider escalation interfaces

Files cases with sufficient logs and context.

Prioritizes and drives cases to resolution with clear updates.

Optimizes case templates and SLAs with providers.

Builds formal escalation relationships and governance.

Knowledge base and documentation lifecycle

Keeps docs updated during changes.

Establishes review cadences and owners.

Defines documentation standards and templates.

Implements governance and metrics for knowledge quality.

Tooling access, roles and administration

Requests and validates correct access.

Manages role mappings and audits access.

Designs least-privilege role structures and reviews.

Integrates access governance with enterprise IAM.

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
MTA sending policies, rate limiting & concurrency	Executes predefined policy changes.	Tunes per-provider limits based on telemetry.	Designs policy frameworks that auto-adapt to conditions.	Architects multi-region, scalable MTA policy systems.
Bounce taxonomy, parsing & routing	Uses taxonomy to tag bounces correctly.	Implements parsing rules and routes to systems.	Improves taxonomy and false-positive handling.	Standardizes taxonomy across platforms and partners.
Event-driven send contracts and idempotency	Follows existing contract specs.	Implements versioned contracts and idempotent handlers.	Designs evolvable schemas and retry strategies.	Establishes enterprise standards for eventing across products.
Traffic segmentation and IP/pool routing orchestration	Applies routing rules per playbook.	Optimizes routes using telemetry feedback.	Designs adaptive routing and rollback strategies.	Architects global routing across multiple MTAs/regions.
Bounce/complaint service reliability & SLOs	Monitors service health dashboards.	Defines alerts and remediates incidents to meet SLOs.	Sets SLOs and capacity plans for peak events.	Architects multi-region HA/DR for critical processing services.
Inbound reply handling and loop detection service	Monitors inbound processing queues and resolves simple failures.	Implements parsing and loop detection rules.	Optimizes routing and reduces false positives in detection.	Defines enterprise architecture for inbound processing across brands.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

MTA sending policies, rate limiting & concurrency

Executes predefined policy changes.

Tunes per-provider limits based on telemetry.

Designs policy frameworks that auto-adapt to conditions.

Architects multi-region, scalable MTA policy systems.

Bounce taxonomy, parsing & routing

Uses taxonomy to tag bounces correctly.

Implements parsing rules and routes to systems.

Improves taxonomy and false-positive handling.

Standardizes taxonomy across platforms and partners.

Event-driven send contracts and idempotency

Follows existing contract specs.

Implements versioned contracts and idempotent handlers.

Designs evolvable schemas and retry strategies.

Establishes enterprise standards for eventing across products.

Traffic segmentation and IP/pool routing orchestration

Applies routing rules per playbook.

Optimizes routes using telemetry feedback.

Designs adaptive routing and rollback strategies.

Architects global routing across multiple MTAs/regions.

Bounce/complaint service reliability & SLOs

Monitors service health dashboards.

Defines alerts and remediates incidents to meet SLOs.

Sets SLOs and capacity plans for peak events.

Architects multi-region HA/DR for critical processing services.

Inbound reply handling and loop detection service

Monitors inbound processing queues and resolves simple failures.

Implements parsing and loop detection rules.

Optimizes routing and reduces false positives in detection.

Defines enterprise architecture for inbound processing across brands.

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
SPF/DKIM configuration & key management	Validates SPF/DKIM records and fixes basic issues.	Implements key rotation and alignment checks.	Designs scalable key management and monitoring.	Defines enterprise signing and DNS record standards.
DMARC alignment, policy and reporting analysis	Checks alignment status and reads aggregate reports.	Tunes policy from none to quarantine/reject safely.	Resolves alignment exceptions across services and brands.	Owns DMARC enforcement strategy enterprise-wide.
TLS and ARC transport/authentication hygiene	Verifies TLS in transit and understands basic ciphers.	Configures TLS policies and evaluates ARC needs.	Optimizes transport security and ARC deployment across flows.	Sets enterprise policies for transport/authentication hygiene.
BIMI/VMC setup and validation	Publishes BIMI record and validates rendering.	Coordinates VMC procurement and renewal.	Troubleshoots provider-specific BIMI behaviors.	Standardizes BIMI/VMC governance and asset management.
Consent, unsubscribe and regulatory compliance	Ensures visible unsubscribe and honors requests.	Implements consent checks and logging in workflows.	Designs consent governance across systems and regions.	Owns enterprise compliance standards and audits.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

SPF/DKIM configuration & key management

Validates SPF/DKIM records and fixes basic issues.

Implements key rotation and alignment checks.

Designs scalable key management and monitoring.

Defines enterprise signing and DNS record standards.

DMARC alignment, policy and reporting analysis

Checks alignment status and reads aggregate reports.

Tunes policy from none to quarantine/reject safely.

Resolves alignment exceptions across services and brands.

Owns DMARC enforcement strategy enterprise-wide.

TLS and ARC transport/authentication hygiene

Verifies TLS in transit and understands basic ciphers.

Configures TLS policies and evaluates ARC needs.

Optimizes transport security and ARC deployment across flows.

Sets enterprise policies for transport/authentication hygiene.

BIMI/VMC setup and validation

Publishes BIMI record and validates rendering.

Coordinates VMC procurement and renewal.

Troubleshoots provider-specific BIMI behaviors.

Standardizes BIMI/VMC governance and asset management.

Consent, unsubscribe and regulatory compliance

Ensures visible unsubscribe and honors requests.

Implements consent checks and logging in workflows.

Designs consent governance across systems and regions.

Owns enterprise compliance standards and audits.

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
Link/tracking standards and tagging (UTM, params)	Applies defined tags and verifies links.	Audits campaigns for tagging completeness and correctness.	Defines tagging standards and exceptions.	Standardizes tracking across channels and systems.
Event schema and delivery/engagement data contracts	Consumes events per spec.	Implements schema changes and versioned contracts.	Designs forward/backward compatible schemas.	Establishes enterprise event standards and governance.
Trigger QA, suppression and dependency checks	Runs predefined QA checklists.	Automates checks for suppressions and dependencies.	Designs QA frameworks for event-triggered sends.	Institutionalizes preflight gates across pipelines.
Cohort/attribution analysis for deliverability impact	Builds basic cohort reports.	Connects deliverability KPIs with conversion outcomes.	Designs experiments to isolate deliverability effects.	Standardizes attribution frameworks that include deliverability signals.
ETL/warehousing for email telemetry	Runs and monitors scheduled jobs.	Implements schema mapping and data quality checks.	Designs scalable ETL with SLAs and lineage.	Sets enterprise data standards for email telemetry.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

Link/tracking standards and tagging (UTM, params)

Applies defined tags and verifies links.

Audits campaigns for tagging completeness and correctness.

Defines tagging standards and exceptions.

Standardizes tracking across channels and systems.

Event schema and delivery/engagement data contracts

Consumes events per spec.

Implements schema changes and versioned contracts.

Designs forward/backward compatible schemas.

Establishes enterprise event standards and governance.

Trigger QA, suppression and dependency checks

Runs predefined QA checklists.

Automates checks for suppressions and dependencies.

Designs QA frameworks for event-triggered sends.

Institutionalizes preflight gates across pipelines.

Cohort/attribution analysis for deliverability impact

Builds basic cohort reports.

Connects deliverability KPIs with conversion outcomes.

Designs experiments to isolate deliverability effects.

Standardizes attribution frameworks that include deliverability signals.

ETL/warehousing for email telemetry

Runs and monitors scheduled jobs.

Implements schema mapping and data quality checks.

Designs scalable ETL with SLAs and lineage.

Sets enterprise data standards for email telemetry.

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
Seedlist and inbox placement testing coverage	Runs seed tests and records results.	Optimizes seed coverage and interprets trends.	Designs provider/segment coverage strategies and actions.	Institutionalizes testing standards and automated checks.
Pre-send content/spam filter assessment	Runs spam checks and fixes common issues.	Correlates content elements with placement outcomes.	Defines content guardrails and automated linting.	Implements org-wide preflight gates for risky patterns.
Experiment design, MDE and analysis for email	Runs A/B tests using templates.	Calculates sample sizes and MDE; analyzes outcomes.	Designs multivariate tests and controls for confounders.	Standardizes experimentation frameworks and guardrails.
IP/domain warm-up planning and execution	Executes warm-up schedules and monitors basics.	Adjusts ramps by provider and engagement.	Designs adaptive warm-up frameworks and rollback criteria.	Codifies warm-up policy across programs and regions.
Performance tests for time-critical sends	Runs load tests and records metrics.	Tunes configs to hit throughput and latency targets.	Designs performance test suites and SLOs.	Architects capacity strategies for critical events.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

Seedlist and inbox placement testing coverage

Runs seed tests and records results.

Optimizes seed coverage and interprets trends.

Designs provider/segment coverage strategies and actions.

Institutionalizes testing standards and automated checks.

Pre-send content/spam filter assessment

Runs spam checks and fixes common issues.

Correlates content elements with placement outcomes.

Defines content guardrails and automated linting.

Implements org-wide preflight gates for risky patterns.

Experiment design, MDE and analysis for email

Runs A/B tests using templates.

Calculates sample sizes and MDE; analyzes outcomes.

Designs multivariate tests and controls for confounders.

Standardizes experimentation frameworks and guardrails.

IP/domain warm-up planning and execution

Executes warm-up schedules and monitors basics.

Adjusts ramps by provider and engagement.

Designs adaptive warm-up frameworks and rollback criteria.

Codifies warm-up policy across programs and regions.

Performance tests for time-critical sends

Runs load tests and records metrics.

Tunes configs to hit throughput and latency targets.

Designs performance test suites and SLOs.

Architects capacity strategies for critical events.

Competency	Junior	Mid	Senior	Principal
Taxonomy, naming and program classification	Applies taxonomy to new assets.	Refines taxonomy and aligns stakeholders.	Designs extensible taxonomies and migration plans.	Owns governance for taxonomy across the portfolio.
Capacity planning, throughput and SLOs	Tracks throughput vs plan.	Builds capacity forecasts and mitigations.	Defines SLOs and scaling strategies for peak events.	Aligns capacity governance with business and provider constraints.
Executive reporting and program narrative	Prepares recurring KPI reports.	Highlights drivers and recommended actions.	Builds narratives tying deliverability to business impact.	Institutionalizes executive dashboards and review rhythms.
Provider relationship management & escalations	Supports data gathering for escalations.	Runs provider cases and updates stakeholders.	Owns provider relationships and escalation success metrics.	Establishes partnership strategies and joint improvement plans.
Cross-channel supply signal orchestration	Shares basic signals across teams.	Implements rules to shift volume based on risk.	Designs orchestration logic using shared signals.	Governs cross-channel orchestration standards and tooling.
Incident management, PIRs & retros	Logs incidents and participates in PIRs.	Leads PIRs and tracks action items.	Identifies systemic fixes and validates effectiveness.	Institutionalizes incident governance and learning loops.

Competency

Junior

Mid

Senior

Principal

Taxonomy, naming and program classification

Applies taxonomy to new assets.

Refines taxonomy and aligns stakeholders.

Designs extensible taxonomies and migration plans.

Owns governance for taxonomy across the portfolio.

Capacity planning, throughput and SLOs

Tracks throughput vs plan.

Builds capacity forecasts and mitigations.

Defines SLOs and scaling strategies for peak events.

Aligns capacity governance with business and provider constraints.

Executive reporting and program narrative

Prepares recurring KPI reports.

Highlights drivers and recommended actions.

Builds narratives tying deliverability to business impact.

Institutionalizes executive dashboards and review rhythms.

Provider relationship management & escalations

Supports data gathering for escalations.

Runs provider cases and updates stakeholders.

Owns provider relationships and escalation success metrics.

Establishes partnership strategies and joint improvement plans.

Cross-channel supply signal orchestration

Shares basic signals across teams.

Implements rules to shift volume based on risk.

Designs orchestration logic using shared signals.

Governs cross-channel orchestration standards and tooling.

Incident management, PIRs & retros

Logs incidents and participates in PIRs.

Leads PIRs and tracks action items.

Identifies systemic fixes and validates effectiveness.

Institutionalizes incident governance and learning loops.

Sample Job Description Content

What You Get

🏠 Flexible remote work (2-3 days in office)
🌴 4 weeks PTO + company holidays
💊 100% paid health insurance
📚 $1,500 annual learning budget
👶 16 weeks parental leave
💼 Equity with 4-year vesting

Our Process

Recruiter Screen — Role Fit & Communication30 min
Hiring Manager Technical — Core Deliverability & Remediation75 min
Peer Technical — Troubleshooting & Day-to-Day Execution60 min
Cross-Functional — Marketing Partnership & Compliance45 min

Email Deliverability Specialist

Competency Questions

Sender reputation & mailbox provider policies

Why this level

Attitude Questions

Feedback Openness

Progression Framework

Deliverability Fundamentals & Reputation

Tools, Workflows & Enablement

Architecture & Systems for Email Platform

Authentication, Security & Compliance

Interfaces, Data & Integration Analytics

Quality, Testing & Experimentation

Operational Excellence & Governance

Sample Job Description Content

What You Get

Our Process