Director of Paid Social (Freelance: 2-3 month contract) at Havas Media Network | New York, USA | $100/hr – $105/hr

Havas Media Network

Director of Paid Social (Freelance: 2-3 month contract)

New York, USA (On-site)

$100/hr – $105/hrDirector/Executive8+ years expContract

Posted 3 months ago

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Job Summary

Drive paid social strategy for a regulated pharma brand, lead end‑to‑end activations across major platforms, and coach a multi‑level team to deliver compliant, data‑driven campaigns.

Own cross‑platform activation, QA, and performance reporting
Must-have: 8+ years in paid social for large, complex, FDA-regulated accounts
Standout: Proven leadership and senior‑level client collaboration

Job Description

Responsibilities

Lead the paid social strategy for a large pharmaceutical brand, ensuring alignment with brand, medical/legal/regulatory (MLR), and broader omnichannel marketing goals.
Oversee end‑to‑end activation across platforms (e.g., Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Snap, LinkedIn), including audience strategy, trafficking, QA, optimization, and reporting.
Serve as the primary day‑to‑day social lead and trusted advisor to senior pharma clients, proactively sharing insights, opportunities, and recommendations.
Manage a high‑performing paid social team (associate directors, supervisors, managers, traders, off-shore), providing clear direction, coaching, and feedback to ensure best‑in‑class work.
Design and deliver structured training to ensure the team is proficient in end‑to‑end campaign execution (briefing, specs, builds, ISI/fair balance, QA, optimization, measurement) and understands pharma‑specific requirements.
Create a strong “train‑up” culture that develops employees’ strategic, analytical, and client‑facing skills, not just platform execution.
Stay on top of new social platform changes, policies, ad formats, privacy updates, and industry trends, and translate them into compliant, actionable tests and innovations for the brand.
Establish processes to regularly communicate platform and regulatory updates, best practices, and learnings to both internal teams and client stakeholders.
Ensure rigorous, detail‑oriented QA on all campaigns, including correct safety/ISI implementation, audience and budget setup, naming conventions, pixel/tagging, and pacing.
Partner cross‑functionally with internal teams and partner agencies to drive integrated, data‑driven programs.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in paid social media planning and buying, with significant experience on large, complex accounts; pharmaceutical or other FDA-regulated experience strongly preferred.
Proven ability to effectively manage, develop, and inspire teams, including experience training team members on both tactical and strategic aspects of paid social.
Extremely detail‑oriented, with a track record of flawless execution across multiple campaigns and workstreams in fast‑paced, regulated environments.
Strong understanding of cross‑channel media (video, search, programmatic, CRM) and how paid social fits into omnichannel patient and HCP journeys.
Demonstrated ability to stay ahead of social and digital trends, platform changes, and measurement best practices, and to apply them thoughtfully to pharma use cases.
Exceptional client‑facing communication and presentation skills, with a proactive, solutions‑oriented approach and proven success building senior‑level relationships.
Strong analytical skills, with experience using social and web analytics tools to interpret performance, design tests, and make data‑driven recommendations.
Excellent organizational and time‑management skills; comfortable managing multiple brands/indications, stakeholders, and deadlines simultaneously.

Preferred

Havas Media Network

Havas Media Network is the media experience agency. Havas Media Network delivers this brand promise through the Mx System, where meaningful media helps build more meaningful brands. Havas Media Network is part of Havas, one of the world’s largest integrated content, media and communications groups. Havas Media Network also consists of two global media networks: Havas Media and Arena Media. The media experience agencies are home to specialists across 150 countries worldwide, with 73 Villages. Clients include BBC, Canal+, Credit Agricole, Dolce & Gabbana, EDF, Fidelity Investments, Grupo Carso, Hyundai, JDE, Kia, Leroy Merlin, Lidl, PNC Bank, Puma, Reckitt Benckiser, Red Bull, Sanofi, Shell, Telefonica, YUM Brands, among many others.

Founded in 1990

New York, NY, US

6.5K employees (68 in marketing)

www.havasmedianetwork.com