Associate Director, Paid Social at Darkroom | New York, USA

Darkroom

Associate Director, Paid Social

New York, USA (Hybrid)

$80K/yr - $125K/yr (Est.)Senior LevelFull time

Posted 4 months ago

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Job Summary

Own and drive a senior paid social program for high-growth brands, aligning strategy with budget, performance metrics, and executive client needs.

Must-have: 10+ years in paid media with 7+ in Paid Social (Meta focus) and $1M+ monthly spends.
Standout: Lead a 3+ person paid media team and scale Meta accounts beyond $1M/month with efficiency.

Job Description

Responsibilities

Own and drive the overarching paid social strategy across a portfolio of high-growth U.S. brands, ensuring alignment between media investment, creative output, and business objectives.
Serve as the executive point of contact for senior client stakeholders — presenting quarterly business reviews, growth roadmaps, and performance forecasts to CMOs and marketing leadership.
Partner with the Managing Director to define team OKRs, capacity planning, and service delivery standards across the Paid Social practice.
Champion Darkroom's paid social point of view, staying ahead of platform changes, algorithmic shifts, and emerging formats to inform both client strategy and internal best practices.
Lead the development of annual and quarterly paid media plans, including budget allocation, channel mix, audience strategy, and creative roadmaps.
Oversee campaign architecture, optimization frameworks, and testing methodologies across 8–15 paid media accounts with aggregate monthly spends ranging from $500K–$5M+.
Drive best-in-class performance across Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Axon, and CTV, with deep mastery of direct response principles and short-form video creative strategy.
Establish and enforce rigorous KPI frameworks — CPA, CAC, iROAS, nCAC, MER, aMER, CTR, TSR, and Hold Rate — ensuring data-driven decision-making at every level.
Architect and pressure-test attribution models in partnership with Analytics, ensuring clients have a clear and accurate view of cross-channel performance.
Proactively identify growth opportunities through competitive intelligence, audience expansion, and creative iteration — translating insights into actionable channel strategies.
Serve as the senior creative strategist on accounts, guiding clients and internal creative teams on hook construction, format selection, messaging hierarchy, and creative testing frameworks.

Requirements

10+ years of paid media advertising experience, with at least 7+ years specializing in Paid Social and Meta in particular.
7+ years managing paid social advertising for high-growth consumer brands with aggregate monthly spends of $1M+ across a portfolio.
Demonstrated experience leading and developing a team of 3+ paid media practitioners in a fast-paced agency or in-house environment.
Proven track record of scaling Meta ad accounts beyond $1M USD/month while maintaining or improving efficiency metrics.
Executive-level client management skills — ability to build trust with CMOs and senior marketing leaders, present strategic recommendations with confidence, and navigate complex stakeholder dynamics.
Expert-level command of Meta Ads Manager and deep familiarity with TikTok Ads, Pinterest, and emerging social commerce platforms.
Mastery of e-commerce performance metrics (CPA, CAC, iROAS, nCAC, MER, aMER, CTR, TSR, Hold Rate) and the ability to translate these into clear client-facing narratives.
Expertise in full-funnel creative strategy — from concept briefing to performance analysis — with a sharp eye for what converts.
Strong background in data-derived decision-making, budget forecasting, and spend projection modeling.
Comfort engaging with e-commerce P&Ls and financial performance metrics at the business level.

Benefits

Unlimited PTO + US holidays: Rebooting is part of the work. Take the time you need to stay sharp.
Remote-First Culture: Many roles are fully remote. Hybrid work for New York or Lisbon HQs; hubs in Brazil and Spain.
Health & Wellness: Company-sponsored medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Finances, growth, and retirement: 401(k) with company match and profit-sharing opportunities.
Parental Leave: Flexible parental leave to support new parents during this transition.
Growth: Exposure beyond core role to grow skills and influence across the industry.

Darkroom

Darkroom is a technology-driven growth marketing firm focused on growth-stage consumer companies. We were founded in 2017 out of a conviction that the iconic ad agencies of tomorrow would look very different. Darkroom is a human services firm built on a universal AI commerce layer called Matter. Our model deploys a unique blend of senior, human resources enriched by an agentic technology stack that enhances output, efficiency, and revenue generation for our clients. Our team has been responsible for billions of dollars in trackable revenue across the various e-commerce marketplace, direct-to-consumer, and social commerce programs under management. Using research aggregated across these engagements, we accelerate results for our portfolio by developing high-impact digital strategies that unlock gateways to revenue growth, transform marketing operations, and prioritize profitability.What started as a boutique design agency evolved into one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc. 5000), one of the most successful results-driven performance media agencies of the 2020s (Varos), and esteemed recognition by Forbes 30 Under 30 for our founders’ contribution in Marketing & Advertising (Forbes).SERVICES:Darkroom strictly focuses on developing the next-generation of digital services. We choose to add impact in the areas where brands presently need them most and over-index on e-commerce marketplace, direct-to-consumer, and social commerce services that deliver trackable revenue. Core Darkroom service verticals include E-commerce Marketplace Management, Retail Media, Paid Media Management, Performance Creative, Social Commerce, and Customer Retention, among others. We are the only performance agency with a design-grade creative team and a certified Chief Creative Officer. These creative sensibilities are infused into our growth marketing.Darkroom is sister to Matter, our commerce technology layer.

Founded in 2017

New York, New York, USA

125 employees (59 in marketing)

darkroomagency.com