Associate Director, Programmatic Digital Activations

Responsibilities

• Lead client relationships. Build trusted relationships with mid- to senior-level client stakeholders and serve as the day-to-day activation lead and customer relationship manager.
• Connect activation to business outcomes. Develop clear strategic frameworks that ladder to client business and marketing goals, using consumer insight to inspire strong tactical recommendations.
• Provide proactive counsel. Bring forward opportunities, risks, platform developments, emerging media capabilities, and actionable recommendations rather than waiting for client direction.
• Lead client communications. Own daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly conversations related to digital activation, investment, performance, pacing, optimization, measurement, and next steps.
• Make complexity accessible. Distill technical, platform, data, and measurement concepts into clear implications and decisions for digitally centric and non-digitally centric audiences.
• Develop new business relationships and solutions. Identify, cultivate, and advance new client relationships, partnerships, and activation solutions that address business needs and strengthen the account.
• Oversee campaign design and implementation. Direct the development, setup, launch, stewardship, optimization, and closeout of digital campaigns across relevant channels, with a focus on Amazon and TTD Shopper campaigns
• Guide buying-path decisions. Provide direction on campaign design, tactic implementation, manual insertion order versus programmatic buying paths, platform selection, success requirements, and the optimal use of demand-side platforms.
• Own campaign performance and pacing. Maintain accountability for the quality, pacing, delivery, and performance of campaigns within assigned brands, ensuring issues are identified early and resolved decisively.
• Serve as an escalation point. Provide advanced guidance for complex setup, troubleshooting, optimization, platform nuances, and delivery challenges; engage directly in platforms when needed to diagnose issues and guide resolution.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in digital media planning, buying, activation, or investment, with expert knowledge of digital buying and strong programmatic expertise.
• Demonstrated experience directly managing, coaching, and developing media professionals, including managers and/or individual contributors.
• Proven success leading client relationships and communicating with mid- to senior-level stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of campaign design, buying paths, optimization, pacing, performance management, measurement, billing, and reconciliation.
• Working knowledge of demand-side platforms and ad technology solutions such as The Trade Desk, DV360, Amazon DSP, CM360, or similar platforms.
• Experience using campaign workflow and media management tools such as Prisma, or comparable systems.
• Working knowledge of third-party verification and brand-safety tools, including IAS or similar solutions.
• Intermediate to advanced data analysis skills, including experience working with large data sets and evaluating data using appropriate methodologies.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, with the ability to improve team efficiency and coach others in effective workflows and shortcuts.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, including the ability to translate complex digital concepts into clear business implications.

Preferred

• Experience activating across multiple digital media channels and a demonstrated curiosity about emerging platforms, formats, data sources, and measurement approaches.
• Hands-on experience in one or more DSPs, with the ability to support advanced setup, troubleshooting, and optimization when needed
• Experience designing reporting dashboards, developing executive-ready performance narratives, and creating long-term data or measurement solutions.
• Experience evaluating media, technology, data, or measurement partners through RFIs, demonstrations, scopes of work, and capability assessments.
• A record of anticipating and clearly defining problems, weighing alternatives, and recommending practical, scalable solutions.
• Demonstrated effectiveness managing up, down, and laterally across varied working styles and stakeholder groups.