Responsibilities

• The Digital Marketing / Communications Manager owns paid media buying across endemic trade publications, industry sponsorships, and programmatic platforms in support of the entire enterprise marketing portfolio.
• This role plans, negotiates, executes, and optimizes publisher-direct placements - display, newsletter, native, custom content, event and print - and manages a secondary book of programmatic and paid social buying.
• As the enterprise moves media buying in-house, this role develops the buying model itself: establishing scalable processes for publisher negotiation, insertion order management, trafficking, verification, and reconciliation where those processes do not exist today.
• This is a deep subject matter expert role without direct reports.
• The Manager partners with Product and Brand Marketing on campaign objectives and audience priorities, with Marketing Analytics on measurement design and attribution, with MarTech on audience activation and tag governance, and with Supply Chain and Finance on publisher contracts, purchase orders, and spend reconciliation.
• Success looks like a defensible annual publisher plan, negotiated rates that measurably improve cost efficiency against prior agency-managed spend, and reporting that connects media investment to pipeline outcomes.
• Publisher-Direct & Endemic Trade Media Buying:
• Develops and evolves the annual endemic media plan, defining publisher mix, placement types, flighting, and budget allocation against campaign and business objectives.
• Negotiate rates, added value, and contract terms directly with trade publishers, evaluating rate cards against audience quality, historical performance, and comparable market benchmarks.
• Manages the full buy cycle from RFP and proposal evaluation through insertion order execution, trafficking, in-flight monitoring, make-good resolution, and post-campaign reconciliation.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in related discipline and 6 years' experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years' experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 10 years' experience in a related field.
• Demonstrated experience buying media directly from publishers, including rate and contract negotiation, insertion order management, and post-buy reconciliation.
• Hands-on experience managing programmatic and paid social campaigns across demand-side platforms and self-serve buying platforms.
• Experience supporting multiple brands or business lines within a large, matrixed enterprise organization.
• Analytical thinking at a skilled level; interprets performance data, identifies root causes, and makes well-reasoned, data-based recommendations on media investment.
• Negotiation and vendor management; secures favorable terms and holds publishers and agencies accountable to committed deliverables.
• Business process management; builds repeatable processes and documentation where none exist and improves them as the function matures.
• Communication; explains media strategy, trade-offs, and results clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, including senior stakeholders.
• Collaboration and influence; works effectively across Marketing, Analytics, MarTech, Finance, and Supply Chain without direct authority.
• Business acumen; understands the automotive industry landscape and connects media decisions to revenue and pipeline outcomes.

Preferred

• Experience establishing a new capability or transitioning media buying from agency-managed to in-house is strongly preferred.
• B2B media experience preferred; endemic or trade publication buying experience is a significant advantage.

Benefits

• A competitive salary and top-notch bonus plans.
• Exceptional work-life balance, flexible time-off policies and accommodating work schedules.
• Comprehensive healthcare, with multiple options for individuals and families.
• Generous 401(k) retirement plans with company match.
• Professional development and continuing education opportunities.
• Inclusive parental leave policies, plus comprehensive fertility coverage and adoption assistance.
• Extra perks like pet insurance, employee discounts and much more.