Media Planner and Buyer

Responsibilities

• Build media plans for client campaigns, translating the brief into a channel strategy and budget framework, with guidance from senior planners
• Support audience strategy by researching targeting approaches, data sources, and segmentation options based on client goals and budget
• Recommend media mix across paid channels, learning to balance reach, frequency, cost efficiency, and client objectives
• Create media plans, flowcharts, budgets, and decks that connect audience to channel to budget to KPI in a clear narrative
• Handle planning math with growing independence, including budget allocation, forecasting, pacing, and reconciliation
• Conduct research that informs planning decisions, including competitive landscape, audience data, platform capabilities, and market context, and turn it into clear recommendations
• Partner with Account Managers in client conversations, presenting parts of the plan and building toward explaining the “why” behind channel decisions on your own
• Support campaign execution and optimization, including insertion orders, trafficking, and reporting, so you see how your plans perform in market
• Contribute to RFP responses as opportunities come up
• Stay sharp on the media landscape, including new platforms, shifting audience behavior, and pricing trends, and bring what you learn into planning decisions

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, or a related field, or equivalent experience preferred
• Minimum two years in media planning, media buying, ad operations, or digital marketing; internship or agency coordinator experience counts
• Comfort with budgets and spreadsheets, and a willingness to get confident with planning math: allocation, forecasting, pacing, and reconciliation
• Exposure to digital media platforms such as search, social, or DSPs (DV360, The Trade Desk); hands-on experience is a plus, and we’ll teach the rest
• Familiarity with media planning tools (Bionic, Strata, ComScore) or audience data providers (LiveRamp, GWI) is a plus, not a requirement
• Experience building or contributing to a plan, deck, or recommendation, and the curiosity to explain the thinking behind it
• Strong organizational and analytical instincts, and the ability to juggle multiple campaigns on tight timelines without losing the details
• Clear written and verbal communication, and the ability to make complex ideas simple to explain and digest
• Good judgment under ambiguity, and the habit of asking good questions
• Experience in political, advocacy, higher ed, or utilities verticals is a plus

Preferred

• Hands-on experience with digital media platforms such as search, social, or DSPs (DV360, The Trade Desk)
• Familiarity with media planning tools (Bionic, Strata, ComScore) or audience data providers (LiveRamp, GWI) is a plus
• Experience in political, advocacy, higher ed, or utilities verticals is a plus