Vice President, Paid Media & Digital Strategy

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior paid media advisor across a portfolio of client accounts, owning strategic direction, the quality of recommendations, and senior client relationships. Lead investment discussions and manage escalations in partnership with account and practice leadership.
• Lead integrated media strategies grounded in audience intelligence, with clear objectives, channel roles, budgets, and measurement plans. Guide investment across paid social, search, programmatic display and native, online video, CTV and streaming, digital audio, and publisher partnerships, integrating offline media where relevant.
• Oversee planning, activation, optimization, and reporting through account teams. Review major plans and deliverables, challenge assumptions, diagnose performance issues and provide hands-on guidance when needed.
• Partner with insights and analytics colleagues to establish KPIs and measurement frameworks, assess results against campaign objectives, and translate findings and data limitations into clear recommendations for clients.
• Manage and coach team and senior media leads and strategists. Set goals, provide actionable feedback, lead performance conversations and support hiring, development, and advancement in partnership with practice leadership.
• Partner with account and practice leadership on scopes of work, staffing plans, resource allocation and account profitability. Ensure teams manage media budgets, pacing, forecasts and reconciliations accurately, and address delivery or scope risks early.
• Lead paid media strategy for new business and expansion opportunities, including discovery, proposals, investment recommendations and pitch presentations.
• Build relationships with media platforms, publishers, and technology partners to evaluate inventory, targeting capabilities, pricing and measurement approaches that improve client programs.
• Strengthen planning standards, quality assurance, workflows and knowledge sharing across the practice.
• Evaluate emerging channels, AI-enabled tools, and changes in targeting, privacy, measurement and advertising policies.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in paid media, digital strategy, or integrated media planning, with progressive responsibility and substantial agency experience managing multiple clients and competing priorities.
• 5+ years of direct people management experience, including experience managing managers or senior media leads and developing high-performing teams.
• A demonstrated record of independently leading complex client engagements, advising senior stakeholders, managing escalations and earning trust through strategic counsel and reliable delivery.
• Experience developing and overseeing multimillion-dollar media programs, allocating investment across channels and aligning plans with client objectives and measurable outcomes.
• Deep expertise across paid social, search, programmatic and video, with experience integrating CTV and streaming, digital audio and publisher partnerships. Familiarity with offline media integration is a plus.
• Prior hands-on campaign execution experience and current platform fluency sufficient to evaluate plans, troubleshoot issues and guide activation teams. Experience leading delivery through others is essential.
• Strong understanding of audience research, segmentation, advanced targeting, media measurement, attribution and optimization, including the limitations of platform-reported results.
• Experience partnering on scopes, staffing, resource planning and financial management, with an understanding of how delivery decisions affect account profitability.
• A record of contributing to new business wins and account growth through compelling proposals, presentations and recommendations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical concepts and performance data into clear guidance for nontechnical audiences. Fluency with analytics, visualization, and reporting platforms.

Benefits

• 100% Company-paid Medical, Dental and Vision insurance
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) contributions
• Flexible, hybrid work arrangements (4 days in office)
• 12 paid company holidays per year, up to 39 days individual paid time off
• Winter break: Offices close the last week of the year