Associate Media Director

ABOUT THE ROLE 

We are looking for an Associate Media Director to lead integrated, digital-first media strategy and activation for a portfolio of B2B and consumer clients. You'll be the day-to-day media lead on your accounts; shaping how clients reach and engage their audiences, then building rigorous, technically sound plans that turn that strategy into measurable business outcomes. 

This role sits at the intersection of strategy and execution. You'll partner closely with Strategy, Creative, PMO, Analytics, and Client Leadership teams to translate business objectives into precise audience, channel, and measurement plans, and you'll stay close enough to the work to know how every campaign is set up, tracked, and optimized. You'll build long-term relationships with senior clients and supervise and mentor junior members of the media team. 

YOUR DAY TO DAY 

Media Strategy & Planning 

• Develop, manage, and execute integrated media plans across paid, owned, and earned channels, with an emphasis on digital: paid social (LinkedIn, Meta), paid search, programmatic display and video, and content partnerships 

• Lead audience strategy, segmentation, and customer journey development — including buying-committee dynamics for B2B clients and consumer path-to-purchase for B2C clients 

• Build launch, activation, and nurture strategies aligned to business and marketing objectives across awareness, consideration, and demand generation 

• Compile and interpret media research and audience insights to inform plan development and recommendations 

• Stay current on emerging media, platforms, and AI-driven planning and buying tools, and bring timely points of view to internal teams and clients 

Activation, Measurement & Optimization 

• Oversee campaigns through the full life cycle — research, planning, activation, tracking, and optimization — ensuring plans are executed against their strategic and technical requirements 

• Own campaign tracking and measurement setup: UTM taxonomy, pixel and tag implementation, conversion tracking, and attribution, in partnership with Analytics 

• Ensure clean data flow between media platforms and client marketing automation and CRM systems so media can be connected to leads, pipeline, and revenue 

• Build measurement frameworks and KPI dashboards that connect media investment to business outcomes; lead daily, weekly, and monthly reporting and help clients extract actionable learnings from the data 

• Recommend budget shifts and optimizations based on performance 

Client Leadership 

• Serve as the senior media voice on your accounts — leading weekly status meetings, presenting plans and performance, and translating technical media strategy into business-relevant narratives for director- and VP-level stakeholders 

• Understand each client's product, business culture, competitive landscape, and go-to-market priorities — including the regulatory, compliance, and brand-safety considerations that shape media for financial services brands 

• Lead the development of proposals and scopes of work for media projects, and contribute to new business pitches 

Business & Vendor Management 

• Manage media budgets, billing forecasts, and profitability of media work 

• Manage relationships, schedules, and contracts with media vendors and publisher partners on behalf of clients; negotiate value and hold partners accountable to delivery 

• Evaluate and recommend data and media partners based on targeting strengths, cost, and fit 

Team Leadership 

• Supervise, mentor, and develop media planners and supervisors, setting clear expectations and creating an inspiring, positive environment for clients and internal teams 

• Help establish best practices and repeatable processes for planning, activation, and reporting 

WHAT YOU BRING 

• 6+ years of digital media planning and activation experience, primarily in an agency environment  

• Experience across both B2B and B2C clients; experience with financial services clients (e.g., banking, insurance, wealth and asset management, payments, fintech) strongly preferred, including working within legal and compliance review processes 

• Hands-on experience planning and activating across paid social, paid search, and programmatic, with working knowledge of platforms such as LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Meta, Google Ads, DV360, and/or The Trade Desk 

• Strong grounding in campaign tracking and measurement — UTMs, Google Tag Manager, conversion tracking, and attribution — and the ability to connect media performance to business outcomes 

• Experience managing multi-million-dollar media budgets and media vendor relationships 

• Fluency with media research and planning tools (e.g., MRI-Simmons, Kantar, Pathmatics, MediaRadar, GWI) 

• Experience supervising and developing junior team members 

• Strong presentation and communication skills; comfortable leading conversations with senior client stakeholders 

• A confident self-starter and creative problem solver who can manage multiple projects at once, stays detail-oriented under pressure, and moves easily between big-picture strategy and hands-on execution 

• Bachelor's degree in advertising, marketing, or a related field, or equivalent experience 

Nice to have 

• Experience with demand generation and lead generation programs, including content syndication, webinars and virtual events, and sponsored content with trade publications 

• Exposure to account-based marketing and intent data platforms (e.g., 6sense, Demandbase, Bombora) 

• Familiarity with marketing automation and CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo) 

Location: Atlanta, Austin, or Chicago (Hybrid working model: 3+ full days in office/at client site) 

Salary: $110,000 – $125,000 USD