Associate Planning Director

We’re looking for an Associate Director of Media Strategy to join a high-profile consumer brand on a 6-month contract.

This role is ideal for someone coming from a network agency planning background who enjoys the big-picture side of media. This is not a hands-on buying, activation, or performance marketing role. It’s about shaping strategy, guiding planning, and helping drive major brand campaigns from brief through execution.

The role

You’ll join the media strategy team and work closely with senior marketing leadership to help shape integrated media strategy across large, high-visibility brand campaigns.

You’ll be responsible for turning business goals into clear media plans, guiding agency work, validating recommendations, and helping bring structure to a fast-moving cross-functional environment.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead integrated media strategy and planning across major brand campaigns
• Translate business priorities into clear channel strategy and media plans
• Own the briefing process with the media agency and help guide work from brief through post-campaign analysis
• Review, challenge, and refine media plans to ensure quality and strategic alignment
• Help define the right channel mix across streaming, digital, social, OOH, video, and custom content / integrations
• Work closely with integrated marketing, product marketing, growth, creative, and production teams to keep plans moving
• Support campaign execution by helping coordinate timelines, assets, stakeholders, and approvals
• Bring structure and clarity to a complex environment with a lot of moving pieces

What they’re looking for

• 8 years of experience in media strategy, integrated media planning, communications planning, or cross-channel planning
• Strong agency background
• Experience working on brand-led, upper-funnel campaigns
• Comfortable leading planning work end to end and operating with a high degree of autonomy
• Experience managing agency partners and working across internal stakeholders
• Strong understanding of media mix, planning frameworks, measurement, and campaign performance
• Able to step into a senior planning role and add immediate value

Ideal background

You may currently be:

• Associate Planning Director
• Associate Director, Integrated Media Planning
• Associate Media Director
• Senior Manager, Plannin
• Senior Manager, Media Strategy

Important notes

• This is not a hands-on buying or activation role
• This is not a pure performance / growth marketing position
• Experience across streaming, OOH, digital video, social, and custom content is highly relevant
• Experience with large consumer, lifestyle, beauty, retail, tech, or entertainment brands is a plus

Working style

• Contract: 6 months
• Location: New York
• There is no fixed weekly in-office requirement, but this person should be available to come into the office periodically for key meetings, offsites, and team working sessions.
• Start: ASAP