Demo

Senior Associate, Paid Social

criticalmass
Chicago, IL Full Time
POSTED ON 12/11/2025
AVAILABLE BEFORE 2/11/2026

The Senior Associate, Paid Social is the day‐to‐day steward on the business and is on the front lines of developing and activating both tactical and custom digital recommendations to meet our clients’ goals. They are a Digital native, curious about unique emerging opportunities and prepared to provide a point‐of‐view, recommendation, and optimization recommendations based on campaign performance. They are the primary contributor to the development of the Associate(s), guiding them through the fundamentals of the planning process (inclusive of partner evaluation, negotiation, reporting, optimization, insight generation, billing, etc.), while also being a key touch-point to stakeholders across the organization and the client for day to day management and support.


You Will:

  • Manage relationships with platform partners (digital publishers, social platforms).
  • Manage the billing team and provide final approval on all billing needs
  • Oversee and approve media campaign set-up and execution, including working with other internal teams and clients to secure deliverables.
  • Partner closely with agency and client-side stakeholders during fast-paced work sessions and ongoing strategy development.
  • Contribute to creative ideation and bring media strategies to life with flair and innovation.
  • Provide strategic insights and optimizations for all client reports
  • Research and prepare new information for paid media plans, RFPs, and presentations.
  • Evaluate, build and maintain relationships in the display and emerging media community.
  • Stay up-to-date on and advise the Media team on the latest trends in interactive marketing / media and developments.
  • Lead the development of “Point of View” (POV) documents on new trends or special opportunities.
  • Evaluate client needs and escalate needs or issues as they arrive to leadership
  • Drive audience insights and channel strategy
  • Sell in media initiatives to client
  • Integrate with neighboring disciplines (MKS, Strategy, Creative) on overall campaign direction

You Have:

  • 3-4 years of digital media experience, ideally in an agency environment
  • Hands-on execution across Meta, LinkedIn, Reddit, and other platforms
  • Experience in digital activation, executing and optimizing campaigns across social, display, and/or video platforms.
  • Hands-on experience in Social channels (META, Reddit, Snapchat, etc.)
  • Strong mathematical aptitude and understanding of the digital media landscape
  • Experience with budgeting, forecasting, and campaign optimizations across platforms
  • Proficient in research, audience planning, and developing social media plans (audience, platform, placement, ad mix)
  • A collaborative team player with energy, ideas, and a strong sense of ownership.
  • Highly organized with the ability to manage expectations in a fast-paced environment.
  • Adaptable to changing goals, with strong prioritization skills and a proactive approach.
  • Full campaign ownership: setup, ad creation, QA, pacing, budget management, and optimizations.
  • Proficient in reporting and analytics, including crafting insights and using Excel
  • Knowledgeable about integrating online and offline media opportunities
  • Able to understand application of use of industry tools such as (DDS/Prisma, ComScore, Nielsen, AdViews, eMarketer, etc.)
  • Excellent presentation, verbal, and written skills

 What We Offer: 

  • Global maternity and parental leave 
  • Competitive benefits packages
  • Vacation, compassionate leave, wellness days, and flex days
  • Access to online services for families and new parents
  • Early Dismissal Friday’s (off at 3:00 PM local time every Friday)
  • 13 affinity groups
  • Internal learning and development programs
  • Enterprise-wide employee discounts 

The Talent Team at Critical Mass is focused on ensuring we provide the best training, onboarding, and employee experience possible!  Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization, and we want to set you up for long-term success. In an effort to do so, we expect our team to work from an office a minimum of 3 days a week.

We continually review ranges to address skills, experience and markets. Base salaries are determined during our interview process, by assessing a number of factors that include, but aren’t limited to, a candidate’s experience and skills relative to the scope and responsibilities of the position. For current CM employees, tenure will also be a consideration.

Salary Range

$75,000 - $90,000 USD

Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer. 

The Critical Mass Talent Acquisition team will only communicate from email addresses that use the URLs criticalmass.com, omc.com and us.greenhouse-mail.io. We will not use apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Google Hangouts for communicating with you. We will never ask you to send us money, technology, or anything else to work for our company. If you believe you are the victim of a scam, please review your local government consumer protections guidance and reach out to them directly.

If U.S. based: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams#avoid
If Canada based: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/consumer-affairs.html
If U.K. based: https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights
If Costa Rica based: https://www.consumo.go.cr/educacion_consumidor/consejos_practicos.aspx 

Salary : $75,000 - $90,000

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