Director of Paid Social (Freelance: 2-3 month contract)

This is a 2-3 month freelance contract role

We are seeking a Director, Paid Social to lead strategy, activation, and integration for a large, enterprise pharmaceutical brand within a highly regulated environment. This role oversees a dedicated social team and owns end‑to‑end campaign excellence across major platforms, from planning through optimization and reporting.

The ideal candidate is a highly detail‑oriented leader who can manage and develop teams, train them on full‑funnel activation, best in class paid social and stay ahead of platform trends while building strong, trusted client relationships.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the paid social strategy for a large pharmaceutical brand, ensuring alignment with brand, medical/legal/regulatory (MLR), and broader omnichannel marketing goals.
• Oversee end‑to‑end activation across platforms (e.g., Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Snap, LinkedIn), including audience strategy, trafficking, QA, optimization, and reporting.
• Serve as the primary day‑to‑day social lead and trusted advisor to senior pharma clients, proactively sharing insights, opportunities, and recommendations.
• Manage a high‑performing paid social team (associate directors, supervisors, managers, traders, off-shore), providing clear direction, coaching, and feedback to ensure best‑in‑class work.
• Design and deliver structured training to ensure the team is proficient in end‑to‑end campaign execution (briefing, specs, builds, ISI/fair balance, QA, optimization, measurement) and understands pharma‑specific requirements.
• Create a strong “train‑up” culture that develops employees’ strategic, analytical, and client‑facing skills, not just platform execution.
• Stay on top of new social platform changes, policies, ad formats, privacy updates, and industry trends, and translate them into compliant, actionable tests and innovations for the brand.
• Establish processes to regularly communicate platform and regulatory updates, best practices, and learnings to both internal teams and client stakeholders.
• Ensure rigorous, detail‑oriented QA on all campaigns, including correct safety/ISI implementation, audience and budget setup, naming conventions, pixel/tagging, and pacing.
• Partner cross‑functionally with internal teams and partner agencies to drive integrated, data‑driven programs.
• Develop annual and quarterly paid social budget plans, manage investments across partners, and ensure delivery against performance KPIs and internal commercial targets.
• Lead social performance reviews, delivering clear, insight‑driven narratives and recommendations to senior client and internal stakeholders.

Required Skills and Qualifications

• 8 years of experience in paid social media planning and buying, with significant experience on large, complex accounts; pharmaceutical or other FDA‑regulated experience strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to effectively manage, develop, and inspire teams, including experience training team members on both tactical and strategic aspects of paid social.
• Extremely detail‑oriented, with a track record of flawless execution across multiple campaigns and workstreams in fast‑paced, regulated environments.
• Strong understanding of cross‑channel media (video, search, programmatic, CRM) and how paid social fits into omnichannel patient and HCP journeys.
• Demonstrated ability to stay ahead of social and digital trends, platform changes, and measurement best practices, and to apply them thoughtfully to pharma use cases.
• Exceptional client‑facing communication and presentation skills, with a proactive, solutions‑oriented approach and proven success building senior‑level relationships.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience using social and web analytics tools to interpret performance, design tests, and make data‑driven recommendations.
• Excellent organizational and time‑management skills; comfortable managing multiple brands/indications, stakeholders, and deadlines simultaneously.