Director of Paid Media

Director of Paid Media

Salary: $85,000–$110,000 base quarterly commission 5% annual bonus (based on company and department goals)

This will be in-office and remote in San Diego.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Director of Paid Media who can lead our paid department, own strategy across multiple advertising channels, support growth, and deliver measurable results for our clients. This role is a mix of hands-on execution, team leadership, cross-channel strategy, and department scaling.

You’ll oversee a growing paid media team, manage key client accounts, and develop integrated strategies across Paid Search, Paid Social, Retail Media, and Programmatic/CTV/OTT.

This is a high-ownership role for someone who loves the craft, leads by example, and cares about performance.

What You’ll Do

Leadership & Department Management

• Lead and mentor the Paid Media team (paid search, paid social, programmatic, analysts).
• Build processes, improve workflows, and help structure the department as we continue to scale.
• Collaborate with leadership on forecasting, hiring needs, budgeting, and new service rollouts.
• Maintain quality control across all client deliverables and reporting.

Client Strategy & Execution

• Serve as a strategic lead on high-priority client accounts.
• Build and optimize multi-channel strategies tailored to client KPIs and budgets.
• Present insights, growth opportunities, and quarterly business reviews.

Paid Media Expertise (Hands-On Oversight)

Oversee and optimize campaigns across:

Hands On:

• Paid Search: Google Ads, Bing/Microsoft
• Paid Social: Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest

Oversight:

• Retail Media: Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel (nice to have)
• Programmatic: CTV/OTT, audio, display, PMPs, DSPs
• Shopping/Ecommerce: Merchant Center, feed management, performance max

Additional:

• Ensure tracking, attribution, and conversion measurement are set up correctly (GA4, GTM, pixels, server-side when applicable).
• QA creative direction and landing pages with design/content teams.
• Work collaboratively with our Earned Media team across multi-channel marketing accounts

Growth & Innovation

• Identify new channel opportunities, betas, and tools that level up performance.
• Build playbooks and frameworks for campaign setup, optimization, and testing.
• Support business development with proposals, media plans, and pitch materials.
• Contribute to agency thought leadership by sharing learnings, trends, and case studies.

What You Bring

• 5 years of paid media experience, including agency experience (required).
• Deep hands-on expertise in Google/Microsoft Ads and Meta Ads.
• Strong working knowledge of Amazon Ads and/or Walmart Connect.
• Experience with CTV/OTT/Programmatic buying through DSPs (The Trade Desk, StackAdapt, etc.).
• Strong analytical skills - comfortable with data, KPIs, and ROI modeling.
• Experience managing people, processes, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Excellent communication skills and confidence presenting to clients.
• Comfortable in a fast-moving environment with shifting priorities and multiple accounts.
• A builder’s mindset - you enjoy improving systems, not just running them.

Compensation

• Base Salary: $85,000–$110,000 (DOE)
• Quarterly Commission: Performance-based
• Annual Bonus: 5% based on company department goals
• Full benefits package