Associate Director, Experience Planning

The Company:

Hearts & Science has been inspired by confident marketers seeking business advantage in a world of personalized digital marketing, where CRM and addressable channels converge, and decisions must be made in real time to aggregate effective reach and deliver the right message at the right time.

Designed to inform brand strategies with real-time insights, Hearts & Science is a data-driven marketing agency with expert media planning and buying capabilities, among other services that include shopper marketing, marketing innovation and content activation.

Associate Director, Planning

As an Associate Director in Planning at Omnicom Media, you are a strategic leader who oversees the delivery of innovative, integrated media strategies across multiple client accounts. You will drive planning excellence by providing high-level strategic guidance, nurturing client relationships, and ensuring the highest quality output from your team. Your role is key in shaping media vision, managing cross-functional collaboration, and elevating the performance of both clients and your planning team.

Within this role you have two core areas of responsibility:

Planning Excellence for the Client

• Serve as the strategic lead, overseeing the development and implementation of sophisticated, multi-channel media plans that drive client business outcomes.
• Deepen client relationships by acting as a trusted advisor and proactively identifying new opportunities and solutions to address their business challenges.
• Guide and elevate all aspects of client communication, presentations, and deliverables, ensuring clarity, insight, and alignment with client objectives.
• Oversee the evaluation of in-market performance, ensuring data-driven optimizations and actionable insights are delivered consistently.
• Stay ahead of industry trends and best practices to provide thought leadership and innovative solutions for clients.

Planning Excellence for the Team

• Lead, mentor, and develop planning teams by fostering a culture of growth, collaboration, and accountability.
• Drive cross-functional alignment with activation, analytics, creative, and strategy teams to ensure seamless, best-in-class plan execution.
• Maintain rigorous standards of quality, accuracy, and consistency across all internal and external deliverables.
• Champion process improvements, adoption of OMG tools, and continuous learning across the planning function.
• Identify and nurture emerging talent by providing direct coaching, feedback, and leadership development opportunities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in advertising, marketing, communications, business, or a related field.
• 7 years of media planning experience with increasing leadership responsibilities, preferably within an agency environment.
• Demonstrated expertise in developing, presenting, and executing integrated media strategies for complex, high-value client portfolios.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and strategic thinking skills.
• Advanced analytical ability and experience translating data into actionable business insights.
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and core industry planning tools; strong project management skills are essential.
• Ability to balance multiple priorities, lead in a fast-paced environment, and inspire team performance.
• Passion for innovation, continuous improvement, and team development.

How We Will Measure Success

• Deliver innovative, high-impact media plans that achieve and exceed client objectives.
• Demonstrate strong leadership by developing team capabilities and driving a culture of excellence and collaboration.
• Foster enduring, consultative client partnerships with positive feedback on strategic counsel and service.
• Ensure high quality and timely delivery of all project deliverables, supporting increased team efficiency and effectiveness.
• Lead adoption of new OMG technologies, processes, and best practices within your team.

This role is hybrid, requiring three (3) days per week in the office. The remaining two (2) days may be worked remotely. Specific in-office days will be discussed during the interview process, with flexibility to align with team needs. Please note that the number or required in-office days may be adjusted over time, potentially increasing the number of required in-office days based on business needs.