Performance Media Director

OVERVIEW

Smarty Social is a social-first marketing agency serving healthcare, medical device, life sciences, and technology brands. Headquartered in Orange County, CA, we operate with a distributed team coast to coast in a flexible work environment.  We’re looking for a Performance Media Director to lead the planning, execution, and optimization of performance-driven media programs across paid social, search, and other digital channels. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on platform expertise, ensuring campaigns are thoughtfully structured, efficiently executed, and continuously optimized to drive measurable business outcomes.

This role partners closely with Strategy, Creative, and Client Services teams to translate business objectives into high-performing media programs and actionable insights. This role is ideal for a performance-focused manager who enjoys both building strategy and actively managing the details that drive results.

WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS

The Performance Media Director ensures paid media campaigns  deliver consistent, measurable performance for our clients. By combining deep platform expertise with strong analytics and optimization practices, this role helps turn data into meaningful insights that improve both campaign results and strategic recommendations.

• Establishing high standards for paid media planning, execution, and optimization 
• Driving performance across paid social, search, and emerging digital platforms
• Turning campaign data into actionable insights for clients and internal teams
• Creating structured testing frameworks that improve performance over time
• Ensuring media strategies align with broader brand, content, and distribution strategies
• Lead a team of media specialists and analysts
• Partner directly with the leadership team to shape agency direction, innovation, and growth

The role is designed for an experienced leader who is energized by building—someone who is equally comfortable setting strategy and rolling up their sleeves to establish the foundation. While the team is currently lean, this role is centered on building, testing, and refining the systems and team that will sustain existing clients and support growth. 

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for a performance-driven media leader who is equally comfortable setting strategy and working directly on the platforms. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in paid media execution, strong analytical thinking, and a collaborative mindset that helps turn performance insights into smarter marketing decisions.

This role is for someone who enjoys both leading and doing, someone who can guide media strategy while remaining hands-on with campaign structure, optimization, and testing.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Paid Media Leadership & Execution

• Lead paid media marketing strategy and execution across paid social, search, and other digital channels
• Own media planning, forecasting, optimization, and reporting
• Ensure campaigns are structured to support full-funnel performance and measurable outcomes
• Maintain high standards for execution quality, efficiency, and accountability

Analytics, Insights & Intelligence

• Establish reporting frameworks, dashboards, and performance narratives
• Translate campaign, audience, and platform data into clear insights and recommendations
• Ensure insights are accessible and usable by Strategy, Creative, and Client Services teams

Performance Learning & Optimization

• Build structured testing and optimization frameworks
• Partner with Creative teams to support creative testing and performance learnings
• Establish clear feedback loops between performance results and future planning
• Promote a culture of curiosity, experimentation, learning, and iteration

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner closely with Client Services to support client strategy with performance insights and communicating performance results clearly to clients
• Collaborate with the creative team to align performance learnings with creative development

Department Leadership

• Lead a team of media specialists and analysts
• Define roles, career paths, and operating standards
• Establish scalable processes, SOPs, and quality controls
• Identify tools, technologies, and workflows that improve efficiency and insight quality

Business Development Support

• Support new business efforts with performance expertise, forecasting, and measurement frameworks
• Contribute to the evolution of paid media offerings and capabilities

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE

• 8 years of agency experience in paid media analytics, or digital media management 
• Deep expertise across paid social, search, and digital advertising platforms
• Strong grasp of analytics platforms, dashboards, and modern marketing technology that includes analytics, attribution, forecasting, and measurement
• Experience in managing paid media specialist & analysts 
• Ability to translate data into clear, actionable insights via trusted client presence with strong presentation skills
• Detail-oriented, analytical, and execution-focused mindset
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced, evolving agency environment
• Builder mindset: adaptable, resourceful, and comfortable rolling up sleeves when needed
• Remote or hybrid within the U.S., with availability during Pacific Time business hours

WHAT WE OFFER

• Competitive salary aligned to experience and scope
• Bonus opportunity tied to company and performance KPIs
• Comprehensive employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Paid time off plus floating holidays (with increased PTO for long-term team members)
• Flexible remote/hybrid work environment
• 401(k) with company match and profit sharing
• Ongoing learning and leadership development
• A values-driven culture grounded in our agency values of fearless ownership, boundless connection, and intentional creation

HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?

Email hello@smartysm.com with your resume and a brief note on why this role excites you.