The Role

You are where the plan becomes performance: you place the buys, negotiate the rates, watch the pacing, and optimize live campaigns until every dollar is working as hard as it can.

Working alongside our Media Director, you turn media strategy into executed, optimized, accountable buys across digital and traditional channels. You live in the platforms and the numbers day to day. You are data-driven, results-obsessed, a sharp negotiator, and relentless about efficiency. Google and Meta are home turf, and you are fluent well beyond them. The strategy sets the direction; you are the one who makes it perform.

What You Will Own

Buying and negotiation.

You negotiate rates and added value with vendors, secure competitive pricing for clients, and manage media contracts against budget and campaign goals. You know how to get more for every dollar than the rate card suggests.

Campaign execution.

You own the end-to-end execution of media buys: accurate booking, trafficking, and deployment, with nothing lost in the handoff. You coordinate cleanly with creative, account, and traffic teams so plans go live correctly and on time.

Pacing and live optimization.

You monitor pacing and performance in real time and optimize continuously. You catch underperformance and under-delivery early and fix it through reallocations, makegoods, and hands-on adjustments, before it becomes a client problem.

Performance measurement.

You track and analyze the numbers that matter, spot the trends underneath them, and translate what you see into decisions. You measure honestly and act on the evidence, not the hope.

Planning support and channel research.

You help shape media plans against client objectives across digital, TV, radio, print, and outdoor, and you bring competitive analysis and channel research that sharpen the Media Director’s strategy.

Vendors, billing, and reporting.

You cultivate vendor relationships that surface opportunities early, partner with finance to keep invoice reconciliation and budget tracking accurate, resolve discrepancies quickly, and produce post-campaign reporting that turns results into actionable insight for clients and the team.

Where The Plan Becomes Performance

A media plan is a theory until a buyer makes it work. This role is the point where strategy meets live dollars and real delivery, and it rewards a specific temperament: someone who reads a pacing report the way others read a scoreboard, who is genuinely bothered by a dollar spent inefficiently, and who would rather catch a problem at 2pm and fix it than explain it in next month’s report. You are detail-obsessed, deadline-proof, and calm when a campaign needs a real-time save.

If media buying is just booking and reporting to you, this is not the seat. If it is a craft you optimize relentlessly, it is exactly the seat.

Tools And Platforms

You should be strong across the modern buying and measurement stack. We do not expect every tool below, but we expect real depth across most of them:

Buying and activation: Google Ads, DV360, Campaign Manager 360, Meta Ads, and programmatic platforms, plus search management via Skai (formerly Kenshoo) or Marin.
Analytics and measurement: GA4, Looker Studio, Adobe Analytics, Power BI, and comparable reporting platforms.
Traditional planning and research: Nielsen, SRDS, AdViews, and SQAD for TV, radio, and broader offline buying.

Who You Are

Data-driven and results-obsessed. You optimize toward outcomes and defend your moves with numbers.
A sharp negotiator. You consistently secure better rates and added value than the opening offer.
Digital-deep, traditional-fluent. You specialize in Google and Meta and are comfortable across the full digital and offline channel set.
Booking errors, pacing drift, and reconciliation gaps do not slip past you.
Fast and unflappable. You manage multiple campaigns under tight deadlines and stay organized when it gets loud.
You work cleanly with strategy, creative, account, and finance, and you are a trusted advisor to clients.

Experience And Qualifications

Five or more years in media planning and buying, across both digital and traditional media.
A proven track record in performance marketing, performance media, or other results-driven environments.
Strong analytical skills and proficiency with media planning and buying tools (Nielsen, SRDS, AdViews, SQAD).
Deep hands-on knowledge of Google Ads, DV360, Campaign Manager 360, Meta Ads, and programmatic platforms, plus Skai or Marin.
Excellent negotiation, communication, and organizational abilities.
A bachelor’s degree.
Highly desirable: experience in healthcare, wellness, or other regulated categories.

Certifications

Required: Google Ads Certification and a Meta (Facebook) media buying certification.

Preferred: Meta Certified Media Buying Professional, Meta Certified Media Planning Professional, Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate, Google Digital Marketing and E-commerce Professional Certificate, and Google Search Ads Certification.