Digital Media Director

Ken Media•Austin, TX

3d•Onsite

About The Position

KEN is seeking a senior, client-facing digital media leader to lead digital and retail media across its client roster, from planning through final reporting. Based in KEN's Austin office, the Director identifies digital and commerce opportunities in client briefs, incorporates them into integrated media plans, and oversees delivery and measurement. The role partners with the Head of Media on digital components of pitches and RFPs, serves as the senior digital contact for clients, and works with the digital execution team to ensure plans are clearly packaged, delivered, and reported. The Director also establishes standards, playbooks, and training to develop KEN's in-house digital capabilities. The role leads client relationships and digital strategy, including cross-channel planning, retail media, Amazon Ads, audience activation, measurement, campaign optimization, and reporting. It contributes to new-business and organic-growth pitches, develops opportunities within existing accounts, and translates approved plans into complete briefs for strategy and activation teams. The Director coordinates with Bakery Agency on creative requirements and collaborates with internal teams, clients, and partners to improve workflows, evaluate technology, resolve escalated technical issues, and keep current with changes in platforms, privacy, retail media, and AI. The Digital Media Director reports to the Head of Media. The position is full-time and on-site at KEN's office in Austin, Texas.

Requirements

At least 7 years of digital media experience at an agency or in-house, including at least 3 years in a senior, client-facing role.
At least 2 years planning and managing retail media programs, including hands-on Amazon Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP management through tentpole events such as Prime Day, plus experience with at least one other major retail media network.
Experience contributing to the digital components of pitches and RFPs.
Familiarity with planning and running campaigns across major platforms, such as DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, CM360, SA360, Meta, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, Google Ads, Spotify, and Vistar.
Experience designing cross-channel media plans for clients with complex KPIs, including sales and retail metrics such as ROAS, iROAS, ACOS, TACOS, and new-to-brand.
Experience mentoring junior team members.
A degree or diploma in business, marketing, or communications, or equivalent industry experience.
Strong working knowledge of on-site and off-site retail media, including sponsored ad formats, keyword and bid strategy, retail DSPs, closed-loop measurement, clean rooms, and retail media's relationship to brand and upper-funnel media.
Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders in complex agency environments.
Strong presentation and consultative communication skills, including the ability to explain technical and data concepts as business value to senior clients.
Ability to write concise, complete briefs that another team can execute.
Solid understanding of attribution, incrementality, tracking, and reporting.
Ability to collaborate across client-facing, creative, and technical teams.
Strong organization, prioritization, and follow-through across multiple accounts and pitches.
Interest in coaching and developing colleagues.
Curiosity about digital advertising and a commitment to continued learning as the industry changes.

Nice To Haves

Experience formally managing direct reports.
Hands-on experience with clean rooms such as Amazon Marketing Cloud.
Experience across three or more retail media networks.
Experience in an embedded or hub agency model.
Platform certifications, such as Amazon Ads, Google, Meta, or The Trade Desk.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior digital point of contact for clients; discuss strategy, present results, guide ongoing updates, and recommend channels or products aligned with client goals.
Partner with the Head of Media to align digital plans with clients' overall media strategies, coordinate pitch and account priorities, and present integrated plans.
Lead retail media planning and help develop KEN's retail media offering, including on-site and off-site strategies across major retail media networks.
Plan joint business plans and co-op investments with retail partners and use closed-loop sales data and clean rooms to measure incremental sales and connect retail media with broader media plans.
Own Amazon strategy, budgets, pacing, and tentpole flighting, including Prime Day, Big Deal Days, and product launches.
Lead Amazon Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and Amazon DSP planning and optimization; coordinate creative specifications and assets for Amazon units.
Report Amazon performance alongside the rest of the media plan, tracking metrics including ROAS, ACOS, TACOS, new-to-brand, and branded search lift.
Partner with the Head of Media on digital and retail media recommendations for new-business and organic-growth pitches; present recommendations and help scope deliverables, budgets, and timelines.
Set retention and growth goals for digital account work and identify opportunities to expand digital and retail media programs with existing clients.
Review incoming client opportunities and prepare summaries for leadership.
Build cross-channel digital plans that connect with KEN's broader media strategy, audience work, and consumer journey mapping.
Use approved advertising intelligence and sales enablement platforms in pitches and new opportunities.
Advise clients on first-party data, audience activation, and conversion APIs; support clean-room work and keep plans compliant with evolving privacy rules and signal loss.
Turn approved digital media plans into complete briefs covering objectives, audiences, channel budgets, flowcharts, KPIs, measurement, creative specifications, and timing.
Bridge client-facing and digital execution teams to ensure plan details are communicated and delivered.
Coordinate with Bakery Agency on digital and retail creative specifications, asset timelines, and testing plans.
Work with the execution team on budgets, scope, asset collection, review, and launch; oversee quality and in-flight optimization.
Provide regular, actionable client insights explaining campaign performance and next steps.
Build and maintain digital campaign playbooks, pacing documents, optimization logs, naming conventions, and dashboards.
Lead post-campaign reporting and quarterly business reviews, and advise on attribution modeling, incrementality testing, and multi-touch attribution.
Track digital opportunities and active accounts, including status, spend, and results, and report regularly to the Head of Media, KEN leadership, partner leadership, and the execution team.
Mentor and train planners, strategists, buyers, and assistants; review work, develop platform skills, and support team growth.
Recommend digital, retail media, and AI tools that improve planning, measurement, and efficiency, and help the Head of Media evaluate their return on investment.
Escalate complex technical issues to the strategy and technology team and translate solutions into clear business value for clients.
Identify and address workflow friction among KEN, clients, Bakery, and the execution team, including opportunities to use AI to automate repeatable work.
Monitor changes in platforms, inventory, retail media networks, privacy rules, and AI, and bring relevant ideas to clients.