Director, Activation

Kepler Group•Baltimore, MD

8h•$154,000 - $176,000

About The Position

Kepler is an engineered marketing company that uses data and technology across paid digital media and data-driven CRM channels to build personalized, productive relationships between brands and consumers. The Director of Activation is a lead media strategist and growth engine within the Client Solutions group. This builder-oriented role connects advanced technical media execution with business development. The Director is an enterprise leader across a global integrated account team and its lines of business, sets the standard for client excellence, works with Strategy counterparts on long-term growth plans, and activates integrated cross-channel campaigns. The role translates Kepler’s activation capabilities into strategic client recommendations, using high-quality execution to support business growth. Kepler describes its culture as transparent, growth-oriented, and fun, and highlights investment in employees and clients. Compensation includes a base salary of $140,000–$160,000, a target annualized discretionary bonus of 10% ($14,000–$16,000), and target total cash of $154,000–$176,000. Benefits include healthcare, dental and vision coverage; unlimited PTO; 401(k) contributions; wellness, mobile phone, internet, learning, tuition, and home-office stipends; caregiver leave; and an annual work-from-anywhere period.

Requirements

8–10+ years of digital media experience.
At least 3 years in a leadership role managing a multi-sector account with large-scale spend of $50M or more.
Motivation for client partnerships and new business, with the ability to show clients how technical execution addresses business challenges.
Holistic media understanding across Social, Programmatic, Search, Video, Audio, and Direct IO.
Ability to explain complex technical media strategy as clear growth narratives for C-suite executives.
Familiarity with measurement models such as MMM and MTA.

Responsibilities

Serve as the cross-channel activation subject matter expert and design media plans that scale client growth.
Identify organic growth opportunities through cross-channel expansion, media audits, advanced testing frameworks, and technology integrations.
Partner with Strategy and Data Science & Analytics teams to productize agentic-powered activation capabilities into client offerings.
Translate audience insights and investment strategies from Strategy and Center of Excellence partners into tactical, high-performing campaign architectures.
Lead media execution and onboarding for new client engagements, presenting recommendations to senior stakeholders.
Maintain deep expertise across the evolving ad-tech landscape to keep activation strategies cutting-edge.
Lead and mentor activation teams during the first 90 days of new client engagements, fostering curiosity, speed, and precision.
Establish and enforce campaign setup and optimization best practices across portfolio teams and new business pitches.
Provide feedback to the Kepler Intelligence Platform team to shape platform evolution around client needs.

Benefits

Healthcare, dental, and vision coverage.
Unlimited PTO.
401(k) contributions.
$75 per month wellness stipend.
$100 per month mobile phone stipend.
$50 per month internet stipend.
$500 annual learning stipend.
$2,000 annual tuition stipend.
One-time $200 new-hire home-office equipment stipend.
Parental leave: 16 weeks for a primary caregiver and 6 weeks for a secondary caregiver.
Annual work-from-anywhere period of 4 weeks per year.