Director, Media Planning & Buying

Nationwide•Columbus, OH

10d•$122,000 - $214,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Nationwide is seeking a strategic, business-minded leader to establish the vision, operating model, and standards for an integrated performance marketing capability across SEO, paid search, and programmatic. This leader will connect organic and paid search, programmatic activation, audience strategy, testing, measurement, and optimization into one performance engine. They will make cross-channel investment trade-offs, create repeatable processes, and influence LOB marketers, senior executives, analytics, finance, creative, content, marketing operations, and agencies. As a Director of Media Planning & Buying, you'll lead Nationwide’s internal media buying team. You'll be responsible for the media strategy, activation and optimization of Nationwide’s advertising investment. You will produce coordinated media plans, based on data, that deliver business impact for the enterprise.

Requirements

Progressive leadership experience across integrated performance marketing, performance media, digital media, retail media, or a related discipline, with ownership of meaningful budgets, portfolios, or business outcomes.
Strong working expertise across SEO, paid search/SEM, and programmatic media, with the ability to define how channels work together across the consumer journey.
Sufficient SEO depth to set direction, identify technical and content opportunities, challenge agency recommendations, connect organic search to content strategy, and lead the function credibly.
Demonstrated full-funnel, audience-centric planning experience across awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, or other relevant objectives.
Experience establishing investment frameworks, forecasting, budget recommendations, KPIs, performance reporting, testing roadmaps, and optimization routines.
Strong marketing-effectiveness instincts: the ability to distinguish channel metrics from business impact and translate measurement, attribution, experiments, and insights into investment decisions.
Experience adapting search and content strategy to AI-driven discovery, changing consumer behavior, evolving search experiences, AEO, GEO, automation, and AI-assisted optimization.
Experience managing agencies as strategic extensions of the organization.
Experience influencing across complex, matrixed organizations and clarifying decision rights among multiple stakeholders.
Undergraduate degree in a quantitative field, e.g., business, finance, communication, etc. preferred; Graduate degree in closely-related field preferred.
Typically, ten or more years demonstrated experience in digital media.
Extensive experience in digital media buying, with a focus on addressable display, video, social, search and mobile campaign management preferred.
Experience managing and mentoring associates in a rapid growth environment, and deep experience in the demand side platform (DSP) and exchange-based media buying industry preferred.
Sophisticated knowledge of the principles of digital media development and execution, and the programmatic media supply chain.
Extensive knowledge of current practices in leading programmatic and social campaigns.
Ability to train, lead and mentor associates in all aspects of media buying and planning.
Proven understanding and skills with digital media tools, including demand side platforms, ad servers and web analytics tools.
Persuasive communication and presentation skills.
Ability to understand and relate market information to leadership levels.
Advanced marketing and promotional skills.
Ability to multi-task.
Critical thinking and listening skills.
Strong analytical skills with fact-based approach to solving business problems.
Ability to lead and prioritize projects.
Ability to function independently or on a team.

Nice To Haves

B2C and B2B experience is strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Own the integrated performance media capability across SEO, paid search, programmatic, and connected performance disciplines.
Head up SEO, including strategy, prioritization, content/search integration, measurement, agency partnership, and evolution of the discipline.
Lead the Paid Search team, including one associate, and establish standards for keyword and audience planning, bidding, creative testing, and reporting.
Lead the in-house Programmatic team, including three team members, and establish standards for activation, audience quality, optimization, testing, and measurement.
Manage embedded agency partners, holding them accountable for talent quality, strategic rigor, delivery, transparency, performance, and continuous improvement.
Create a connected operating rhythm across channel teams, agencies, analytics, finance, creative, content, marketing operations, and LOB partners.
Build the talent model, coaching rhythm, capabilities, and succession depth needed for a durable performance marketing organization.
Partnership with LOB Strategy Media.
Leads all aspects of scalable campaign execution operation and procedures.
Leads team processes, guides the team on specific campaign actions, develops partner relationships and ensures key performance indicators are met.
Works directly with tech partners, media publishers, advertising agencies and internal partners to design, build and optimize marketing media buys.
Supports and elevates Nationwide’s online presence and engagement across digital platforms.
Represents media team internally working closely with other Marketing areas.
Leads the company’s external media agencies across coordinated planning, activation and analytics teams.
Researches and builds partnerships with new media publishers, data partners, and technology companies that would improve the capabilities, efficiency and effectiveness of the enterprise Media team.
Administers associate management, including performance management, salary planning and administration, training and development, workflow and organizational planning, hiring and placement and disciplinary actions.
Continually scouts for strong talent; building a potential pipe line of talent.
May perform other responsibilities as assigned.