Director, Paid Media

Darkroom•New York, NY

5d•$120,000 - $140,000•Remote

About The Position

As a Director, Paid Media, you will be responsible for a small portfolio of high-growth consumer brands that have engaged with Darkroom to accelerate their growth. You are one-half hands-on media practitioner, spending your day inside the ad platforms building, launching, and optimizing campaigns, and one-half strategic growth partner, architecting the omnichannel media plan and financial narrative behind it. This is a client-facing position meant for the best and brightest in paid media, capable of moving fluidly between in-platform execution and executive-level strategy. Perfect candidates will be obsessed with paid media performance, experts at deploying efficient omnichannel advertising campaigns (Meta, TikTok, Paid Search, Amazon, and beyond) that deliver impact, with deep, hands-on fluency in at least one major platform and a working knowledge of DTC economics at large. You should be comfortable scaling a single account from under $50K to $500K-$1M+ per month as equally as walking a founder through a marketing pro forma. This position is focused on owning accounts directly, not managing a team. Being successful in this role requires mastery of at least one paid media platform at the hands-on execution level, a willingness to understand (and master) how paid media performance connects to broader business outcomes, and effective communication across teams and departments. You will directly manage the relationship with the client, scale ad accounts upwards of $500K-$1M USD per month, and bring excellent client relationship management skills. You live and breathe campaign execution, funnel construction, and performance marketing. You'll report to the Managing Director of Paid Media and play a key role in scaling Darkroom's paid media capabilities across a portfolio of high-growth consumer brands. You'll be responsible for owning full-funnel advertising efforts for your accounts, including weekly client touch-bases and QBRs, while working closely with Growth Strategy, Creative Strategy, and Paid Search to ensure performance goals are met. This is a fast-paced, high-accountability environment designed for media practitioners who are ambitious, curious, and ready to grow. You'll gain hands-on experience across a broad range of verticals and platforms, while developing the strategic and financial fluency needed to be a future Head of Paid Media or Managing Director. Darkroom is a career incubator for ambitious talent looking to operate at the intersection of business, media, and innovation.

Requirements

7+ years of hands-on paid media experience, with deep, personal, in-platform experience in at least one major channel (Meta, TikTok, Paid Search, or Amazon)
Fluent in campaign structures, bidding, pacing, pixel/event setup, and optimization
Experienced scaling accounts from under $50K to $500K-$1M+ per month
Strong understanding of DTC economics (AOV, CVR, MER, CAC, margin, cohorts) and comfortable engaging in discussions around contribution margin and profitability
Able to build and communicate clear testing frameworks and growth roadmaps
Confident presenting performance insights to executives, and capable of managing founder or CMO relationships with clarity and calm
Thrive working with Creative, Data, Retention, and other cross-functional teams, and strong at influencing without direct authority
You are excited by complex challenges that require innovative media strategies to unlock scale
You can be flexible, understand shifting client needs, deal with ambiguity, and adapt to the situation
You thrive in fast-paced, high-accountability environments

Responsibilities

Build, launch, and optimize paid media campaigns directly inside ad platforms (Meta, TikTok, Amazon, Paid Search, programmatic)
Execute full-funnel programs across prospecting, mid-funnel, retention, and remarketing
Set up creative tests, audience tests, bid strategies, and structure iterations, and troubleshoot performance issues directly within the platforms
Own pacing, budget, attribution, and performance troubleshooting end-to-end
Architect omnichannel acquisition strategies across a portfolio of brands
Scale media budgets from early-stage spend to $500K-$1M+ per month
Develop funnel structures, testing roadmaps, and measurement frameworks
Identify opportunities to increase AOV, MER, LTV, and new customer revenue
Lead client calls, QBRs, weekly updates, and executive presentations
Connect performance insights to business outcomes for CMOs and founders, and own client satisfaction and retention across your portfolio
Partner with Data and Finance to align spend to business goals and project client spend based on performance
Track CAC, contribution margin, cohort data, and profitability levers
Read and interpret marketing pro formas for clients and internal stakeholders
Partner closely with Growth Strategy, Creative Strategy, and Paid Search to ensure cross-channel consistency and coordinated go-to-market execution
Stay ahead of platform algorithm changes, creative evolution, and attribution shifts, and bring proactive hypotheses and channel recommendations to clients weekly