Media & Digital Strategy Director

Mars•New York, NY

3d•$147,000 - $202,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Champion Petfoods is expanding and seeking a Media & Digital Strategy Director to join their rapidly growing company. Champion Petfoods is an award-winning pet food maker with a reputation of trust spanning over 35 years, known for its ORIJEN® and ACANA® brands in the global premium pet food industry. This role is for individuals passionate about personal and professional growth who want to contribute to the company's continued success. The Media & Digital Strategy Director will lead the development and execution of the full-funnel media and digital strategy, ensuring strategic investment to build brand awareness, drive consideration and conversion, and accelerate business growth. This role is responsible for media and digital engagement strategy, investment governance, integrated planning, agency leadership, and performance measurement. The Director will continuously evolve capabilities and thought leadership across digital touchpoints for pet parent engagement. This position is crucial for expanding brand awareness and driving brand relevance, working collaboratively with teams in Content Operations, Ecommerce, Global Insights, and the Mars Global Center of Excellence. The Director will ensure an integrated approach across the pet parent research and shopping journey, creating and delivering metrics to meet business objectives. The role operates on a hybrid schedule with 3 days in-person at their Corporate office in Boulder (CO), Nashville (TN), or New York (NY).

Requirements

15+ years of progressive experience in Media and Digital Marketing, ideally within consumer products or DTC organizations.
Deep expertise in full-funnel media strategy and planning, with strong knowledge across Brand Media, Retail Media, Search, Social, Video/CTV, Programmatic and emerging digital channels.
Strong digital-first orientation, with demonstrated ability to evolve media strategies and capabilities in response to changing consumer behaviors, technology, GEO and new forms of digital discovery.
Proven experience managing media investments, including budget allocation, governance and optimization across brands, channels and audiences to maximize effectiveness and ROI.
Strong understanding of audience intelligence, data and measurement, with experience leveraging insights, segmentation and performance analytics to improve targeting, personalization and media effectiveness.
Proven agency and partner leadership, with experience managing complex agency relationships, setting strategic direction and driving accountability, innovation and high-quality execution.
Proven people leadership experience, with a track record of building, developing and inspiring high-performing teams while strengthening functional capabilities and ways of working.

Responsibilities

Define the media engagement strategy across awareness, consideration, conversion and advocacy, translating brand and business priorities into integrated annual strategies.
Lead the organization in transformation towards a digital-first pet parent model; strengthening team capabilities across media platforms, insights, and effective GEO strategies.
Own the allocation and governance of media investment across brands, channels and funnel stages, establishing clear principles for prioritization, optimization and ROI.
Lead media agency relationships, scopes of work and performance, ensuring access to best-in-class planning, buying, innovation, technology and measurement capabilities.
Establish a robust measurement framework across the funnel, translating media performance into actionable insights and continuously improving effectiveness, efficiency and return on investment.
Build actionable audience intelligence and segmentation to sharpen targeting, personalization and media effectiveness across the pet parent journey.
Lead Search, SEO/GEO and AI-driven discovery strategies to maximize brand visibility, relevance and authority across evolving digital journeys.
Build and develop a high-performing Media team, strengthening future-ready capabilities across Media, Audience Intelligence, Measurement, Search and AI.