Senior Director, Paid Search and Partner / Affiliate Marketing

GEICO • New York City, NY

14d • Hybrid

About The Position

GEICO is seeking a Senior Director to lead its Performance Marketing function across paid search, AI paid search, affiliates and aggregators, and lead generation. The role owns end-to-end performance media strategy and execution for GEICO’s multi-product portfolio, including a significant evergreen budget, channel forecasting, in-market optimization, testing, measurement, and first-party data strategy. The Senior Director will lead a hybrid organization of in-house practitioners and agency partners, build and develop leaders, and shape the team structure, test-and-learn engine, measurement approach, and cross-functional partnership model.

As a member of the Growth & Channel Marketing leadership team, this leader represents performance marketing to senior and executive leaders, translating campaign and channel results into business implications and recommendations. The role partners closely with data science, analytics, IT, brand, and creative teams to improve acquisition efficiency, customer lifetime value, attribution, and performance across GEICO’s portfolio. The position is hybrid, with three days per week in the office, and may be based in New York, NY; Bethesda, MD; or Chicago, IL.

Requirements

• 15 or more years of digital marketing experience, including significant time leading performance marketing teams and managing large performance budgets across search, affiliate, and lead generation channels.
• Experience in a conversion-driven service business such as financial services, insurance, SaaS, or banking, where success depends on acquiring and retaining customers.
• Experience leading leaders and managing a hybrid model of in-house teams and agency partners.
• Technical expertise across major advertising platform algorithms, ad products, optimization levers, and product roadmaps.
• Expertise in biddable search media and emerging AI-driven search and answer-engine advertising experiences.
• Working knowledge of affiliate, aggregator, and lead generation partner models and the drivers of lead quality and cost per lead.
• Knowledge of audience development and activation using first-, second-, and third-party data; marketing and advertising technology platforms; and analytics solutions, including SEM bid management, affiliate and partner tracking, and lead management and routing tools.
• Strong understanding of the data privacy landscape.
• Experience with analytical models such as marketing mix modeling and a deep understanding of their use in spend forecasting and attribution.
• Demonstrated ability to present to senior leadership, manage up on performance results, develop and position points of view, and incorporate feedback to sharpen strategy.
• Hands-on comfort with AI tools such as Claude and Copilot, and AI-driven bidding, targeting, and creative decisioning.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and resources in a fast-paced, growth-oriented organization while improving emerging cross-functional processes.
• Ability to move between detailed campaign or bid strategy work and communicating business implications and recommendations to executives.

Nice To Haves

• Insurance or other regulated financial services marketing experience.
• Experience managing a multi-product or multi-line portfolio with competing acquisition goals.
• A track record of building first-party data and attribution capabilities in partnership with data science.
• Experience leading an in-housing effort or restructuring an agency model.
• Experience with incrementality testing methods, such as geo-holdouts or conversion lift, alongside marketing mix modeling.

Responsibilities

• Set the multi-year performance marketing strategy and roadmap across GEICO’s multi-product portfolio, aligned to acquisition, efficiency, and lifetime value objectives.
• Lead in-house practitioners and agency groups, allocating, investing, and optimizing performance media budgets across paid search, AI paid search, affiliates and aggregators, and lead generation.
• Build, develop, and mentor an agile, collaborative, high-performing team, including the leaders who manage it.
• Drive changes to the go-to-market approach to improve acquisition efficiency and lifetime value.
• Own paid search and AI paid search channel strategy and results, including GEICO’s presence in AI-powered search and answer experiences.
• Own the affiliate, aggregator, and lead generation partner portfolio, including partner selection, commercial terms, lead quality, and cost per acquisition.
• Recommend new strategies and tactics and optimize vendor relationships to improve performance and workflow efficiency.
• Oversee evergreen performance media budgets, channel forecasting, and rapid in-market adjustments based on performance insights.
• Monitor pacing, forecast at-risk results, and identify opportunities to improve performance.
• Balance messaging and brand-building experiments with steady growth and performance.
• Develop segmentation, targeting, personalization, and engagement strategies across search, affiliate, and lead generation channels.
• Create and implement continuous testing and optimization systems for media, affiliates and aggregators, URL mapping, landing page content and copy, and ad copy.
• Build a high-velocity A/B and multivariate testing culture with diligent measurement and scalable results.
• Set the learning agenda and implement measurement plans, including analysis of lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, return on ad spend, and incrementality.
• Partner with data science and analytics to build a first-party data engine supporting tracking, attribution, and optimization across the funnel.
• Partner with analytics and IT on performance marketing data and technical requirements.
• Collaborate with brand, creative, and analytics teams on platform, placement, creative, and campaign conversion insights and share best practices with partners.
• Represent performance marketing with senior and executive leadership through performance readouts, points of view, and strategic recommendations.

Benefits

• 401(k) savings plan with a 6% match, vested from day one.
• Performance- and recognition-based incentives.
• Tuition assistance.
• Mental healthcare.
• Fertility and adoption assistance.
• GEICO Flex program offering up to four weeks of remote work per year.
• Personalized development programs, training, certification, career mentorship, and coaching.
• Market-competitive compensation.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed