Senior Media Planner

EVERSANA•Chicago, IL

8h•$65,000 - $97,000

About The Position

We are looking for a Senior Media Planner (SMP) to join our growing team. An SMP is expected to provide clients, Media staff, other internal teams, and vendors with media thought leadership and guidance. This senior role knows the people, processes and technology for the planning, buying, analyzing, testing and optimizing of all paid media. The SMP contributes to the development and leads evaluation, execution and management of media plans that consist of, but are not limited to, all paid digital and traditional media channels for pharmaceutical clients to meet their campaign requirements, budgets and marketing objectives. Applicants need to be able to thrive in an ever-changing work environment as new clients are onboarded; protocols and processes are assessed and adjusted, and pivots to media plans, meetings, etc. are a regular occurrence. An SMP is expected to be proactive in monitoring advertising and media trends, as well as how these trends will affect the agency and clients. This role requires sharing opinions in open forums, conference calls, emails, and in written presentations and POVs. The primary function of an SMP is to act as the point of contact for specific, more complex, higher-profile accounts. In tandem, an SMP is a key contributor in media recommendations, pulling reporting insights, as well as applying experience and media industry knowledge to work across specialized teams (SEM, Social, Programmatic). The outcome of this work is cohesive media plans, strong campaign performance management, and actionable media tests.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, business or a related field, or equivalent education plus professional experience
3-5 years of paid media planning, buying or campaign management experience across channels (heavy digital media focus)
Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills
A complete, end-to-end understanding of the media planning and buying process, with a demonstrated ability to manage all phases from RFP to reporting.
Hands-on experience with ad-serving and verification platforms Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) and Double Verify.
Familiarity with Media Ocean Prisma, including campaign setup, IO creation, vendor management, pacing updates, budget modifications, and ensuring accurate financial stewardship through reconciliation and billing workflow
Highly organized with an exceptional ability to multitask, prioritize, and pivot in a fast-paced environment while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
Strong analytical skills, with a talent for interpreting campaign data to derive actionable insights and optimizations
Proficient in Microsoft products, particularly Excel (pivot tables, complex formulas) and PowerPoint.
Some travel may be required.

Nice To Haves

Ability to build and navigate cross‑functional relationships, with strong communication skills and a proactive, collaborative approach to campaign execution
Interest/ Experience in leveraging AI- enabled tools (e.g., optimization, forecasting, insight generation) within media planning and performance analysis workflows
Skilled in using media planning platforms and research tools (Kantar, Media Radar, Pathmatics, MRI, etc.) to inform planning and to develop competitive landscape assessments and insights.
Staying up to date and successfully applying insight from market and media trends, emerging technology and vendor capabilities.
Online media background specifically working with Pharma media experience, touching on diverse conditions, disease states, and audiences (DTC, HCP, Payer) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Act as the primary day-to-day point of contact for media vendors, managing all operational communications including trafficking requests, creative asset delivery, and troubleshooting campaign-related issues to ensure seamless and timely execution.
Create and manage Prisma campaigns, including the generation and distribution of Authorizations, ATBs, and Insertion Orders.
Lead campaign activation workflows; developing and distributing spec sheets, configuring and managing ad serving platforms (Adswerve & Double Verify), creating and QA’ing traffic sheets, and coordinating the submission of all required tracking tags (e.g., UTMs, site pixels).
Build or oversee the creation of DCM tags and coordinate with internal and external teams to ensure accurate trafficking of tags and creative assets to vendors.
Coordinate with cross functional teams and lead campaign kickoff calls, ensuring alignment on project requirements and needs for custom initiatives.
Create and manage the campaign flowchart and media launch tracker.
Organize and manage campaign-related financial processes by managing bill trackers, clearing invoices, and performing budget reconciliations to ensure financial accuracy.
Manage the process of requesting and organizing 3rd party vendor data, performance reports, and campaign screenshots.
Lead campaign pacing and optimization efforts and collaborate with the analytics team to contribute data-driven insights for monthly and quarterly analytics reports.
Support the development of media recommendations by managing the RFP process, evaluating proposals, and maintaining competitive and partner consideration sets.
Contribute to media plan recommendation build in both Excel and PowerPoint formats, coordinating with SME departments as needed.
Provide mentorship and day-to-day guidance to junior planners, fostering their professional growth
Proactively contribute to developing Media POVs for client requests.
Participate in internal and external meetings and communications.
Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through continuous development, modeling inclusive behaviors, and proactively managing bias.
Multitasking, prioritizing, and pivoting as needed in a fast-paced environment.