Senior Media Strategy Manager

Jellyfish•Chicago, IL

13h

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Strategy & Planning to lead the day-to-day strategic and media planning for one of Jellyfish’s largest global clients. This role is the primary driver of campaign planning, translating insights and performance data into actionable responses to client briefs, audience strategies and channel recommendations. You will work closely with the client’s media team, serving as their go-to strategic planning partner—ensuring every campaign, launch, and quarterly plan is grounded in insight, structured thinking, and historical performance learnings. While your core focus is day-to-day planning, you will also support the VP, Strategy on integrated agency (IAT) planning, especially around hero launches and tentpole events where cross-functional team alignment is essential. This is an ideal role for an analytical, detail-oriented strategist who excels at planning discipline, structured storytelling, and synthesizing data into clear strategic direction.

Requirements

5–8+ years in media strategy, communications planning, or integrated strategy (agency experience preferred).
Strong planning expertise with deep familiarity in audience strategy, channel roles, budget allocation, and full-funnel planning.
Ability to synthesize data (performance metrics, MMM insights, research) into structured strategic recommendations.
Strong communication and writing skills, especially in crafting briefs and structured planning documents.
Experience handling day-to-day media client relationships and managing planning cycles independently.
Ability to work cross-functionally but also thrive in ownership of media-specific planning responsibilities.
Comfort with planning tools, research platforms, and GenAI technologies to enhance insight generation and workflow efficiency.
A proactive, detail-oriented mindset and ability to manage multiple planning cycles simultaneously.

Responsibilities

Lead the response to client campaign briefs, audience strategies, and channel frameworks for ongoing campaigns and seasonal initiatives.
Partner closely with the client’s media team as their day-to-day strategic lead—translating objectives and insights into cohesive plans.
Use historical performance data, learning agendas, creative results, MMM learnings, and platform insights to refine strategies and craft recommendations.
Collaborate with Investment teams to ensure media plans and activation choices ladder up to strategic intent.
Monitor campaign performance and partner with Investment teams for ongoing optimization recommendations and mid-flight revisions.
Participate in insights and preparation for weekly reporting for client status meetings
Identify patterns in performance data and develop actionable insights that shape future planning cycles.
Support the development of post-campaign reviews and quarterly performance readouts, bringing forward learnings and opportunities.
Stay informed on category trends, competitive activity, audience shifts, and platform updates—translating them into strategic POVs for the client.
Support the VP, Strategy in preparing strategic inputs for IAT planning—ensuring the media strategy connects to the broader creative and communications idea.
Lead the media channel planning for all IAT initiatives
Help integrate media strategy into cross-functional planning moments for launches, hero products, category initiatives, and tentpole events.
Coordinate with creative, PR, influencer, analytics, and commerce partners as needed to ensure alignment on strategic direction.
Apply Brandtech Group tools to enhance audience insights, strategic inputs, and workflow efficiency.
Ensure planning tools and frameworks are consistently used and understood by relevant internal teams.
Contribute to best practices, planning frameworks, and documentation to uphold strategic excellence across the account.
Work closely with Investment, Analytics, Project Management, and Client Leadership teams to ensure integration and smooth delivery.
Mentor junior strategists and planning team members, reinforcing strong planning discipline and data-led thinking.
Model accountability, clarity, preparedness, and structured communication in all internal and client interactions.