Senior Paid Media Strategist

Vested•New York, NY

About The Position

The Senior Paid Media Strategist owns paid media strategy, execution, and performance reporting for a portfolio of accounts across Vested Digital’s global client base. The role translates client business goals into media plans, briefs and quality-controls the global execution team when relevant, and reports performance to clients in business terms. It combines planning with consulting and requires leading paid media conversations with marketing directors and CMOs, as well as collaborating with account leads, creative, PR, and other Vested Digital disciplines. The strategist plans and runs campaigns across the US, EMEA, and LatAm, taking into account market-specific budgets, audiences, languages, creative, platform availability, financial-services compliance review, currencies, and time zones. The role also supports new business and client growth, contributes to paid media processes and standards, and leads and develops team members. It reports to the VP, Head of Paid Media, with potential for direct reports as the practice grows. Vested is an integrated marketing and communications consultancy focused on financial services. The company describes itself as fully flexible, with headquarters in New York and an office in Iowa; it does not require a minimum number of days in a local office and considers in-person collaboration important. The offices are open five days a week, and working hours are Monday through Friday, starting at 9 a.m. EST.

Requirements

At least 6 years of hands-on, in-platform paid media experience, including at least 3 years in a strategist or senior manager role at an agency.
US and global paid media experience managing campaigns across multiple markets for a global client base, including regional budget splits, localization, and coordination across time zones.
Hands-on expertise in paid search, paid social, and programmatic advertising, including display, CTV, audio, native, and OOH/DOOH.
Experience managing six- and seven-figure media budgets across several clients concurrently.
Strong consulting and presentation skills, with the ability to lead discussions with marketing stakeholders and defend a position when supported by data.
Clear, concise communication skills and the ability to turn performance data into a business story for non-specialists.
Experience briefing and quality-controlling distributed execution teams.
Experience leading and developing paid media team members, including direct reports.
Proficiency with major advertising platforms, including Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, DV360, The Trade Desk, StackAdapt, and Reddit.
Proficiency with measurement tools including GA4, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio, NinjaCat, and Funnel.io.
Experience with multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling, including using model outputs to set and defend budget recommendations.
Skills in search/SEM/PPC, paid social, programmatic display, CTV, streaming, OOH/DOOH, native, video, and audio advertising.
Experience with conversion tracking and measurement setup, attribution and media mix modeling, global media planning, budget pacing, performance reporting, and client and internal stakeholder consulting.

Nice To Haves

EMEA and LatAm campaign experience, including familiarity with regional platforms, regulations, and buying practices.
Financial services industry experience, including familiarity with compliance review, regulated claims, and platform advertising policies for financial products.

Responsibilities

Build paid media strategies and plans for assigned accounts within Vested’s planning frameworks, defining channel mix, audience strategy, budget allocation, flighting, and KPIs tied to client business goals.
Translate client briefs and RFP requirements into media recommendations and scopes of work.
Plan and run campaigns for global clients across the US, EMEA, and LatAm, deciding where global structures are appropriate and where markets require distinct budgets, audiences, languages, or creative.
Account for local platform availability, regional compliance review, currency, and time zones when planning campaign launches and reporting.
Partner with global Account Leads on new-business pitches and paid media programs for existing clients.
Lead paid media discussions in client meetings, QBRs, and planning sessions; present and defend strategies, performance, and recommendations with data.
Write concise client recaps, performance narratives, and decision memos, and raise dependencies or underperformance early with a plan to address them.
Advise Account, Creative, PR, Organic, Content, and MarTech teams on integrated engagements.
Shape creative briefs and landing-page recommendations using channel and audience performance, and ensure paid media plans support earned and owned programs.
Brief the global execution team on campaign builds, trafficking, tracking, and in-flight adjustments using Vested’s paid media SOPs and standards.
Review campaign setups before launch and audit live campaigns against delivery standards; own the quality of work shipped on assigned accounts.
Define measurement plans for conversion tracking and confirm data integrity before launch.
Build attribution models and apply media mix modeling to guide budget allocation across channels and markets; use lift and incrementality tests to validate outputs.
Run structured tests on audiences, creative, bidding, and landing pages, and explain results and next steps through reporting.
Manage client budgets across channels and markets, monitor pacing, re-forecast as performance and priorities shift, and reconcile spend against approved media plans.
Contribute to SOPs, briefing templates, reporting frameworks, and QA checklists; test new platforms, formats, partners, and buying tools and provide recommendations based on results.
Share learnings through Integrated Digital Meet-ups and VestED sessions.
Support new business and client growth with paid media audits, scoping, draft media plans, and pitch materials; identify opportunities to expand paid media scopes for existing clients.
Lead and develop paid media team members on assigned accounts, set priorities, review work, and give regular feedback on strategy and execution quality.