Senior Paid Media Strategist

Vested•New York, NY

4d•$95,000 - $105,000•Hybrid

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 a global execution team when relevant, and reports performance to clients in business terms. It is both a consulting and planning role: the strategist leads paid media conversations with marketing directors and CMOs and serves as a paid media lead in internal working sessions with account leads, creative, PR, and other Vested Digital disciplines. The role reports to the VP, Head of Paid Media, and includes team leadership, with potential direct reports as the practice grows. The strategist plans and runs campaigns across the US, EMEA, and LatAm, accounting for market-specific budgets, audiences, languages, creative, platform availability, regulatory review, currencies, and time zones. They define measurement plans, manage budgets and pacing, communicate results and recommendations, support new business and client growth, and contribute to the development of paid media processes and standards.

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, including regional budget splits, localization, and cross-time-zone coordination.
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 multiple clients simultaneously.
Strong consulting and presentation skills, including leading conversations with marketing stakeholders and defending recommendations 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, such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, DV360, The Trade Desk, StackAdapt, and Reddit.
Proficiency with measurement tools, such as 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.

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, 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, adapting campaign structures, budgets, audiences, languages, and creative to market needs.
Account for local platform availability, regional compliance review, currencies, and time zones when planning 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 strategy, performance, and recommendations with data.
Write concise recaps, performance narratives, and decision memos, and raise dependencies or underperformance early with plans 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.
Ensure paid media plans support earned and owned programs for integrated accounts.
Brief distributed execution teams on campaign builds, trafficking, tracking, and in-flight adjustments using paid media SOPs and standards.
Review campaign setups before launch and audit live campaigns against delivery standards; ensure quality on assigned accounts.
Define measurement plans for conversion tracking, including GA4, Google Tag Manager, platform pixels, and CRM integration, and confirm data integrity before launch.
Build attribution models and apply media mix modeling to guide budget allocation; use lift and incrementality tests to validate outputs.
Run structured tests on audiences, creative, bidding, and landing pages, and turn reporting into clear explanations of results and next steps.
Manage client budgets across channels and markets, monitor pacing, re-forecast as performance and priorities shift, and reconcile spend against approved plans.
Contribute to SOPs, briefing templates, reporting frameworks, and QA checklists; test new platforms, formats, partners, and buying tools and share recommendations and learnings.
Support new business and client growth with paid media audits, scoping, draft media plans, and pitch materials; identify opportunities to expand existing client scopes.
Lead and develop paid media team members on assigned accounts, set priorities, review work, and provide regular feedback on strategy and execution quality.