Associate Director, Paid Search & AI LLM Ads

About Darkroom

Darkroom is the leading next-generation growth marketing firm engineering the brands of tomorrow. Founded in 2017, we set out to redefine what a modern agency could be, by replacing the inertia of legacy advertising behemoths with a model built for speed, intelligence, and measurable impact.

At our core, Darkroom is a human services company powered by Matter
, a universal AI commerce layer that integrates executive-level strategy with proprietary agentic technology. This fusion enables our teams to deliver outsized returns by enhancing creative output, operational efficiency, and revenue generation across every stage of the customer journey.

Our track record speaks for itself:
billions in attributable revenue driven across e-commerce marketplaces, media networks, DTC ecosystems, and social commerce platforms. Every engagement feeds into our proprietary data infrastructure, enabling a continuous feedback loop that accelerates growth, improves margins, and compounds results across our client portfolio.

What began as a boutique design studio has evolved into one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc. 5000) and among the most effective performance media agencies of the 2020s (Varos). Our founders were recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for advancing the intersection of technology, marketing, and advertising, cementing Darkroom’s role as a defining player in the future of media innovation.

This role is based in New York, NY, and requires U.S. work authorization.

We are hiring for our Paid Media team, looking for a Associate Director, Paid Search & AI LLM Ads - a performance-driven marketer with a strong mastery of paid search advertising systems, the evolving AI search environment, and a deep understanding of the AI ecosystem and emerging ad platforms. This is not just a tactical role; it requires strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and high standards of execution across digital advertising platforms, particularly Google, You Tube, Bing, and emerging AI platforms like Kontext, Koah, Perplexity, Claude, and OpenAI (some of these platforms don’t have ad services yet).

Though primarily focused on Google, the role will require expertise and campaign deployment on other paid search based platforms as well, and a willingness to try new platforms as AI search product evolve.

Perfect candidates will be obsessed with Paid Search Advertising, experts at search buying behavior, with a clear demonstrated history of selling products through paid search advertising, scaling ad accounts upwards of $1M USD per month, and having excellent client relationship management skills. You live and breathe ads manager, you are curious about the emerging AI advertising ecosystem, and performance marketing  want to be a part of the best team in the business at scaling brands through digital advertising.

You’ll report to the Managing Director of the department and play a key role in scaling paid media campaigns across a portfolio of high-growth consumer brands. You’ll be responsible for owning creative strategy, campaign builds, optimization, and reporting, while working closely with creative, creator, brand and analytics teams to ensure performance goals are met.

This is a fast-paced, high-accountability environment designed for marketers who are ambitious, curious, and ready to grow. You’ll gain hands‑on experience in a broad range of platforms and verticals, while developing the skills needed to lead performance strategies end-to-end.

Darkroom is a career incubator for ambitious talent looking to operate at the intersection of business, design, and innovation.

• Plan, develop, and implement comprehensive paid media strategies exclusively focused on Paid Search to increase brand visibility and drive new user acquisition and leads via paid media campaigns.

• Conduct thorough brand and website audits to understand our clients’ key value propositions, core products, and brand aesthetics and identify opportunities to successfully market them and make them stand out in the marketplace.

• Obsession with the paid search advertising action, bid system, and market dynamics…