Director, Media

Marketing brings our brand to life through deep expertise and an authentic love for pets. The team is dedicated to delivering personalized experiences for our consumers, supported by best-in-class, data-driven marketing capabilities. The work spans key areas including Loyalty, Customer Analytics & Research, Brand Experience & Creative, and Omni-Channel Marketing. Each team member brings a unique perspective, working together to create meaningful and engaging experiences for both pets and pet parents.

Collaborative Work Environment:

At Pet Smart, teamwork and connection are core to how we thrive. This role is based at our Phoenix Home Office, with an expectation of working a minimum of four days in the office each week. In a standard work week, associates may work up to one remote “flex day” (with leader approval). Our hybrid approach is designed to foster strong collaboration while also supporting flexibility and individual success.

ROLE SUMMARY

The Director, Media is a strategic marketing leader responsible for setting the direction and driving the performance of Pet Smart’s paid media, organic social and search visibility efforts. This role connects audience strategy, channel investment, and media measurement to grow customer demand, store traffic, digital engagement and sales across Pet Smart’s businesses. The Director balances near-term business performance with long-term brand and customer growth, using clear objectives, disciplined investment and continuous learning to improve outcomes.

Reporting to the VP, Omni-Channel Marketing, this Director partners across Brand, Creative, Digital, Customer Analytics, Insights, CRM/Loyalty, Merchandising, and Services to build connected customer experiences across channels. The role leads the media team and key agency and platform relationships, bringing a strong point of view on how media can advance enterprise priorities and delivering transparent, accountable execution.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Media Strategy, Planning & Investment

• Set the integrated media strategy and annual investment approach, translating business and marketing priorities into clear channel roles, audience strategies, objectives and measures of success.
• Lead full-funnel planning across paid media, organic social and search visibility, connecting awareness, consideration and conversion efforts to Pet Smart’s stores, app and website.
• Guide channel strategy across TV/CTV, online video, digital out-of-home, display, audio, search and shopping, social, influencer and affiliate, adapting the mix to customer & business goals.
• Balance investment in near-term sales, traffic and return with longer-term brand relevance, customer growth and consideration; make tradeoffs clear and grounded in evidence.
• Partner with Brand, Creative and business teams to develop & oversee strong media plans that connect enterprise brand work, commercial priorities, vendor partner and services initiatives.
• Shape search visibility priorities across paid search and organic search, including dedicated AEO/SEO efforts, in partnership with Digital, IT, and relevant marketing teams.

Performance, Measurement & Optimization

• Own media performance and investment stewardship, setting expectations for forecast accuracy, pacing, optimization and delivery against agreed business and channel objectives.
• Maintain & optimize our measurement approach that connects channel performance to business outcomes, including return on ad spend, incremental impact, customer acquisition, store traffic, digital engagement and sales.
• Partner with Insights, Analytics, Finance and measurement providers to use marketing mix modeling, incrementality and other measurement methods to improve investment…