Director, Strategy and Planning

Company Description

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at center of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, Starcom partners with the world’s leading marketers and brands, including Bank of America, Best Buy, Kellogg Company, McDonald’s, Novartis, Samsung, Visa and more.

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at center of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, Starcom partners with the world’s leading marketers and brands, including Bank of America, Best Buy, Kellogg Company, McDonald’s, Novartis, Samsung, Visa and more.

This role at Starcom will serve as a member of Publicis Groupe's strategic internal agency, Constellation.

Constellation serves as an internal-facing brand formed by a collective of Publicis Groupe agencies to address our client’s creative, data, strategy, media, and technology requirements. Team members collaborate across agencies while functioning as sub-divisions within their respective brands to provide dedicated support for the client. By acting as a unified interface, Constellation eliminates operational silos and presents a single service entity and primary point of contact for the client.

The Director, Paid Strategy & Planning serves as a senior media expert, providing departmental and client leadership while enhancing the visibility of the media practice. This person manages a media team and ensures that media strategies and deliverables meet or exceed client expectations, deliver value, and uphold our quality standards. The role includes guiding tactical and strategic media planning, mentoring staff, driving digital and traditional media initiatives, and supporting new business efforts.

The Media Director may also collaborate with other key agencies as needed.

• Develops forward-thinking, innovative, cross-channel media strategies, including traditional and digital media, to improve client marketing effectiveness and drive business growth.
• Advises clients and internal teams on media opportunities, including local media campaign planning.
• Serves as client team lead on medium to large media accounts, managing $10M+ in total media spend.
• Conceives, negotiates, and presents cross-platform or large-scale media proposals to clients.
• Responsible for upselling services and contributing to business development efforts.
• Guides and supervises a media team of 10+ employees, including hiring, training, coaching, staffing, and performance evaluation.
• Attends and represents clients at industry events, helping to build industry relationships and thought leadership.
• Contributes to client-specific POVs and overall media strategy documentation.
• Demonstrates tactical media planning experience across channels.
• Applies working knowledge of media planning tools (e.g., Pathmatics, Vivix, Kantar, MRI, Comscore) and activation platforms such as Prisma, Meta, and AdWords.
• Experience with traditional media including linear TV and OOH is preferred.

• Retail media network experience is a plus
• 7–10 years of media planning and buying experience, with at least 4 years in digital/interactive marketing and…