Director, Paid Media Planning

Bully Pulpit International is an outcomes agency made up of strategists, data scientists, and artists. We come from politics, brands, and government and we communicate without barriers and measure what matters. We have more than 400 team members in six countries and thirteen offices — Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, D.C., London, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, San Francisco, and Zürich. We apply our unique expertise across strategic communications, public affairs, research, and digital marketing to create sophisticated and customized strategies that make change possible for both American and European clients.

In this position as Director, you will support the execution and management of paid media campaigns across numerous clients on the Paid Media team. The ideal contract candidate thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and is capable of working independently, while navigating multiple projects.

• Starting Salary Range: $120,000 - $135,000 (+ annual bonus)
• Expectation to work from one of our offices (Chicago, DC, NYC, SF, LA) at least 3 days a week (Fully Remote candidates will also be considered)

• Independently manage clients and end-to-end advertising campaigns from inception through completion with high accountability, quality, and results.
• Develop comprehensive, data-backed media plans aligned with client goals; take the lead on paid media POVs for clients or internal teams with limited paid experience.
• Regularly present sophisticated media strategies, reporting, and performance insights directly to clients, while providing off-the-cuff POVs and proactively anticipating issues or feedback.
• Oversee how campaigns are executed, optimized, and analyzed across digital and traditional platforms, including partner negotiation and contracting.

• Foster strong working relationships across all client and internal specialty teams (Media Buying, Marketing Analytics, Insights, and Client Services) to set strategic goals around measurement, testing, and seamless execution.
• Proactively identify areas for team-wide workflow and operational process improvements, partnering with senior leadership to implement scalable solutions.

• Bring new ideas to advance the agency’s media offering to senior leadership, drive team priorities, and operationalize new processes across the broader team.
• Serve as a senior agency contact for key partners, evaluate new vendor technologies, manage yearly vendor endeavors, and negotiate rate discounts to ensure planning utilization.
• Conduct deep-dive media, industry, and competitor research to stay abreast of market trends, inform strategic advertising plans, and evangelize the agency’s media vision.
• Contribute to agency growth through budgeting exercises, pitch deck development, and participation in new business pitches as needed.

• Attract, retain, and elevate talent across the team through effective management, structured training, and empathetic mentorship.
• Lead team pods and scale impact beyond immediate reports to the broader planning department, acting as a role model to elevate the work product of junior and mid-level planners.
• Embody agency values and ensure all client work reflects the standards, perspective, and quality of the agency at large.

• 8-11 years of relevant work experience in digital media strategy, planning, and direct-IO buying (agency experience preferred).
• Proven track record of independently running campaigns for corporate reputation, public affairs, and/or political clients.
• Excitement to work on large corporate reputation accounts in addition to support of Democratic politics,…