Associate Director, Strategy

Company description Overview Manages day-to-day media strategy and planning for a high-profile, fast-paced account, translating the VP’s strategic vision into clear plans, briefs, and actions. Leads the team responsible for developing and stewarding media plans, coordinating cross-functional partners to ensure the strategy is implemented consistently, accurately, and on time. Reports to the VP, Media Strategy. Responsibilities Strategy Implementation & Client Management Translate the VP’s strategic vision into actionable media plans across audience, channel, commerce, creative, content, programmatic, and measurement. Manage all day-to-day aspects of annual, go-to-market, tactical, and innovation planning across multiple campaigns, from brief through approval, launch, and stewardship. Develop planning objectives and recommendations that align with and elevate client marketing and business goals. Turn client briefs, consumer insights, and performance data into clear audience, channel, investment, and learning recommendations. Build client-ready recommendations and presentations, incorporating input from senior strategy leadership and partner teams. Day-to-Day Execution & Performance Act as the day-to-day cross-team lead across Strategy, Investment, Content, Commerce, Analytics, Operations, Finance, and the brand IAT to implement the approved strategy across the media ecosystem. Own timelines, trackers, briefs, pre-reads, and shared resources, following up on dependencies and deadlines. Partner with Analytics to implement measurement plans and apply learnings to ongoing work. Follow established procedures and complete work in a detailed, accurate manner. Keep clients and internal teams aligned on status, decisions, risks, approvals, and next steps. People, Process & Team Leadership Supervise, train, and develop Planner by setting priorities, managing workloads, delegating responsibilities, reviewing deliverables, and checking work for accuracy. Provide performance feedback, mentor direct reports, support career development, and make recommendations to management. Coordinate resources across concurrent campaigns and workstreams, escalating capacity concerns and recommending workflow adjustments. Maintain clear working rhythms, roles, and communication standards that support consistent execution. Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for strategic and operational questions, escalating major decisions when needed. Identify gaps in process, data, ownership, or communication and implement practical solutions. Lead by example and provide hands-on support throughout planning and activation. Communicate effectively across levels, adopt new skills and tools with an emphasis on AI, and stay current on cross-channel media, technology, trends, challenges, and competition. Perform other duties and responsibilities that management may deem necessary from time to time. Management/Supervisory Responsibilities: Number of Direct Reports: 1 Number of Indirect Reports: up to 5 Communicates With: Internal: Works day to day with Strategy, Commerce, Social, Video, Analytics, Operations, Finance, Operations to align deliverables, timelines, responsibilities, and implementation. External: Manages day-to-day communication with client stakeholders, media and technology partners, vendors, and partner agencies on deliverables, approvals, activation needs, performance, and issue resolution. Budgetary Responsibilities: Manages day-to-day budget inputs, allocation changes, pacing, forecasts, commissions and fees, billing reconciliation, authorization tracking, and client accounting coordination across assigned brands. Maintains accurate budget trackers and established processes; identifies discrepancies and coordinates resolution with Investment, Operations, Finance, and senior leadership. Qualifications To perform this job successfully an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Incumbents will be evaluated, in part, based on performance of each essential function. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. Serves as a resource to others in resolving complex problems and issues. Excellent management, motivational, organizational, interpersonal, and quantitative/analytical skills. Strong written and verbal communication, client presentation, correspondence, and internal documentation skills. Ability to translate data into well-articulated, actionable ideas. Detail-oriented, able to follow established procedures, and proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment. Ability to learn proprietary software and processes quickly and proficiently. Understanding of Activation and Negotiation team functions. Use AI to synthesize campaign performance, competitive trends, and platform data into clear optimization recommendations for clients Identify opportunities to incorporate AI-driven testing, audience insights, creative learnings, and tactical recommendations Leverage AI-assisted tools to improve workflow efficiency, prioritization, and quality control across day-to-day Education/Experience: B.A. or B.S., preferably in Marketing, Advertising, or a related field. 5+ years of media planning experience. 3+ years of experience managing junior staff. Agency experience highly preferred. Strong knowledge of cross-channel media, including offline and online planning and national and local media. Business Competencies: Strong strategic planning, audience development, reach and frequency analysis, scenario planning, optimization, and performance interpretation skills. Proficiency with Microsoft Suite and working knowledge of Nielsen Suite, Kantar/Vivix, IMS, flowchart software, reach/frequency and optimization tools such as NMI, social tracking tools, comScore, Prisma, MRI/GfK, GWI, YouGov, and comparable platforms. Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to turn complex inputs into clear plans and actions. Strong financial and operational skills across budget tracking, billing, forecasting, authorizations, and reconciliation. Ability to coordinate multiple disciplines, manage projects, resources, stakeholders, and participants, clarify roles, resolve day-to-day issues, and meet competing deadlines. Ability to orient, train, assign, and review the work of junior staff while maintaining repeatable processes and high quality standards. Detailed knowledge of the cross-channel media landscape, consumer behavior, platforms, measurement, emerging trends, challenges, and competition, with curiosity and passion for the client’s business. Additional information Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent. Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off. If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact USMTTACompliance@publicis.com. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines. #LI-JK2 Compensation Range: USD $106,780.00 - USD $119,000.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 11/3/2026.