Associate Director Integrated Media Planning

Job Summary

The Associate Director, Integrated Media Planning provides strategic and operational leadership across assigned accounts and media planning teams. This role oversees the development and delivery of integrated, channel-agnostic media strategies; ensures planning quality, financial stewardship, and cross-functional alignment; and serves as a senior day-to-day advisor to clients and agency partners. The Associate Director, Integrated Media Planning leads multiple or complex planning assignments, provides direction and escalation support to Managers and planners, and translates department standards into consistent account-level practices. The role also contributes to talent development, staffing and workload planning, new business, process improvement, and broader department priorities in partnership with senior media leadership.

Do not pass up this chance, apply quickly if your experience and skills match what is in the following description.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads integrated media planning across multiple, significant, or complex accounts, ensuring plans connect audience insights, client objectives, channel roles, investment strategy, measurement, and optimization.
• Provides strategic direction and quality oversight throughout the planning process, including brief development, audience and consumer target definition, objectives, strategies, channel architecture, recommendations, and presentations.
• Oversees account planning workflows and deliverables; establishes priorities, monitors progress, resolves barriers, and ensures work is strategically sound, accurate, timely, and client-ready.
• Serves as a senior planning advisor to assigned clients and internal partners; anticipates business needs, facilitates strategic decisions, and takes ownership of complex media issues, growth opportunities, and test-and-learn initiatives.
• Leads development and presentation of integrated media recommendations and points of view; ensures the strategic rationale, investment choices, tradeoffs, and measurement approach are clear and defensible.
• Partners with SPARQ, Client Leadership, Creative, MAA, and other agency teams to ensure planning, activation, measurement, and optimization are cohesive and accountable.
• Maintains oversight of campaign performance, budgets, media spend, pacing, billing, deliverables, and strategic optimization; ensures significant variances and risks are communicated and resolved or escalated appropriately.
• Guides planning across digital and offline media channels and ensures channel recommendations work together within an integrated campaign strategy.
• Uses syndicated research, audience data, market intelligence, and planning tools to shape insights, strategies, and recommendations.
• Evaluates vendor, partner, and publisher capabilities and proposals; leads or provides guidance during negotiations; and ensures recommendations reflect client needs, investment considerations, and sound strategic rationale.
• Builds productive relationships with media partners and vendors and maintains knowledge of emerging capabilities, marketplace developments, and planning best practices.
• When assigned direct reports, manages, coaches, and develops team members by setting clear expectations, providing ongoing feedback, supporting career development, and reinforcing accountability.
• Provides direction and escalation support to junior team members; reviews work, strengthens planning skills, and promotes consistent application of department standards and processes.
• Partners with senior media leadership on staffing, workload planning, resource allocation, scopes, and account team structure for assigned business.
• Contributes to new business development, including discovery, research, strategy, proposal development, scoping, and presentations.
• Develops and shares media points of view, thought leadership, and planning best practices for internal and client-facing use.
• Identifies opportunities to improve planning tools, processes, collaboration, quality, and team performance; supports implementation of approved changes.
• Promotes positive working relationships and collaboration across the department, agency, clients, and vendor partners.

Qualifications:

Education, Experience and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive media planning experience, including experience leading complex integrated planning assignments.
• Broad knowledge of offline and online media channels, audience insights, and performance analytics.
• Demonstrated experience with shopper marketing and the development of integrated media solutions.
• Strong knowledge of digit