Director, Connections & Media

In partnership with Brand, Integrated Marketing Experiences (IMX), Front Line Marketing/Commercial teams, and Content Partners, this role builds and orchestrates best-in-class holistic connection plans across all relevant media channels (paid, earned, owned, and retail/commerce).

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of holistic omni-channel media strategies that align with brand marketing objectives and commercial goals, serving as the internal team’s “go-to” for all connection and media planning questions and deliverables.
• Ensure each plan is audience-centric and platform-specific, building best-in-class connection plans across paid, earned, owned, and shared channels.
• Balance upper-funnel brand-building tactics with lower-funnel commerce and conversion-driving tactics in a cohesive plan.
• Develop and execute strategic media budget allocation and channel mix recommendations, guided by data and past performance.
• Direct negotiations, including emerging areas like shoppable media, working closely with media agencies and new vendors to secure optimal deals and value-added opportunities.
• Leverage business and consumer data to inform smarter media planning and audience targeting, collaborating with Analytics and Data Science teams to interpret customer insights, purchase behavior, and segmentation studies.
• Apply advanced analytics (e.g., look-alike modeling, propensity scoring, first-party data, and unified data platforms) to refine targeting and personalize messaging across media channels.
• Embed measurement and analytics into every media initiative to track performance and inform optimization, partnering with the Marketing Analytics/Insights team to utilize tools like marketing mix modeling (MMM), multi-touch attribution, brand lift studies, and competitive spend analysis.
• Set clear KPIs and success metrics for each campaign upfront (e.g., ROAS, incremental sales lift, brand health metrics) and ensure appropriate tracking is in place.
• Continuously monitor in-flight media performance and adjust tactics or spend as needed to maximize ROI and yield.
• Lead rigorous post-campaign analyses and post-mortems, assessing results versus targets, understanding drivers of success or shortfall, and extracting learnings for future planning cycles.
• Serve as the primary bridge between the media function and other teams (Brand Marketing, Creative, Social/Digital, Commercial/Shopper Marketing) to ensure media strategies are fully integrated into broader marketing plans.
• Translate business objectives and marketing priorities into actionable media briefs for the team and agencies.
• Communicate complex media concepts and consumer behavior trends in simple, actionable terms for non-media stakeholders.
• Manage day-to-day execution through agency partners, ensuring campaigns launch on time and deliver against KPIs.
• Oversee relationships with external media agencies and media platform partners to ensure executional excellence and accountability.
• Provide clear direction to agency teams (e.g., briefing them on strategy, target outcomes, and guidelines) and maintain regular check-ins to monitor progress and address issues.
• Hold agencies to high standards in media planning rigor, creativity in approach, and operational efficiency.
• Facilitate collaboration between the agency and internal creative/content teams to ensure media and creative work in tandem (e.g., optimizing ad formats and content for each platform).
• Scout and evaluate emerging media platforms, technologies, and partnership opportunities to give brands a competitive edge (e.g., new social media formats, advanced programmatic solutions, interactive commerce integrations, agentic/autonomous buying).
• Champion the testing and adoption of AI-powered tools for media targeting and optimization.
• Encourage a culture of collaboration, agility, and continuous learning across the team and with IAT partners.
• Lead by example in embodying the company’s leadership behaviors and values, recognizing and celebrating team successes to maintain high engagement and morale.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, or a related field.
• 10+ years of deep expertise in omni-channel media planning and activation, including traditional advertising (TV, radio, OOH, print), digital and social media, and retail/commerce media.
• Proven track record of translating marketing objectives into effective media strategies and delivering measurable results at scale.
• Skilled in audience strategy and media targeting techniques (e.g., programmatic buying, look-alike targeting, contextual targeting).
• Up-to-date on current media landscape trends and able to quickly assess their relevance to the business.
• Solid understanding of marketing analytics, measurement techniques, and the use of data to drive decisions.
• Experience leveraging consumer data and MarTech/AdTech (DMPs, DSPs, CDPs) to inform media planning and personalization.
• Prior experience driving or contributing to a transformation in media approach (e.g., integrating new channels, building a data-driven planning process, or leading a major agency transition).
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to articulate media strategies and results clearly and compellingly to senior leadership and non-media audiences.
• Strong storytelling ability to showcase how media efforts tie to business outcomes.
• Outstanding project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines concurrently.
• Experience leading and managing agency partners to drive effective and efficient go-to-market approaches.

Skills

• Media planning expertise in all channels from affinity building to transactions/loyalty.
• Familiarity with Sports Media and Retail Media Networks.
• Digital marketing transformation, including hands-on experience/familiarity with digital trading UIs, audience building, and the programmatic ecosystem (TTD, DV360, Amazon, Social Platforms, etc.).
• Hands-on programmatic experience.
• Audience segmentation and advanced media expertise to advise and influence investments to drive ROI.
• Comfortable leveraging audience data tools, such as Epsilon Clean Room, CDPs, and other data platforms, to inform media planning and execution across multiple channels, including digital, video, social, mobile, and offline media.
• Proficiency with 1st/2nd/3rd party data usage and governance.
• Strong operations knowledge, including measurement & analytics, data enablement via technology.
• Agency leadership & management.
• Growth mindset: ability to see opportunity in the ever-changing media landscape to future-proof the business.

Preferred Qualifications

• Executive presence and strategic thinking.
• Strategy development and marketing expertise.
• Knowledge of current brand and consumer marketing trends.
• Experience in media core function and knowledge of all forms of media buying.
• Agile, AI concepts, audience engagement, brand strategy, creative strategies, data insights, design thinking, experimentation, influencer marketing, market segmentation, negotiation, omnichannel strategy, portfolio strategies, revenue growth management, social media, storytelling, sustainability, user experience (UX) design.

Pay

Base pay range: $169,000 USD - $200,000 USD. Offered pay may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits is offered, dependent on the position.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage: 30%. The annual incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for the role, falling in the middle of the range and indicating performance at target.

Schedule

Travel required: 0% - 25%.

Location: Atlanta, United States of America.

Relocation provided: No.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis and must not require sponsorship for employment visa status.