Director of Paid Media (Remote, Louisville)

About the Role

Blacksmith Agency runs PPC and SEO for clients across multifamily, B2B, and technical verticals. As Director of Paid Media you will lead that department. The PPC strategist and the SEO strategist report to you and are the specialists in their channels. This is a management seat, not a senior individual‑contributor role—you will not be building campaigns, and your SEO strategist will have deeper technical expertise than you. You are responsible for channel strategy and budget allocation as accounts scale, while the strategists handle execution and you ensure the department delivers results.

What You Own

• Set and enforce the quality bar for the PPC and SEO strategists, including their development, performance reviews, and decisions when someone is not meeting expectations.
• Define audit standards, pre‑delivery checks, and reporting formats; write the guidelines and hold the two specialists accountable to them.
• Overall client results across the function, ensuring reporting is honest and accurate (including attribution and GA4 accuracy).
• Escalation handling for at‑risk accounts: diagnose issues, direct the strategist to fix them, and join the client call.
• Channel strategy and budget allocation as accounts scale.
• Communicate credible deliverables to sales before they are sold.
• Develop the hiring plan for the department and conduct first‑round interviews for new team members within roughly a quarter.

What You Need

• Experience managing strategists or specialists, including conducting reviews, overseeing development, and making performance‑management decisions.
• 7+ years of experience across paid media and SEO (ownership of a single channel does not satisfy this requirement).
• Depth in Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, Meta, and Microsoft Ads sufficient to evaluate work quality beyond surface‑level reporting.
• Demonstrated success turning around an account—be able to discuss the metric, pre‑ and post‑change figures, and the reasoning behind the improvement.
• Comfort acting as the client‑facing owner when an account underperforms, taking the call yourself rather than delegating to a strategist.
• Agency experience managing multiple accounts simultaneously.
• Do not apply if you have never had direct reports, never performed performance‑management, have only ever run a single channel, or have only in‑house experience on a single brand.
• This role is not for candidates who want to continue building campaigns themselves; it is a distinct leadership position.

Process

• 30‑minute screening interview with a recruiter.
• First‑round interview with the founder (the person to whom this seat reports).
• Final interview.

There is no take‑home project and no panel interview.

How to Apply

• Complete the four required fields at the application link.
• Take the short (≈6 minute) Predictive Index assessment.
• Use the same email address throughout the process.
• No cover letter is required.

Location: Remote (USA, Canada, or South Africa)