Director of Paid Media (Remote, San Francisco)

Full‑time, remote (USA, Canada, or South Africa)

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 yourself; your strategists will handle execution while you own channel strategy, budget allocation, and overall department performance.

What You Own

• Oversight of the PPC and SEO strategists, including their quality standards, development, performance reviews, and decisions on under‑performance.
• Defining and enforcing audit standards, pre‑delivery checks, and reporting guidelines for the team.
• Ensuring honest client reporting and accountability for attribution and GA4 accuracy.
• Escalation handling when an account is at risk: diagnosing issues, directing the strategist to fix them, and participating in client calls.
• Channel strategy and budget allocation as accounts scale.
• Setting realistic deliverables for sales before they are sold.
• Developing the hiring plan for the department and conducting first‑round interviews for new team members within roughly a quarter.

What You Need

• 7+ years of experience across paid media and SEO (owning one channel does not count).
• Deep knowledge of Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, Meta, and Microsoft Ads sufficient to evaluate work quality.
• Demonstrated ability to turn around an account, with clear before/after metrics and a solid explanation of the change.
• Comfort serving as the client‑facing owner when an account underperforms.
• Agency experience managing multiple accounts simultaneously.
• Prior experience supervising staff, conducting performance reviews, and making performance‑management decisions.
• Do not apply if you have never managed direct reports, have only ever run a single channel, have only in‑house brand experience, or prefer to continue building campaigns yourself.

Process

Three conversations lead to a decision:

• 30‑minute screen with a recruiter.
• First round interview with the founder to whom this seat reports.
• Final interview (no take‑home project or panel interview).

How to Apply

Complete the four required fields at the application link, then take a short 6‑minute Predictive Index assessment. Use the same email throughout. No cover letter is required.