Senior Direct Investment Manager

Core Responsibilities

• Own performance across direct media and affiliate partnerships, serving as the primary point of accountability.
• Translate complex strategies into clear, actionable plans for clients and internal teams.
• Define KPIs and measurement frameworks to track and improve performance across a delayed underwriting/conversion cycle.
• Operate independently, making informed decisions and driving outcomes with minimal oversight.
• Partner Strategy, Vetting & Growth
• Manage and grow key affiliate and publisher partnerships (e.g., NerdWallet, Forbes).
• Leverage both Impact (for content creators) and Everflow (for lead aggregators).
• Act as a strategic audience gatekeeper, ensuring all onboarded partners align strictly with our core demographic profiles (e.g., middle-class households, family decision-makers, and grandmothers).
• Proactively source, evaluate, and onboard new partners to unlock incremental growth while maintaining strict brand safety.
• Lead or support partner negotiations, contracting, and commercial structuring to protect media efficiency.
• Stay ahead of industry trends and bring forward new ideas across Premium Publishers (including CTV) and (d)OOH.
• Campaign Execution, Compliance & Optimization
• Own end-to-end campaign execution, from setup through ongoing optimization.
• Oversee complex tracking infrastructure, ensuring accurate tracking of delayed offline conversions, Server-to-Server (S2S) routing, and postback mechanics.
• Enforce strict regulatory compliance, auditing partner content to ensure adherence to approved life insurance claims, disclosures, and pricing.
• Monitor performance closely, identifying opportunities to improve lead quality (CPQL) and scale.
• Manage budget pacing and ensure alignment with client goals.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Partner closely with media strategy, planning, paid media, and analytics teams to share insights on publisher quality and backend lead validity.
• Ensure alignment across teams to drive cohesive execution and maximize impact.
• Client Leadership
• Serve as a senior, client-facing lead for direct investment and partnership strategies.
• Lead client meetings, clearly communicating performance, technical stack recommendations, and insights.
• Deliver clear, data-driven reporting with actionable insights, translating complex affiliate data into executive summaries.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in media strategy, planning, and execution, particularly in large-scale, multi-market campaigns.
• Proven track record of managing enterprise affiliate partnerships (such as NerdWallet and Forbes).
• Hands-on experience navigating complex or dual-stack partnership platforms (specifically Impact and Everflow).
• Deep expertise in the technical affiliate ecosystem, including Server-to-Server (S2S) tracking, delayed offline conversion windows, publisher models, and commission structures.
• Experience in regulated industries (e.g., financial services, insurance, education) with longer sales cycles is highly preferred.
• Data-focused mindset with a sharp ability to vet publishers based on specific audience demographic criteria.
• Ability to operate both strategically and tactically, balancing big-picture thinking with hands-on technical execution.