Senior Performance Marketing Specialist

About the role

Brainrider is a marketing and creative agency with teams in various locations including Menlo Park/San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City, London, and Toronto. We work with ambitious marketers, in-house creative teams, and internal agencies to fill capability and capacity gaps and enable them to execute marketing and creative at scale. Collaboration is key, and we operate as a team with adaptability, optimism, and teamwork.

Responsibilities

• Agency Management & Quality Assurance (Primary Focus)
• Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for agency partner(s) managing paid search, video, social, and programmatic campaigns.
• Own rigorous QA of all agency output, including campaign builds, keyword lists, bid strategies, audience targeting, ad copy, tracking/tagging, and budget pacing, before anything goes live.
• Catch and address creative safe zone violations, naming convention breaks, and other issues before launch.
• Maintain a "tight ship" operating cadence, ensuring clean campaign taxonomy, consistent naming, organized folders, and up-to-date documentation.
• Maintain strict naming conventions across campaigns, ad groups, creatives, and UTMs.
• Paid Search and Paid Social Strategy & Oversight (Core Expertise)
• Own the paid search strategy across Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max), Microsoft Ads, and other SEM platforms.
• Define keyword architecture, match type strategy, bid frameworks, and budget allocation.
• Drive the experimentation roadmap, define what gets tested, hold the agency to rigorous test design, and ensure learnings are documented and actioned.
• Manage and optimize significant monthly budgets with a focus on efficiency metrics (CPA, ROAS, LTV/CAC, payback periods).
• Non-Traditional Media Buying & Programmatic (Secondary Focus — 15%)
• Oversee agency execution of programmatic campaigns across DSPs (e.g., The Trade Desk, DV360) including audience targeting, contextual placements, and retargeting.
• Source, negotiate, and manage direct media buys across newsletters, industry publications, trade journals, and niche/specialty developer-focused sites.
• Evaluate ROI potential of new placements, sponsorships, and partnership opportunities outside core social/search platforms.

Requirements

5–8 years of performance marketing experience with deep expertise in SEM/paid search (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, SA360) — you know these platforms inside and out. Agency background strongly preferred — you've managed multiple accounts/clients simultaneously and understand the pace, rigor, and accountability that agency life demands. You know what great agency work looks like because you've done it yourself. Meticulous attention to detail that borders on compulsive — you catch the creative safe zone violation in ad preview, the naming convention break in row 847 of the bulk sheet, the UTM parameter that doesn't match the taxonomy doc. You don't just spot errors; you're personally offended by them. Proven ability to manage and QA agency partners — you've held external teams accountable, given direct and specific feedback, and maintained high standards without micromanaging. Track record managing substantial paid media budgets ($+/month) with clear performance outcomes and efficient spend allocation. Proactive communicator — you default to over-communicating, surfacing issues early, and keeping stakeholders informed without being asked. You bring solutions, not just flags. Strong analytical skills (Google Analytics, Looker, Tableau, or similar) — comfortable with data, attribution modeling, and translating performance data into actionable optimization strategies. Experience with A/B and multivariate testing methodologies across creative, landing pages, audiences, and bidding strategies. Bonus: Experience marketing to developer or technical audiences (developers, engineers, data scientists) — you understand how they move through paid funnels differently than consumer audiences. Knowledge of MMPs and mobile attribution (Singular, AppsFlyer, Adjust) for app-based campaigns.

Qualifications

Preferred qualifications include:

• Experience with A/B and multivariate testing methodologies across creative, landing pages, audiences, and bidding strategies.
• Bonus: Experience marketing to developer or technical audiences (developers, engineers, data scientists).
• Knowledge of MMPs and mobile attribution (Singular, AppsFlyer, Adjust) for app-based campaigns.

Skills

Required skills include:

• Deep expertise in SEM/paid search (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, SA360).
• Agency management and quality assurance experience.
• Strategic thinking and ability to manage large budgets.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to manage and QA agency partners.
• Strong analytical skills with comfort in data-driven decision-making.
• Experience with A/B and multivariate testing methodologies.
• Experience with MMPs and mobile attribution tools.

Benefits

Competitive salaries, paid vacation, work from home (WFH) support and set-up assistance, and a wide variety of other great perks!

Pay

$125K-135K

Schedule

Remote, US