Vice President, Performance Media - Burson

Burson, part of WPP, is the global communications leader built to create value for clients through reputation. With highly specialized teams, industry-leading technologies and breakthrough creative, we help brands and businesses redefine reputation as a competitive advantage so they can lead today and into the future. When you work at Burson, you are part of a global community of lifelong learners who thrive at the edge of innovation.

About the role

We are seeking a Vice President, Performance Media to focus on our Corporate Affairs and Public Affairs practice. This role will serve as a key daily leader across a portfolio of high-profile client engagements including corporate reputation, public affairs, advocacy, policy, and issue-based communications campaigns. The Vice President will serve as the day-to-day account lead on major accounts while partnering closely with senior leadership to develop and execute integrated paid media strategies. This individual will help lead performance media initiatives supporting clients across sectors including technology, corporate affairs, reputation management, policy advocacy, and regulated industries.

This is an opportunity for a strategic media leader who combines expertise across paid social, search, and programmatic media with the ability to lead teams, manage client relationships, and oversee complex, high-visibility campaigns in fast-paced environments. The ideal candidate understands both the communications and performance media landscape, brings experience from agency, public affairs, corporate affairs, political, or advocacy environments, and can quickly assume ownership of active client work. This role can be based in Washington DC or New York.

Responsibilities

• Account Leadership & Client Partnership
  • Serve as the day-to-day performance media lead across assigned client accounts.
  • Partner with SVP and executive leadership to ensure successful delivery of sophisticated media programs.
  • Act as primary point of contact for performance media strategy, execution oversight, reporting, and optimization recommendations.
  • Provide leadership and accountability across campaign planning, implementation, performance analysis, and team coordination.
  • Ensure programs are progressing efficiently while escalating strategic issues and opportunities to senior leadership.
  • Build and maintain trusted client relationships while representing the agency's performance media expertise.
• Media Strategy & Planning
  • Develop integrated media strategies leveraging paid social, search, programmatic, and emerging channels.
  • Translate client business, reputation, advocacy, and communications objectives into measurable media plans.
  • Lead audience segmentation, targeting, media mix decisions, channel recommendations, and budget allocation strategies.
  • Incorporate first-party, third-party, behavioral, geographic, and stakeholder audience approaches to maximize campaign effectiveness.
  • Provide strategic guidance on awareness, reputation, perception, policy, and advocacy-focused communications programs.
• Performance Media Leadership
  • Oversee campaign execution across major media platforms including: Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube.
  • Evaluate performance and identify opportunities for growth, efficiency, and audience expansion.
  • Lead campaign optimization strategy while ensuring execution aligns with business objectives.
• Public Affairs & Corporate Affairs Expertise
  • Apply media strategy expertise within public affairs, advocacy, corporate reputation, public policy, and stakeholder communications environments.
  • Familiarity with AI and Retail sectors is a plus.
  • Support clients navigating complex public perception, reputation, policy, and social impact issues.
  • Collaborate with multidisciplinary communications teams to integrate earned, owned, and paid media approaches.
  • Advise clients on audience engagement strategies within highly scrutinized or complex stakeholder environments.
• Team Leadership & Development
  • Manage and mentor team members while promoting best practices and operational excellence.
  • Establish effective processes and ways of working across internal teams and client stakeholders.
  • Foster collaboration across performance media, analytics, public affairs, creative, and account teams.

Requirements

• 10 to 12 years of experience leading paid media strategy across agency, public affairs, communications, political, advocacy, or corporate marketing environments.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale paid media campaigns across social, search, and programmatic channels.
• Strong experience managing client relationships and leading integrated account teams.
• Deep understanding of audience targeting, media planning, campaign optimization, attribution, and reporting methodologies.
• Experience leveraging Google Ads, Google Tags, Google Search, DV360 and Trade Desk, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, TikTok Ads.
• Strong understanding of media operations, reporting frameworks, and campaign measurement.
• Ability to translate data and analytics into clear strategic recommendations for clients and senior stakeholders.
• Experience working in fast-paced agency or consulting environments managing multiple client priorities simultaneously.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and client counseling skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting public affairs, advocacy, issue campaigns, policy communications, political campaigns, or corporate reputation initiatives.
• Expertise in programmatic and search marketing in addition to paid social.
• Familiarity with audience and voter or stakeholder data platforms such as: LiveRamp, Applecart, Atlas, i360, BlueLabs.
• Experience using competitive intelligence tools such as AdClarity, Pathmatics, or comparable platforms.
• Experience supporting technology, AI, infrastructure, telecommunications, healthcare, or regulated-industry clients.

Benefits

We offer a competitive benefits package; click here for more details.

Pay

The base salary for this position may range between $75,000—$180,000 USD.

Schedule

We’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.