Senior Media Specialist
Summary
With guidance from the Media Supervisor, the Senior Media Specialist serves as a strategic media planner and buyer across digital channels. These channels may include OTT, display, search, social, digital audio, and retailer-sponsored media.
This role owns the strategic media process for select clients, including developing, negotiating, executing, monitoring, and analyzing paid media campaigns to deliver on client goals.
Essential Functions
- Work with the Media Supervisor and Media Director to develop strategic, goal-focused campaigns.
- Collaborate with traditional media, creative, social media, PR, and account teams to deliver integrated, cross-channel media solutions.
- Plan and negotiate Advanced TV (OTT), digital audio, and display campaigns, including management, tracking, and reporting.
- Plan and execute digital media campaigns within the Google Suite (Google Ads, Google Display Network, and YouTube).
- Research, negotiate, and execute effective media plans with minimal direction from the Media Supervisor.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with media vendors through clear communication and expectation management.
- Monitor campaign performance regularly and recommend optimizations as needed.
- Partner with the Analytics team to update dashboards and provide campaign analysis as requested.
- Manage billing and reconciliation for owned media channels and train new media associates on billing processes.
- Stay current on media trends and share new opportunities with internal teams.
Key Responsibilities / Tasks
- Utilize internal and external research tools to gather audience, competitive, market, and channel insights.
- Develop strategic media presentations aligned with client objectives and efficient media buying strategies.
- Research emerging media channels, measurement approaches, and competitive trends.
- Maintain media flowcharts, digital campaign spreadsheets, billing authorizations, and production schedules.
- Negotiate and contract media buys, including securing added-value opportunities.
- Organize and maintain vendor contracts, research documentation, and historical reports.
- Coordinate with client, creative, and account teams to deliver creative assets to vendors and QA all tags and placements.
- Work with vendors to ensure full delivery of ordered media buys.
- Review, approve, and process monthly media billing.
- Reconcile budgets and performance regularly and communicate issues promptly to account teams.
- Develop thoughtful POVs on client and agency opportunities.
- Contribute media expertise to agency thought leadership (e.g., blog content).
- Provide performance insights and optimization recommendations based on analytics dashboards and ad hoc campaign analysis.
Qualifications
Required
- 5–6 years of experience working with digital media channels (paid social, display, paid search, retailer media).
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
- Advanced understanding of media projects, ad specifications, and vendor requirements.
- Experience preparing presentations and RFPs.
- Strong knowledge of digital media KPIs, campaign management, and reporting (including ad servers).
- Familiarity with common media research and planning tools/software.
- Strong presentation and communication skills.
- Ability to manage complex processes in a fast-paced environment.
- Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to multitask across multiple campaigns.
- Strong interpersonal skills to build internal and external relationships.
Preferred
- Agency experience.
- Experience with OTT and digital audio platforms (e.g., Pandora, podcasts).
- Experience with CPG, direct response, or lead generation campaigns.
- Exposure to tag management and advanced campaign tracking.
- Experience with third-party data aggregators and reporting dashboards.
Physical & Work Environment
Planit is an office-first hybrid workplace, and local candidates are strongly preferred.
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee may occasionally be required to stand, walk, sit, reach with hands and arms, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, and lift or move up to 25 pounds. The role requires close and distance vision, color vision, depth perception, peripheral vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The work environment noise level is typically moderate.
Maryland Employment Notice
Under Maryland law, an employer may not require or demand, as a condition of employment, prospective employment, or continued employment, that an individual submit to or take a lie detector or similar test. An employer who violates this law is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine not exceeding $100.
Salary Range
$75,000 – $90,000
