General Purpose of Job:  
The Director, Media Planning role will be responsible for developing client-specific strategy for key accounts.  This role will be primarily responsible for working collaboratively with client and agency leadership to either improve current client strategy or lead the development of net new strategies for prospective clients. The right candidate will be passionate about Media and have familiarity with all performance and brand marketing channels.  They must have experience in all media channels, both online and offline with an understanding of the role each channel plays, the strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they all work together. The Director, Media Planning provides senior leadership to the team responsible for placing, confirming and monitoring media orders to ensure the clients’ advertising program is executed flawlessly. The successful Director provides a high level of media planning and strategy expertise to assigned accounts as the functional leader of the team. The Director provides ongoing communication, consulting, insight, analysis, and recommendations regarding digital media, including emerging trends. The Director is also responsible for identifying and developing the talent needed to function as a high-performing team.

Location: Chicago, 4 days in office

Key Responsibilities: 
•    Understand client challenges to craft custom marketing program (inclusive of audiences, markets, competitive spend trends, additional consumer insights and trends, etc.) 
•    Lead media strategy for new business development and collaborate with all other Quad stakeholders as necessary, as part of the new business process
•    Lead conversations, internally and support externally in establishing benchmarks to determine success 
•    Oversee media strategy, campaign creation, budget, optimization, and testing strategy(ies), as applicable, for full-funnel, multi-platform campaigns across all paid channels including television, radio, print, out-of-home, digital, social, and mobile media
•    Identify relevant media partners and data partners (when Quad audience stack is not applicable) to test in plans on a client-by-client basis
•    Identify areas of opportunity to innovate with agency partners to evolve media strategy for clients and the agency as a whole
•    Reviews advanced analytics reports to provide direction on media plan optimizations 
•    Leverage insights, learnings, and modeling to help determine the right channel mix and further bolster the data-informed portions of media plans  
•    Stay current with new advances in media, the competitive landscape, and vendor capabilities; leverage that knowledge to influence current and future business plans and strategies
•    Develop POV on new media products and vendor capabilities 
•    Approval and oversight over strategy content for QBRs; lead when allocation allows 
•    Nurture team of managers and planners 
•    Lead client calls as needed 
•    Collaborate with media activation on case study structure and development 
•    Advise on recommended measurement framework and approach  
•    Effectively motivate, lead and train team members while fostering accountability and ownership; marshal resources, as necessary, to ensure work is completed accurately and timely. 
•    Create, implement and support operational best practices across the team and within the department. 
•    Support new client onboarding efforts as directed by leadership 

Job Requirements:    

Education: Bachelor’s degree

Experience: 
•    7-10+ years of experience in either agency environments and/or channel partnerships
•    3+ years in a management or supervisory role 
•    Exceptionally strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively interact with clients, vendors and all levels of the internal organization  
•    Ability to identify / recruit / retain top talent; experience positively managing personnel issues  
•    Proven quantitative and analytic capabilities; expertise in translating data into insights  
•    Proven ability to manage multiple, simultaneous short- and long-term projects   
•    Track record of demonstrating strong judgment and prioritization capabilities  
•    Ability to implement change quickly to support evolving / changing client initiatives or marketplace occurrences  
•    Working knowledge of third-party media research, including but not limited to:  Nielsen, MRI, Scarborough, Media Radar, DoubleClick, YouGov  

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
•    Experience building client decks and pitching current as well as potential up-sell opportunities  
•    Expert understanding of media planning, distribution, and syndication of content  
•    Collaborative approach and all-in attitude  
•    Client facing track record  
•    Skilled at and enjoys manipulating and understanding data, as well as drawing actionable data-driven decisions to drive sales and marketing efforts  
•    Strong interpersonal, partnership and influencing management skills  
•    Self-motivated and creative strategic thinker who thrives in fast-paced environment 
•    Extensive knowledge of the media industry, demonstrating depth in media strategy and performance-based marketing across all channels, media analytics / ROI, and planning and buying local and national media (digital and traditional)  
•    Proven ability to develop and manage paid media plans that meet / exceed business objectives  
•    Influential and persuasive communicator with strong interpersonal skills; exceptional ability to grow and foster internal / external relationships  
•    Strong presentation / story-telling and impeccable written and verbal communication skills  
•    Demonstrated ability to learn and understand each client’s business; act as an extension of the client with working knowledge of issues that could influence media decisions  
•    Display a natural curiosity as a “student of the industry” with a desire to both learn and teach, while applying knowledge for the ongoing betterment of client media plans   
•    Ability to lead and develop a high-performing team, with track record of employee growth and development  
•    Passion for a purpose-driven, team oriented, client-first, cross-functional culture   
•    Demonstrated problem-solver with the ability to provide creative solutions that result in positive outcomes  
•    Ability to articulate a clear and compelling vision to direct and maximize the team where all roles and responsibilities are well defined, understood and managed  
•    Expert synthesizer of detail and information for client, peer and management consumption  
•    Exhibits sound business judgment to navigate through everyday client and team challenges, commanding both authority and respect  

Employees can be expected to be paid an annualized salary range of $99,700 - $155, 650, based on variations in knowledge, skills, experience and market conditions age.