We are hiring a Senior Director, Media to own paid media strategy and execution across the entire MeatEater portfolio, plus retention marketing across all five brands. This is a leadership role that sits on the marketing leadership team, reports to the EVP of Marketing, and partners closely with brand leads, finance, and the CEO.

You will inherit a team of two. A Retention Marketing Manager runs email, SMS, and database marketing across the portfolio. A Media Coordinator runs paid media in-house for our emerging brands (FHF Gear, Phelps Game Calls, Dave Smith Decoys, and the MeatEater Store). You will also manage our performance agency partnership for First Lite, which today handles paid media buying and strategy for our largest brand.

You own all paid media across the portfolio. You coordinate with the brand and creative teams on earned media where appropriate. You are accountable for the performance of every paid dollar we spend, and for building the measurement systems that prove it.

How We Think About Media

This is the part of the job description we want you to read twice.

We are building a media organization that balances short-term and long-term success. We believe platform ROAS is a useful operational signal and a dangerous strategic one. We believe upper- and mid-funnel investment, particularly for First Lite, drives revenue and profitability on a horizon that most performance dashboards cannot see. We believe the brands that compound over a decade are the ones whose leaders refuse to sacrifice future demand to make a quarter.

We are looking for a media leader who can hold both truths at once. Someone who can defend a YouTube test that will not pay back inside the quarter, and in the same breath cut a Meta campaign that is burning budget on people who would have bought anyway. Someone who treats Media Mix Modeling, Multi-Touch Attribution, incrementality testing, and matched-market tests as a connected toolkit rather than competing religions, and who can articulate when each one is the right instrument for the question being asked.

We are not looking for a pure performance marketer optimizing to last-click. We are looking for a builder who can lead a measurement-driven media practice that takes brand investment seriously.

What You Will Own

Paid Media Strategy and Execution

• Lead paid media strategy across all five brands, including performance and brand investment across search, social, programmatic, CTV, YouTube, podcast, audio, and emerging channels.
• Set the annual media plan, quarterly reforecasts, and in-flight optimization rhythms against revenue and margin targets.
• Own the relationship with our First Lite performance agency partner, including scope, deliverables, measurement standards, and quarterly business reviews.
• Direct in-house buying for emerging brands (FHF Gear, Phelps, Dave Smith Decoys, MeatEater Store) through the Media Coordinator.
• Partner with the brand and creative teams on earned media coordination, including the MeatEater podcast and content ecosystem as a paid media input.

Retention and Lifecycle Marketing

• Oversee email, SMS, and database marketing across all five brands through the Retention Marketing Manager.
• Set portfolio-wide retention strategy, segmentation philosophy, and CRM roadmap in partnership with brand leads.
• Drive customer lifetime value, repeat rate, and reactivation as primary outcomes alongside acquisition metrics.
• Measurement and Decision Architecture
• Build and own the measurement hierarchy that informs media decisions: business outcomes first, then incrementality, then MMM, then MTA, then platform metrics.
• Commission and interpret Media Mix Modeling, matched-market tests, geo holdouts, and other incrementality studies as the basis for budget allocation, not platform ROAS alone.
• Develop the internal tooling, dashboards, and reporting cadence that make this measurement legible to brand leads, finance, and the executive team.
• Translate measurement findings into clear recommendations on funnel mix, channel mix, and creative investment.

Leadership and Partnership

• Manage, develop, and grow a team of two direct reports.
• Partner closely with brand leads across First Lite, FHF Gear, Phelps, DSD, and MeatEater Store on annual plans, launches, and seasonal moments.
• Work with finance on media budget framework, MMU planning, and ROI/payback storytelling to the executive team and board.
• Represent media at the marketing leadership table and contribute to broader marketing strategy beyond your function.

Experience

• 10+ years in paid media, with meaningful time spent in both performance-focused and brand-focused environments. Pure agency or pure in-house backgrounds are both welcome; what matters is the range of work.
• Direct experience managing significant paid media budgets (eight figures preferred) across a mix of performance and brand channels.
• Demonstrated experience managing an external media agency, including holding them accountable to performance and measurement standards.
• Experience leading retention or lifecycle marketing functions, either directly or through a manager. Comfort with email, SMS, and database marketing as strategic, not just executional.
• DTC and ecommerce experience required. Multi-brand or portfolio experience strongly preferred. Apparel, outdoor, or specialty retail experience is a plus, not a requirement.

Measurement Fluency

• Deep working knowledge of Media Mix Modeling, Multi-Touch Attribution, and incrementality testing methodologies. You should be able to walk into a vendor pitch and ask sharper questions than the vendor.
• Experience designing and interpreting matched-market tests, geo holdouts, and channel-level lift studies.
• A point of view on the appropriate role of platform ROAS in decision-making, and the discipline to push back when an organization over-relies on it.

Mindset

• You believe in full-funnel marketing and can defend upper-funnel investment with data, not adjectives.
• You think in years, not quarters, but execute in weeks.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, comfortable being wrong, and comfortable changing your mind when the data changes.
• AI is your friend, but not your crutch.
• You write clearly. You present clearly. You are credible in a room of executives.

Cultural Fit

• You do not have to be a hunter, angler, or outdoor athlete. You do have to find the culture interesting enough to learn it.
• You are willing to spend time with the brands, the talent, and the audience in the places they actually live. We make better media when we know what we are selling.

How to Apply

Send a resume, a short note on why this role and why MeatEater, and one example of a measurement-driven media decision you led that took real courage to make. We pay attention to the third one.