Reports To: Director of Paid Media

Department: Paid Media

Status: Full-Time

Experience: 5+ years in paid media strategy, planning, buying, and performance optimization

About Stratacomm

Stratacomm's Paid Media Department manages more than $70 million in annual media investment across digital, social, search, programmatic, CTV, video, audio, print, out-of-home, and broadcast channels. We partner with federal agencies, nonprofits, and corporate clients to deliver campaigns that drive measurable awareness, engagement, and behavior change.

We're intentionally built differently from many agencies.

We don't separate planning from buying or strategy from execution. We believe the strongest media professionals understand every phase of the campaign lifecycle—from audience research and strategic planning through activation, optimization, reporting, and client consultation. Every strategist owns their accounts end-to-end, building stronger client relationships and producing better campaign outcomes.

We're a lean, highly collaborative team that values curiosity, accountability, continuous improvement, and smart problem-solving over bureaucracy. Our work moves quickly, our standards are high, and every team member has an opportunity to shape how our department continues to evolve.

Position Overview

We're looking for an experienced Senior Integrated Paid Media Strategist who combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution.

This is not a role focused solely on planning or platform management. You'll own the complete media lifecycle across multiple accounts—developing audience-first strategies, building integrated media plans, executing campaigns, optimizing performance, managing financials, and translating campaign data into compelling business narratives for clients.

The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing audience insights in a client meeting, negotiating media placements with vendors, building campaigns in Google Ads or Meta Ads Manager, troubleshooting tracking issues, and presenting performance recommendations backed by data.

Success in this role requires both strategic leadership and executional excellence.

Core Responsibilities

Media Strategy & Integrated Planning

• Develop insight-driven media strategies aligned with client business objectives, communications goals, KPIs, and budgets.
• Translate audience research into integrated media recommendations across Search, Social, Programmatic, Display, Video, CTV, Audio, Broadcast, Print, OOH, and emerging platforms.
• Conduct audience analysis using tools such as MRI-Simmons, GWI, eMarketer, Nielsen, and first-party data sources.
• Build comprehensive media plans including channel strategy, targeting, flighting, budgeting, forecasting, and measurement frameworks.
• Identify opportunities to test new media channels, technologies, AI capabilities, and emerging platform features that improve campaign performance.
• Collaborate with client leadership, creative, analytics, and digital teams to ensure media strategy supports the broader communications effort.

Campaign Buying & Activation

• Execute media buys directly across major advertising platforms, including Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and other self-service platforms.
• Develop RFPs, evaluate proposals, negotiate rates, secure added value, and manage publisher and vendor relationships.
• Issue insertion orders, oversee trafficking, coordinate creative delivery, and ensure campaigns launch accurately and on schedule.
• Maintain campaign documentation, including media plans, buy summaries, specifications, UTMs, authorization tracking, and campaign setup materials.

Campaign Management & Optimization

• Monitor live campaign performance and pacing across multiple channels.
• Analyze KPIs including impressions, reach, CTR, CPC, CPM, CPA, ROAS, VCR, engagement, and conversion metrics.
• Make data-driven optimization recommendations involving audiences, creative, bidding strategies, placements, frequency, and budgets.
• Troubleshoot tracking, tagging, pixel implementation, and delivery issues in partnership with analytics and technical teams.
• Lead structured testing initiatives to continuously improve campaign effectiveness.

Financial Stewardship

• Manage campaign budgets from planning through final reconciliation.
• Track authorizations, insertion orders, revisions, vendor invoices, and monthly billing.
• Ensure campaigns deliver efficiently without over- or under-spending.
• Identify and resolve delivery discrepancies with vendors proactively.

Reporting, Insights & Client Leadership

• Develop reporting that goes beyond performance metrics to explain:
• What happened
• Why it happened
• Why it matters
• What should happen next
• Present campaign performance and strategic recommendations clearly to clients and internal leadership.
• Translate complex media data into actionable business insights and future planning recommendations.
• Lead media discussions during client meetings with confidence and credibility.
• Produce campaign wrap reports, benchmark analyses, and strategic recommendations that inform future investments.

Department Leadership & Innovation

• Serve as a senior resource and mentor for junior strategists, coordinators, and analysts by reviewing work, sharing knowledge, and fostering professional growth.
• Help improve department templates, workflows, documentation, quality control, and operational efficiency.
• Apply AI thoughtfully to improve planning efficiency, reporting, research, and workflow automation while maintaining strategic judgment.
• Contribute to agency thought leadership, new business initiatives, and ongoing evolution of Stratacomm's media practice.

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of paid media experience with demonstrated ownership of strategy, planning, buying, optimization, and reporting.
• Hands-on experience across Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, Reddit, Snapchat and LinkedIn Campaign Manager preferred.
• Experience developing integrated media plans spanning both digital and traditional channels.
• Strong understanding of audience research, campaign measurement, attribution, and media analytics.
• Experience negotiating directly with media vendors.
• Strong financial management skills, including budget pacing, authorizations, insertion orders, and invoice reconciliation.
• Excellent presentation, communication, and client relationship skills.
• Close attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.

Preferred

• Agency experience or in-house media team experience managing multiple clients simultaneously is preferred.
• Experience with Strata, Prisma, or comparable media management platforms.
• Experience using MRI-Simmons, GWI, Nielsen, GA4, Looker Studio, Tableau, or similar reporting tools.
• DC Metro (DMV) Area Candidate

Who Thrives Here

This is a high-ownership environment.

The people who excel on our team are naturally curious, collaborative, accountable, and proactive. They enjoy thinking strategically while remaining close enough to execution to understand what drives performance. They communicate clearly, ask thoughtful questions, embrace continuous learning, and take pride in producing high-quality work. They lean in and have a passion for the work and for the client’s success. 

If you prefer narrowly defined responsibilities or highly siloed roles, this position probably isn't the right fit.

If you're excited by owning the full media lifecycle, partnering directly with clients, shaping campaign strategy, continuously improving performance, and helping build one of the industry's most capable paid media teams, we'd love to meet you.

Why Join Stratacomm?

• Manage meaningful campaigns that improve public safety, transportation, health, and communities.
• Work across a diverse portfolio of national and regional clients.
• Own your accounts from strategy through reporting.
• Collaborate with a lean, high-performing team where every voice matters.
• Help shape the future of a growing, modern paid media department.
• Competitive salary and benefits, including health, dental, vision, 401(k), paid holidays, and flexible PTO.

To apply, please submit your resume along with a brief description of a paid media campaign you're especially proud of, what your role was, and why it was successful.