Acquisition & Performance Marketing Manager (Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane)

Jmc Pty; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

JMC Academy is seeking an Acquisition & Performance Marketing Manager to lead in-house performance marketing across paid search, social, video and programmatic in a hybrid Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane setup.

You will own day-to-day trading, experimentation and data activation in a senior capacity, partnering with a tier-one agency and an expanding in-house team. AI-forward mindset and strong measurement discipline are essential.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years in paid media with multi-million-dollar budgets.
• Experience trading at scale in high-consideration or lead-gen contexts.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day trading across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn and programmatic.
• Lead experimentation roadmap and measurement stack integration.
• Build in-house trading capability and optimize AI-enabled performance.

Skills

Media buying

AI tools

GA4/GTM

Stakeholder mgmt

Performance metrics

Tools

SA360

CM360

DV360

Google Ads

Meta Ads

Job description

ACQUISITION & PERFORMANCE MARKETING MANAGER

SYDNEY · MELBOURNE · BRISBANE, HYBRID

FULL TIME, PERMANENT | REPORTS TO: HEAD OF BRAND & CAMPAIGNS AND CCO

Build JMC Academy’s in-house performance marketing engine, in partnership with one of Australia’s leading media agencies, and run it in the AI-first publisher world.

ABOUT JMC

Founded over 40 years ago, JMC is a heritage higher education provider specialising in the creative industries. We offer smaller classes, real studios with incredible equipment, and lecturers who still work in the industries they teach, from TV production to music theatre to game design.

Our positioning is direct. JMC graduates, and our staff, are working creatives and collaborators. They excel at their own craft, and they’re also exceptional team players.

We’ve been doing this for over 40 years, and we plan to keep doing it for many more. This is a place to build a career chapter, not just a CV line.

YOUR ROLE, HONESTLY

JMC has a great product. When students come through our doors, on Open Day, on a campus tour, on an info session, they fall in love with our community and courses and enrol at rates we’re proud of. Where we need your help is on the trading desk that gets students through the door in the first place.

That’s the strategic challenge you’re stepping into, and we have the right setup to support you. We’re insourcing media buying with a tier-one strategic agency partner working alongside us under a hybrid model. The agency provides annual planning, agency-grade tools, training, monthly strategic insights and ATL leadership. You own day-to-day trading across paid search, paid social, video and programmatic, plus first-party data activation, experimentation, and AI tooling. We’re building a HubSpot CRM, a Microsoft Fabric data lake and AI-assisted decisioning around you, and the rest of the Customer function (Head of Brand & Campaigns, Head of Digital, Data & Performance Analyst, CRM Specialist, Market Intelligence & Proposition Manager, Digital Experience and Content Specialist) is already at the table.

This is not a brand-marketing-with-paid-media-attached role. It’s a senior trading role with AI at the centre. You’ll be the person who runs Performance Max, AI Max for Search and Demand Gen, who trades within Google AI Overviews and AI Mode placements, who wires enhanced conversions and Conversions API into the stack, who runs the experimentation roadmap, and who uses Claude routinely for analysis, creative iteration, audience and query mining, scripting and reporting drafts.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own day-to-day execution and optimisation across Google Ads (PMax, AI Max, Demand Gen), Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, YouTube, LinkedIn and programmatic.
• Run the experimentation roadmap, including A/B, multivariate and incrementality testing across creative, audiences and structures.
• Own the measurement stack: GA4, GTM, enhanced conversions, server-side tracking, Meta Conversions API, consent mode v2 and platform-side conversions.
• Activate first-party data in the ad stack with the CRM Specialist: CRM audience syncs, customer match, suppression and lifecycle-based targeting.
• Trade within AI Overviews and AI Mode placements, and tie measurement to AI-era levers across PMax and AI Max.
• Operate the hybrid agency model: monthly performance meetings, insight cadence, ATL coordination, and onboarding into agency-grade tools.
• Use AI tools, including Claude, across analysis, creative ideation, audience and query mining, anomaly detection, scripting and reporting drafts.
• Manage paid media budgets, forecasting and pacing within ±5%, and report on performance to executive leadership.
• As the function matures, build the in-house trading team and transition activity in-house per the hybrid agency model.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

You’re a senior performance marketer with 7 to 10 years in paid media, including multi-million-dollar paid budgets in a high-consideration, lead-generation or e-commerce context. You don’t need to have come from higher education, but you do need to have traded at scale and to lead with AI-first instincts.

• Hands-on mastery of Google Ads (PMax, AI Max, Demand Gen), Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, YouTube and LinkedIn; working knowledge of programmatic (DV360-style).
• Comfort operating in SA360, CM360 or equivalent, and a willingness to deepen on agency-grade tooling through the agency partnership.
• Strong measurement craft: GA4, GTM, enhanced conversions, server-side tracking, Conversion API, consent mode v2, first-party data activation, customer match, attribution.
• Demonstrated AI-era practice: AI-driven campaign types, preparation for AI Overviews / AI Mode, and routine use of AI tools (Claude or similar) in trading and reporting.
• Documented experimentation craft: tests that materially improved ROAS, CPL or revenue, with a clear incrementally read on.
• Commercial fluency, stakeholder influence, and the ability to coach internal teams and manage a tier-one agency.

YOU’LL THRIVE HERE IF

• Hands on the keyboard, dashboards open, change history maintained.
• You think in tests. You can prove what worked and explain why.
• You’re an AI-first trader. You’re already using Claude or similar tools in your day, and you’re prepared for an ad world where AI Overviews and AI Mode are part of the SERP.
• You like senior partners around you. You’ll report to the Head of Brand & Campaigns and the Chief Customer Officer, work closely with the Head of Digital, and have a tier-one agency partner behind you plus a full Customer function (Brand, CRM, Data, Market Intelligence) at the table. You don’t need to be the only senior brain in the room.
• You’re in this for a chapter, not a stop-off. The in-house build, the AI shift and the hybrid agency partnership are multi-year work, and we’d like the person who starts this to be the person who scales it.
• The idea of trading paid media while a troupe of musical theatre students run rehearsals outside your office sounds like a great day. Our campuses are noisy, never static, and always inspiring.

YOU’LL FIND IT HARDER IF

• You prefer brand to performance. This is a senior trading role.
• You expect to delegate the trading. You’ll have the agency for leverage, but you own the levers.
• You’re not comfortable with AI in your workflow. AI is in the publisher products and the daily craft. You’ll be expected to use it well.
• You’d rather own everything than work with an agency. This role is designed around the hybrid model. The leverage of a tier-one agency partner is part of the deal.

THE PRACTICAL BITS

BASE Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, with hybrid working and some in-office presence for collaboration and key events.

REPORTS TO Head of Brand & Campaigns and the Chief Customer Officer, working closely with the Head of Digital.

TYPE Full time, permanent.

SALARY Competitive, commensurate with experience; we’ll talk specifics early in the process.

WHAT TO SEND

A CV and a short cover note (no longer than a page). In your note, tell us briefly: the largest paid media budget you have personally traded, the single optimisation that made the biggest difference, how you’re using AI tools (including Claude) in your trading today, and your experience preparing for or trading within Google AI Overviews and AI Mode placements.