Senior Paid Media Manager (FTC)

BBC Maestro; Greater London; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

BBC Maestro is seeking a Senior Paid Media Manager to lead multi-channel paid media campaigns, owning strategy, optimisation, and performance end-to-end. You will collaborate with Creative, Marketing, Product, and Data teams to ensure campaigns are commercially successful, creatively distinctive, and audience-led.

Candidate should be comfortable managing large budgets, making independent budget and testing decisions, and mentoring others.

Qualifications

• You're a paid media expert who enjoys hands-on execution of paid media and developing marketing strategies.
• Experience managing large-scale budgets with clear accountability for performance.
• Strong analytical capability with dashboards, GA4, ad platforms, and experimentation data.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning, execution, and optimisation of paid search (Google) and paid social (Meta).
• Translate strategy into channel plans, budgets, and testing roadmaps.
• Own performance against ROI, CPA, and growth targets; adjust strategy as data evolves.
• Manage significant monthly media budgets with strong pacing and risk management.
• Partner with Creative and Marketing to develop on-brand, high-performing creative outputs.
• Mentor junior team members and contribute to improved paid media processes.

Skills

Paid media expertise

Campaign strategy

Budget management

Analytics

Experimentation & testing

Cross-functional collaboration

Leadership

Creative collaboration

Tools

GA4

Mixpanel

Google Ads

Meta Ads

Excel

Job description

About the Company BBC Maestro is on a mission to provide trusted, human learning led by exceptional people with lived expertise. We inspire adults, giving them the knowledge and confidence to continue or the permission to start, helping them use their time for meaningful growth, whatever shape that may take.

We operate as an independent company within the BBC Studios portfolio, offering online courses from world-class experts in their fields; from filmmaking and writing to cooking, music, and beyond.

We’re a small, collaborative team doing big things at pace. It’s a place where creative ideas move fast, where everyone rolls up their sleeves, and where we take real pride in delivering high-quality learning experiences for our global audience.

Role Overview

As a Senior Paid Media Manager , you are responsible for leading multi-channel paid media campaigns that drive growth for BBC Maestro.

You move beyond activation to owning strategy, optimisation, and performance outcomes end-to-end. You partner closely with Creative, Marketing, Product, and Data teams to ensure campaigns are not only commercially successful, but creatively distinctive and audience-led.

You’re trusted to make budget, optimisation, and testing decisions independently, coach team members, and contribute to the evolution of our paid media practices as the business scales.

While we may prefer London based candidates, we are open to any UK based candidates. (Pending right to work checks)

Initial term: 3 months, fixed term contract

Start date: Early December 2026. Candidates unable to start early December will not be successful.

Salary: Approximate Range is £55,000 - £65,000

Key Responsibilities

Campaign Strategy & Ownership

• Lead the planning, execution, and optimisation of paid search (Google) and paid social (Meta) campaigns aligned to business and growth objectives.
• Translate high-level campaign strategy into channel-level plans, budgets, and testing roadmaps.
• Own performance outcomes against ROI, CPA, and growth targets, proactively adjusting strategy as performance data evolves.
• Manage significant monthly media budgets, ensuring strong pacing, efficiency, and risk management.

Optimisation, Testing & Insight

• Define and run structured experimentation and testing plans across audiences, creative, bidding strategies, and landing experiences.
• Analyse conversion, attribution, and behavioural data (GA4, platform data, Mixpanel where applicable) to drive continuous improvement.
• Identify performance trends, market shifts, and seasonality impacts, applying insights proactively to campaign planning.
• Share actionable insights with Product and Technology teams to support conversion rate optimisation and funnel improvements.

Creative & Channel Excellence

• Partner closely with Creative and Marketing teams to develop on-brand, high-performing paid media creative.
• Provide clear briefs and feedback to ensure creative output balances brand storytelling with performance efficiency.
• Lead asset iteration and messaging optimisation across channels, informed by testing and performance data.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Act as a senior paid media partner to cross-functional stakeholders, helping shape campaign direction and priorities.
• Support and mentor junior team members through feedback, knowledge sharing, and best-practice guidance.
• Contribute to improving paid media processes, documentation, and ways of working across the team.
• Ensure day-to-day execution remains aligned with broader campaign strategies and commercial goals.

Innovation & Growth

• Explore and trial new platforms, tools, and techniques to improve performance and efficiency.
• Stay up to date with industry trends, algorithm changes, and emerging best practices.
• Bring fresh thinking to campaign strategy, challenging assumptions and pushing creative and performance boundaries.

About You

• You're a paid media expert who enjoys both hands‑on execution of paid media, alongside developing the marketing strategies. This would suit someone who has had full ownership of paid media channels and/or performed in a standalone paid media role.
• Are confident managing large‑scale budgets, with clear accountability for performance.
• Bring advanced analytical capability — you’re comfortable working with dashboards, Excel, GA4, ad platforms, and experimentation data.
• Balance creative intuition with data‑led decision‑making.
• Confident running multiple campaigns simultaneously, prioritising effectively in a fast‑moving environment.
• Communicate clearly with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders, influencing decisions through insight.
• Are collaborative, pragmatic, and comfortable making trade‑offs in service of wider business goals.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and pace of a SME business
• Curious, experimental, and motivated to continuously improve how paid media drives growth.
• Stay current with industry trends and enjoy challenging the status quo in performance and creative execution