(T) Director, Media & Lifecycle Marketing

Foot Locker; Utrecht; Hybrid; EUR 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Discount

25 holidays and flexible working

Bike plan

Pension Plan

Travel reimbursement

Learning & Health/Wellbeing programs

Job summary

Foot Locker is seeking a Director of Paid Media to lead EMEA media strategy and governance, driving profitable growth across digital and in-store channels. You will oversee budgets, partner with Loyalty and Brand teams, and ensure measurement-driven decisions that align with commercial priorities.

In this role, you will shape how media translates into measurable growth, drive cross-functional alignment with Brand, Marketing Ops, E‑commerce, Stores, and Finance, and lead a high-impact media

Qualifications

• 10+ years leading media and analytics functions in omnichannel retail, e-commerce, or digital-first organizations.
• Proven ability to set strategy, manage complexity, and drive alignment across a matrixed environment.
• Strong business acumen; proven track record managing large budgets across multi-market organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate paid media, lifecycle marketing and measurement into a single operating system driving measurable business impact.
• Fluent English required; an additional European language is a plus. Willingness to travel across EMEA markets.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the EMEA Media strategy and operating model, as a coherent, full-funnel omnichannel system, aligned to commercial priorities and GTM plans.
• Establish investment principles, guardrails, and decision frameworks that enable focus, speed and consistency across markets.
• Translate company growth ambitions into clear strategic priorities for acquisition, retention and customer value.
• Own the evolution of media strategy across Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic, Affiliate and SEO/AEO.
• Drive strong integration between media planning, activation and measurement.
• Hold teams accountable for incremental impact, not just channel-level efficiency metrics.
• Own media measurement to ensure robust, future-proof measurement frameworks are in place.
• Drive adoption of incrementality, experimentation and MMM informed decision making to shift conversations to business outcomes.
• Ensure leadership has clear, human-language insights on what is driving growth and where to invest.
• Translate business and brand priorities into clear planning principles for teams and markets.
• Enable marketing, e-commerce, and store teams to make data-driven decisions with the right data and measurement frameworks to plan, execute, and evaluate performance.

Skills

Media leadership

Strategy

Budget management

Data analytics

Full-funnel marketing

Leadership

English fluency

Travel willingness

CRM/Loyalty experience

Job description

This is a temporary 6-month position.

Overview

Foot Locker is the OG of sneakers. Across EMEA, we are accelerating our omnichannel transformation, strengthening how we connect media and data to drive sustainable and profitable growth across stores and digital channels.

As Director, Paid Media you are accountable for performance outcomes across media in EMEA for driving profitable growth and long-term brand impact. You define and govern the investment strategy and allocation of media budgets for both digital and stores, ensuring that capital is deployed towards the highest incremental and long-term value opportunities.

Within the broader EMEA marketing strategy, you own how media translates into measurable growth. You ensure that media partners with the loyalty team to operate as a connected system, and are effectively embedded in integrated marketing and GTM planning. Measurement is a core driver of decision-making, enabling continuous optimization of investment, channel roles and customer strategy across EMEA. This role ensures that media and loyalty strategies are aligned to brand and commercial priorities from planning through execution.

You partner closely with Brand, Loyalty, Marketing Operations, E-commerce, Stores, Data & Analytics and Finance to translate commercial priorities into scalable, measurable marketing impact.

Responsibilities

Strategy, Direction & Governance

• Define and own the EMEA Media strategy and operating model, as a coherent, full-funnel omnichannel system, aligned to commercial priorities and GTM plans
• Establish investment principles, guardrails, and decision frameworks that enable focus, speed and consistency across markets
• Translate company growth ambitions into clear strategic priorities for acquisition, retention and customer value

Media Leadership

• Own the evolution of media strategy across Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic, Affiliate and SEO/AEO (answer engine optimization)
• Drive strong integration between media planning, activation and measurement
• Hold teams accountable for incremental impact, not just channel-level efficiency metrics

Measurement, Effectiveness & Customer Value

• Own media measurement to ensure robust, future-proof measurement frameworks are in place
• Drive adoption of incrementality, experimentation and MMM informed decision makingShift performance conversations from channel KPIs to business and customer outcomes
• Ensure leadership has clear, human-language insights on what is driving growth and where to invest

Planning, GTM & Cross Functional Alignment

• Translate business and brand priorities into clear planning principles that teams and markets can operationalize
• Enable marketing, e-commerce, and store teams to make more data-driven decisions by ensuring they have access to the right data, insights, and measurement frameworks to plan, execute, and evaluate performance effectively

Leadership & Operating Model

• Provide clear leadership and direction across all media channels and SEO
• Define and evolve operating models, roles, and ways of working to improve clarity, accountability, and effectiveness, while balancing regional consistency with local market flexibility
• Build strong agency and platform partnerships, ensuring they support strategy and scale execution without owning direction

Qualifications

• 10+ years leading media and analytics functions in omnichannel retail, e-commerce, or digital-first organizations, including 5+ years in a people-leadership role. CRM/loyalty experience a plus.
• Proven ability to set strategy, manage complexity, and drive alignment across a matrixed environment.
• Strong business acumen; proven track record managing large budgets across complex, multi-market organizations, with measurable impact on sales and profit.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate paid media, lifecycle marketing and measurement into a single operating system driving measurable business impact
• Strong understanding of full-funnel marketing and customer economics
• Strong understanding of data, analytics, and measurement, with the ability to translate insight into commercial decisions.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, able to simplify complexity and align diverse stakeholders around clear priorities.
• Comfortable operating in an evolving environment, balancing long term direction with near term execution demands.
• Fluent English required; an additional European language is a plus. Willingness to travel across EMEA markets.

Benefits

• Recognition, inclusion and belonging in a diverse environment
• 25 holidays and flexible working (hybrid position, in office ~2 days p/w)
• Employee Discount on in-store and online products
• Casual Sneaker Culture
• Learning & Health/Wellbeing programs
• Career development and growth in an ambitious international team
• Travel reimbursement
• Access to premium wellness apps
• Bike plan and contribution to gym subscription
• Pension Plan
• Discounted Collective Health plans
• Activities organized by our Social Committee #