Associate Director of Paid Media

EAB; Richmond (VA); Hybrid; USD 82,000 - 93,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

20+ days PTO annually

401(k) with company match

Parental leave

Employee discount

Wellness programs

Job summary

EAB is seeking an Associate Director, Paid Media, Hybrid, to lead a POD within its Hybrid digital team. You will be the senior digital contact for Strategic Leader communities, responsible for campaign quality, people leadership, and commercial outcomes for university partners.

You will build high-performing teams, set standards, and drive cross-channel campaigns across search, social, and programmatic platforms to achieve partner goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in digital marketing, paid media, and performance marketing.
• 2+ years of experience managing and developing individual contributors or digital marketing teams.
• Full cross-channel expertise across paid search, paid social, tracking and analytics.
• Proven track record leading senior partner-facing conversations and presentations.
• Experience managing complex, multi-account portfolios at scale.
• Strong people leadership across coaching, feedback, and formal performance management.

Responsibilities

• Own the performance and delivery quality of the POD, accountable to the Global Paid Media Director for KPIs, service standards, reporting quality, and partner outcomes across all assigned university accounts.
• Directly manage the Senior Paid Media Manager and, through them, the full POD structure, setting team priorities, running formal performance reviews, and developing each layer of the team with intent.
• Lead hiring and onboarding for the POD, owning role profiles for new hires, contributing to interview processes, and making sure new starters are set up for success from day one.
• Represent the POD in cross-POD leadership discussions, contributing to organization-wide standards, KPI frameworks, and operating model decisions.
• Build, launch and optimize paid media campaigns across search and social, including Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, DV360 and Snapchat, for an assigned portfolio of university partners.
• Own your accounts end-to-end: build with precision, launch on time, optimize with intent, and report with clarity.
• Complete all required quality assurance processes before any campaign goes live. No exceptions, no shortcuts.

Skills

Digital marketing

Paid media

Team leadership

Cross-channel

Account management

Education

Bachelor's degree in marketing

Tools

DV360

Google Ads

Meta

LinkedIn

Job description

vision insurance, flexible benefit account, parental leave, 401(k), employee discount

United States, Virginia, Richmond

Oct 12, 2026

About EAB

At EAB, our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger. We work with more than 2,800 institutions to drive transformative change through data-driven insights and best-in-class capabilities. From kindergarten to college to career, EAB partners with leaders and practitioners to accelerate progress and drive results across enrollment, student success, institutional strategy, data analytics, and advancement. We work with each partner differently, tailoring our portfolio of research, technology, and marketing and enrollment solutions to meet the unique needs of every leadership team, as well as the students and employees they serve.

At EAB, we serve not only our partner institutions but each other-that's why we are always working to make sure our employees love their jobs and are invested in their communities. See how we've been recognized for this dedication to our employees by checking out our recent awards and recognition.

For more information, visit our Careers page.

The Role in Brief

Associate Director, Paid Media, Hybrid

As an Associate Director of Paid Media at Hybrid, you own the POD. You are responsible for everything your POD produces, the quality of the campaigns, the development of the people, and the outcomes for every university partner assigned to your team. You report directly to the Global Paid Media Director and lead one of four PODs in the Hybrid digital team. This is a senior people management role with significant partner-facing and commercial responsibility. You are the senior Hybrid digital contact for your Strategic Leader community, the final quality gate for your team's work, and a key contributor to how the wider digital organization grows and improves.

This hire may be based in Philadelphia, PA, Richmond, VA, or Washington, D.C.

Primary Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Development

• Own the performance and delivery quality of the POD, accountable to the Global Paid Media Director for KPIs, service standards, reporting quality, and partner outcomes across all assigned university accounts.
• Directly manage the Senior Paid Media Manager and, through them, the full POD structure, setting team priorities, running formal performance reviews, and developing each layer of the team with intent.
• Lead hiring and onboarding for the POD, owning role profiles for new hires, contributing to interview processes, and making sure new starters are set up for success from day one.
• Represent the POD in cross-POD leadership discussions, contributing to organization-wide standards, KPI frameworks, and operating model decisions.

Campaign Quality & Operations

• Set and maintain POD-level operating standards across quality assurance, campaign documentation, reporting, and tooling, holding the Senior Paid Media Manager accountable for consistent enforcement.
• Own the campaign performance review cycle for the highest-tier accounts, preparing the strategic narrative and presenting alongside the Strategic Leader.
• Collaborate with the Global Paid Media Director on account assignments, bringing informed input on account complexity, team capacity, and partner priority.
• Build, launch and optimize paid media campaigns across search and social, including Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, DV360 and Snapchat, for an assigned portfolio of university partners.
• Own your accounts end-to-end: build with precision, launch on time, optimize with intent, and report with clarity.
• Complete all required quality assurance processes before any campaign goes live. No exceptions, no shortcuts.

Partner & Commercial Engagement

• Lead strategic and escalation partner calls alongside the Strategic Leader, owning the performance narrative, driving commercial recommendations, and identifying growth opportunities.
• Maintain strong working relationships with the Strategic Leader community assigned to your POD, understanding their partner portfolios, flagging risks early, and surfacing growth signals proactively.
• Contribute to the commercial growth of the EAB x Hybrid partnership, identifying where digital performance is driving partner outcomes and working with EAB leadership to support renewal and expansion.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in digital marketing, paid media, and performance marketing.
• 2+ years of experience managing and developing individual contributors or digital marketing teams.
• Full cross-channel expertise across paid search, paid social, tracking and analytics.
• Proven track record leading senior partner-facing conversations and presentations.
• Experience managing complex, multi-account portfolios at scale.
• Strong people leadership across coaching, feedback, and formal performance management.

Ideal Qualifications

• Experience at a digital performance agency.
• Background in higher education marketing or familiarity with EAB products.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams across multiple business areas.
• Familiarity with Hybrid's operating model, tooling and reporting approach.
• Commercial acumen, able to identify growth signals and brief senior stakeholders persuasively.
• Experience building team-level KPI frameworks and quality benchmarks.
• Commitment to embracing a continual learning environment and contributing to a dynamic and welcoming culture of fairness, authenticity, and belonging in support of EAB's mission, values, and aspiration.

Compensation

The anticipated starting salary (base) range for this role is $82,000 - $92,500 per year. Actual salary varies due to factors that may include but not be limited to relevant experience, skills, and location. At EAB, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the starting salary range for their role.

This hire will additionally be eligible for discretionary bonus or incentive compensation. Variable compensation may depend on various factors, such as individual and organizational performance.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans; dependents and domestic partners eligible
• 20+ days of PTO annually, in addition to paid firm and floating holidays
• Daytime leave policy for community service and flextime for fitness activities (up to 10 hours per month each)
• 401(k) retirement savings plan with annual discretionary company matching contribution
• Health savings account, healthcare and dependent care flexible spending account, and pre-tax commuter plans
• Employee assistance program with counseling services and resources available to all employees and immediate family
• Wellness programs including gym discounts, incentives to promote healthy living, and family access to the leading app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation
• Fertility treatment coverage and adoption or surrogacy assistance
• Paid parental leave with phase back to work program for birthing and non-birthing parents
• Access to milk shipping service to support nursing employees during business travel
• Discounted pet health insurance coverage for dog and cat family members
• Company-provided life, AD&D, and disability insurance
• Financial wellness resources and membership in a robust employee discount program
• Access to employee resource groups, merit-based advancement, and dynamic professional growth opportunities

Benefits kick in day one; learn more at eab.com/careers/benefits.

This opening is not eligible for visa sponsorship at this time; EAB will thus consider candidates who possess U.S. work authorization that does not require employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future.

At EAB, we believe that to fulfill our mission to "make education smarter and our communities stronger" we need team members who bring a diversity of perspectives to the table and are committed to fostering a workplace where each team member is valued, respected and heard.

To that end, EAB is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we make employment decisions on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need. We don't discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.