Manager, Audience Strategy

Publicis Groupe; Chicago, Northern (IL, KY); Hybrid; USD 89,000 - 127,000; Full time

Job summary

Publicis Groupe in Chicago seeks a Manager, Audience Strategy to architect and run audience work behind growth plans. You will write queries, build segments, and move data through clean rooms and activation platforms, partnering with cross-functional teams.

The ideal candidate is hands-on with SQL, familiar with clean rooms, and can present complex results in plain language to clients. This role reports to the Director, Audience Strategy.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in digital media, ad technology or data-driven marketing, incl. 2+ years in an agency/holding company or client-service.
• Deep knowledge of agency operations: briefs, scopes, media plans, trafficking, onboarding, billing and deadlines.
• Hands-on SQL and experience querying clean room or cloud warehouses.
• Familiar with ad tech and mar tech stacks and can explain to non-technical stakeholders.
• Excellent oral and written communication and client presentation skills.
• Strong multi-account project management ability.
• Bias for action; startup experience is a plus.
• Data engineering or advanced analytics knowledge is a plus.
• Can-do attitude and figureoutability mindset.

Responsibilities

• Build audiences from first-, second- and third-party data to meet brand objectives.
• Own end-to-end activation: from segmenting to distribution in DSPs and addressable partners.
• Present recommendations, match rates, scale, and performance to clients in plain language.
• Analyze audience performance, surface gaps early, and suggest refinements.
• Maintain taxonomy and activation runbooks for repeatability.
• Design and run audience tests; document impact on the plan.

Skills

Digital media

Ad tech

Client service

Project management

Presentation

SQL

Clean rooms

Startup mindset

Figureoutability

Tools

LiveRamp

Epsilon

Snowflake

BigQuery

Databricks

DSPs

CDPs

Job description

Company description

Infinite Roar, Publicis Media's fastest-growing agency, is the new force in the media landscape. We are built for those clients looking to drive transformation, and we’ve created an approach especially tailored to the unique needs of disruptive, fast-growing brands. We combined the agility and personalized attention of a boutique agency with the unrivaled resources and expertise of a global powerhouse.

Overview

The Manager, Audience Strategy builds and runs the audience work sitting behind our clients’ growth plans. The Audience Strategy team are the in-house audience experts: we advise on growth strategy, identity resolution, audience segmentation, clean room strategy, CDPs, and best practices of data activation across addressable channels. The Manager turns audience strategy into working audiences – writing the queries, building the segments, moving the data through our clean rooms and activation platforms, and getting the work live in market alongside our Strategy, Investment and Activation partners. This role reports to the Director, Audience Strategy.

The ideal candidate is hands-on and hard to stop. They know how an agency runs, so briefs, scopes, timelines, trafficking and partner onboarding are familiar ground rather than something to be walked through. They are comfortable in SQL and inside a clean room, and they would rather open the data and check for themselves than wait for someone to explain it. They present their own work to clients in plain language and take feedback without losing the thread. They see the gap before it is assigned to them, and they close it. This is a build as much as a delivery role, and we expect you to contribute from day one.

Responsibilities

• Build people-based audiences from first-party, second-party and third-party data, choosing the right sources and level of granularity to meet the brand’s objectives
• Own the activation path end to end, from segment definition through distribution into DSPs, walled gardens and addressable partners, and confirm every audience is live, matched and delivering at the scale promised
• Partner with the Director to present audience recommendations, match rates, scale and performance to clients in language a non-technical stakeholder follows
• Analyze audience-level performance reporting, surface under-delivery, overlap and fatigue early, and propose expansions and refinements
• Maintain audience definitions, taxonomy and activation runbooks so the work is repeatable by someone other than you
• Design and run audience tests, then write up what the result changes about the plan

Data & Technology

• Write and optimize SQL against clean room and cloud warehouse environments to size, segment, overlap, suppress and validate audiences
• Project manage data onboarding and pipeline workflows related to moving client, partner and platform data into audience tools, and troubleshoot the breaks when they happen
• Work hands-on across identity resolution, data collaboration and clean room platforms, and hold partners to their stated match rates, methodology and delivery dates
• Perform audience and overlap analysis producing insight changing the plan rather than describing it
• Translate platform opportunities and technical constraints into clear options for account teams and clients, and know when to pull in deeper technical experts

Collaboration & Growth

• Partner daily with Media Analytics, Platforms, TAAG, Data Science, Strategy and Investment so audience work lands inside the media plan rather than beside it
• Manage timelines, dependencies and partner deliverables across several accounts at once, flag both risks and opportunities early rather than at the deadline
• Take the ambiguous ask, research what is possible, and come back with a recommendation on what should be done
• Coach analysts on audience methodology and platform mechanics, and partner with the Director and the VP, Audience Strategy & Architecture to raise the technical floor of the team

Qualifications

• 4+ years in digital media, ad technology or data-driven marketing, including at least 2 years inside a media agency, holding company or comparable client-service environment
• Working knowledge of how an agency operates: briefs, scopes of work, media plans, trafficking, partner onboarding, billing cycles and client deadline pressure
• Hands-on SQL, with experience querying clean room or cloud warehouse environments such as LiveRamp, Epsilon, Snowflake, BigQuery or Databricks
• Working knowledge of the ad tech and mar tech stack, including DSPs, ad servers, CDPs, identity resolution, data collaboration and clean rooms, and the ability to explain any of it to a non-technical stakeholder
• Excellent oral, written and client presentation skills, with the confidence to present your own work
• Strong project management skills across multiple concurrent accounts
• A bias for action and a preference for an incremental improvement this week over a perfect answer next quarter; start-up experience is a plus
• Data engineering or advanced analytics knowledge is a plus
• Embody a can-do attitude, and a “figureoutability” mindset

Additional information

Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent.

Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [e-mail].

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation Range: USD $88,540.00 - USD $127,155.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 11/1/2026.