Senior Director/Managing Director, Paid Media + Partnerships

Bully Pulpit Interactive; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Bully Pulpit Interactive, LLC is seeking a Senior Client Counsel to lead our Paid Media + Partnerships practice. You will guide senior client engagements, shape media strategy, and build high-performing teams across offices and remote settings.

The role demands 12+ years in paid media or related fields, strong leadership, and the ability to translate a changing media landscape into actionable recommendations for clients.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in paid media or related field with senior leadership experience.
• Deep strategic and tactical expertise across modern paid media.
• Experience leading large, complex client engagements and advising senior executives.
• Curiosity, judgment, and willingness to challenge the status quo.
• Strong understanding of current political, media, technology and cultural landscape shaping paid media strategy.
• Ability to manage multiple teams and workstreams with high organization and precision.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex paid media engagements and serve as trusted advisor to senior clients.
• Bring new media categories, products, partnerships to clients and expand possibilities.
• Translate changing media landscape into clear recommendations aligned with client objectives.
• Set the standard for media strategy and execution with innovative, results-driven approaches.
• Lead and develop senior members of a 50+ person team across offices and remote.
• Partner with leadership on capacity, staffing, and resource allocation.
• Drive operational efficiency and improve workflows as the practice grows.

Skills

Paid media leadership

Strategic leadership

Client management

Team leadership

AI & automation awareness

Public affairs knowledge

Job description

Bully Pulpit International is an outcomes agency made up of strategists, data scientists, and artists. We come from politics, brands, and government and we communicate without barriers and measure what matters. We have more than 400 team members in six countries and thirteen offices — Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, D.C., London, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, San Francisco, and Zürich. We apply our unique expertise across strategic communications, public affairs, research, and digital marketing to create sophisticated and customized strategies that make change possible for both American and European clients.

• Reports to Managing Director, Paid Media
• Starting Salary Range: $150,000 - $200,000 (+ annual bonus)
• Location: Expectation to work from DC, New York, Chicago, SF or LA offices at least 3 days a week

The Impact You Will Make

In this role, you’ll help lead our Paid Media + Partnerships team overseeing media planning, buying, marketing analytics, creator engagement and more.

We believe effective media is about more than reaching an audience. It's about understanding how people consume information, what earns their attention, and how to influence behavior in the real world. As the media landscape evolves, we're looking for a leader who can connect deep media expertise with strategic thinking, build high-performing teams, and challenge how we've traditionally done things to deliver better outcomes for clients.

You will work closely with the Paid Media + Partnerships team lead, as well as agency leadership to ensure our work delivers maximum impact for clients and that the practice continues to evolve with the media landscape.

What the Day-to-Day Looks Like

Senior Client Counsel

• Lead complex paid media engagements and serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior clients.
• Proactively bring new media categories, products, partnerships, and emerging opportunities to clients, expanding their understanding of what's possible and challenging conventional approaches to reaching and influencing audiences.
• Translate a rapidly changing media landscape into clear recommendations, connecting audience behavior, platforms, data, measurement, and emerging opportunities to client objectives.
• Set the standard for media strategy and execution, ensuring our work is both innovative and grounded in what drives results.

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop senior members of a multi-functional 50+ person Paid Media + Partnerships team across offices + remote
• Establish clear expectations, accountability, and high standards for the teams and client work you oversee.
• Partner with Operations and department leadership on capacity planning, staffing, resource allocation, and team development.
• Maintain a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement, encouraging teams to challenge existing approaches and turn new ideas into better ways of working.
• Drive operational efficiency, improving workflows and processes to deliver high-quality work more effectively as the practice grows.

Build the Future

• Identify opportunities for new services, products, partnerships, and capabilities that strengthen BPI’s Paid Media + Partnerships offering and create new opportunities for the firm.
• Champion the practical application of AI and automation to make our work faster, smarter, and more effective.
• Contribute to new business, expand existing client relationships, and help identify new sources of growth for the practice.

• Build and maintain strong relationships across platforms, publishers, technology companies, media partners, and other parts of the industry to strengthen BPI’s expertise and market position.

,

• 12+ years of experience in paid media, digital media, integrated marketing, political media, public affairs, or a related field, including significant experience in a senior leadership role. Experience in public affairs, corporate reputation, or political campaigns strongly preferred.
• Deep strategic and tactical expertise across modern paid media, with the ability to advise senior executives while understanding how campaigns are planned, bought, optimized, and measured.
• Demonstrated experience leading large and complex client engagements and serving as a trusted advisor to senior and executive-level clients.
• Intellectual curiosity, sound judgment, and a willingness to challenge the status quo while maintaining a high bar for quality and client outcomes.
• Strong understanding of the current political, media, technology, and cultural landscape and how those forces shape paid media strategy.
• Ability to operate with a high level of organization and precision while leading multiple teams, clients, and workstreams simultaneously.

BPI offers a wide range of benefits to U.S.-based employees, including100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) program with employer match up to 4%, generous time off for vacation, $50 monthly phone reimbursement, unlimited sick time, and 16 weeks of paid leave for new parents. BPI’s benefits prioritize employee wellness and progressive support to our diverse workforce.

We’re looking for all kinds of people.

We are an equal opportunity employer and make employment decisions based on individual commitment to excellence. We want to have the best qualified people in every job. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, status as a protected veteran, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information or characteristics (or those of a family member) or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state or local laws.We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. BPI is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. We consider applications holistically and you may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!

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