Senior Manager, Paid Acquisition

Stepful; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity stake

Health insurance

401(k)

Flexible vacation

Job summary

Stepful is seeking a data-driven Senior Manager to own paid media across Meta, Google, YouTube, and emerging channels. You will collaborate with our in-house studio and creative team to scale bold ideas and drive measurable impact on thousands of students’ lives.

The role is hybrid and based in NYC, reporting to the VP of Growth. You’ll push boundaries, test fast, and optimize CAC and ROI to hit ambitious targets in a startup-friendly environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on paid media experience in a startup or D2C environment.
• Proven ability to scale campaigns while managing large budgets.
• Strong analytical skills with data-driven decision making.
• Excellent communication and project management abilities.
• Ability to translate insights into actionable strategy.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end paid media strategy across Meta, Google, YouTube, and new channels.
• Build and drive a continuous testing roadmap for tactics, audiences, creative, and landing pages.
• Manage our Search agency and ensure performance goals are met.
• Monitor daily performance and optimize CAC and ROI while identifying growth opportunities.
• Own weekly KPI reporting and share learnings across the team.
• Diagnose performance fluctuations and identify drivers at channel and business level.
• Collaborate with creative teams and external agencies to produce high-performing assets.
• Stay updated on platform updates and industry trends to keep strategy ahead.
• Drive new acquisition and full-funnel growth experiments.

Skills

Paid social

Paid search

Budget management

Data storytelling

Cross-functional

Job description

About Stepful

Stepful is a workforce platform redefining how America's largest health systems build, train, and retain their talent. Since our founding in 2021, Stepful's trained over 32,000 practice-ready healthcare workers.

Layering onto our successful direct-to-consumer training, Stepful partners with leading healthcare institutions to address the growing national shortage of healthcare workers. We're improving access to quality healthcare for everyone, everywhere, and improving access to healthcare career ladders for those who need them most.

Our students form the talent pipelines for major employers such as NY-Presbyterian, Mt. Sinai, HCA, Providence, CVS, and Walgreens. We have partnerships with half of the top 10 health systems in the US and are in process with many more.

Stepful is backed by Y Combinator, Reach Capital, and AlleyCorp, with a recent $55M Series C led by Oak HC/FT. We were named the #1 EdTech company in the U.S. by TIME for 2025.

Our values

• Care first: We do whatever it takes for our students to succeed.
• Learn quickly: We test, learn with data, and iterate.
• Build together: We win when we rely on each other.
• Own it: We show up, take initiative, and show pride.

The opportunity

We're looking for a data-driven and creative Senior Manager to take full ownership of some of our key paid channels. This role is perfect for someone who thrives in a startup environment - rolling up their sleeves, testing fast, scaling what works, and pushing boundaries to hit ambitious growth targets.

You'll manage high-velocity campaigns across Meta, Google, YouTube, and emerging platforms, with direct access to our in-house production studio and a talented creative team to bring bold ideas to life. If you love pairing data with storytelling - and want to see your work drive measurable impact on thousands of students' lives - this is your stage.

This hybrid opportunity is based out of our NYC office, reporting directly into our VP of Growth.

What you'll do

• Own end-to-end paid media strategy across Meta, Google, and potential new channels. From planning through launch, optimization, and scale.
• Build and drive a continuous testing roadmap across different tactics, audiences, creative, messaging, and landing pages, translating results into actionable insights.
• Manage our Search agency, holding them accountable to performance goals and roadmap execution.
• Monitor performance daily, optimizing toward CAC and ROI targets while proactively identifying new growth opportunities.
• Own weekly KPI reporting, surfacing trends, efficiencies, and scaling opportunities, and sharing learnings across the team.
• Diagnose performance fluctuations and pinpoint the channel and business-level factors driving them.
• Partner with the creative teams and external agencies to rapidly produce high-performing video, UGC, influencer, and static assets.
• Stay current on platform updates, algorithm shifts, and industry trends to keep our paid social strategy ahead of the curve.
• Drive new acquisition and full-funnel growth ideas, playing an active role in shaping and running experiments.

What you'll bring

• 4+ years of hands-on experience scaling paid social and paid search at a D2C startup, ideally managing $1M+ monthly budgets.
• A track record of driving efficient growth (CAC, ROI, LTV) while scaling spend.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to handle multiple initiatives at the same time.
• Comfort with tactical execution and strategic thinking - you can set the plan and run it yourself.
• Sharp communicator, able to flag risks and opportunities to internal stakeholders and manage day-to-day agency relationships.
• High attention to detail, with a habit of catching and preventing errors before they become problems.
• Experience managing external creative agencies, briefing them effectively, and providing sharp, actionable feedback that helps them iterate toward higher-performing ads.
• Ruthlessly analytical. You dig into performance data to uncover insights, and know exactly which levers to pull to optimize campaigns at scale.
• Able to translate data into a clear narrative, making it actionable for both day-to-day decisions and broader team alignment.

Bonus points if

• You've worked in EdTech, healthcare, or another mission-driven B2C industry
• You geek out over testing frameworks, UGC trends, and performance marketing communities

Interview Process

• Introductory call with Talent Acquisition team member
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Take-Home Assignment
• Virtual Panel Interview
• On-Site Panel Interview

Benefits and Compensation

• Meaningful Equity Stake
• Subsidized Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plan options
• 401(k)
• FSA, HSA and commuter benefits
• Open vacation policy, including:
  • Guidance of 15 days PTO annually
  • Stepful closed the last week of December
  • 15 work-from-anywhere days
  • 10 public holidays observed for 2025

The target base salary range for this opportunity is $140,000 - $160,000, and is part of a competitive total rewards package including performance-based bonus, equity and benefits. Individual pay may vary from the target range and is determined by a number of factors including experience, internal pay equity and other relevant business considerations.

Stepful is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.