Senior Manager - Paid Social

Empire-Today-LL; Northlake (IL); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off and holiday pay.

Wellness program.

Professional development & career adv.

Lots of perks.

Job summary

Empire Today seeks a Senior Manager, Paid Media to own the strategy and performance of our enterprise paid social program. This hands-on, leadership role partners with our media agency and creative testing partners to drive growth through AI-enabled experimentation and rigorous measurement.

This hybrid role is based in Northlake with travel as needed, offering compensation of $120K-$140K annually plus bonus and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in paid social, performance marketing, or digital marketing with increasing ownership
• Proven track record scaling paid social programs across Meta, TikTok, Reddit, and Nextdoor
• Experience managing annual paid social budgets of $15M or more
• Deep knowledge of AI tools within ad platforms and externally

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead the enterprise paid social strategy across platforms with accountability for a $15M+ annual budget
• Establish channel roles, investment strategies, audience approaches, and testing roadmaps
• Serve as the internal subject-matter expert on paid social and ad formats, measurement, and best practices
• Scale winning audiences and campaigns while pruning underperformers
• Translate data into clear performance reporting and actionable recommendations for senior leadership
• Adopt AI capabilities (automated bidding, campaign automation, generative creative tools) across the program
• Set the vision for embedding AI and hold partners accountable for responsible use
• Build and manage a structured testing framework for concepts, messages, creatives, and audiences
• Develop hypotheses and testing priorities from data and platform trends
• Own performance creative strategy and translate learnings into briefs for media and creative teams
• Ensure a steady pipeline of new creative assets and collaboration with agencies
• Lead regular performance and strategic reviews with internal stakeholders
• Collaborate with Brand, Creative, Analytics, and CRM teams to integrate paid social into broader strategy

Skills

Paid social strategy

Performance marketing

Budget management

AI tools in advertising

Agency management

Executive communication

Tools

Meta

TikTok

YouTube

Reddit

Nextdoor

Job description

The Senior Manager, Paid Media will own the strategy, performance, and evolution of our enterprise paid social program. This is a highly strategic, hands-on leadership role for a performance marketer who understands that great paid social sits at the intersection of media, creative, audience, data, experimentation, and increasingly, AI.

The Senior Manager, Paid Media will serve as the internal authority and strategic owner of paid social, partnering with our media agency, which manages day-to-day execution, and leading our creative testing agency to build a rigorous, insights-driven approach to performance creative. You will ensure we are not simply spending efficiently, but continuously learning, improving, and finding new ways to drive growth, including through the smart adoption of AI across our program.

We offer:

• Paid time off and holiday pay.
• Wellness program.
• Professional development & career advancement opportunities.
• Lots of perks.

Compensation: $120K - $140K annually plus bonus

Responsibilities:

• Develop and lead the enterprise paid social strategy across Meta, TikTok, Reddit, Nextdoor, YouTube, and other relevant platforms, with full accountability for a budget of $15M+ annually.
• Establish channel roles, investment strategies, audience approaches, campaign structures, and testing roadmaps aligned to business objectives.
• Serve as the internal subject-matter expert on paid social, staying ahead of platform changes, ad formats, targeting capabilities, measurement solutions, and best practices.
• Scale winning audiences, creative concepts, campaigns, and channels, and know when to pull back from underperforming investments.
• Translate complex media data into clear performance reporting and actionable recommendations for senior leadership.
• Evaluate, adopt, and scale AI capabilities within the ad platforms (e.g., automated bidding, campaign automation, generative creative tools, and AI-driven audience and placement optimization).
• Identify and integrate external AI tools that improve creative development, analysis, reporting, testing velocity, and workflow efficiency.
• Set the vision for how AI is embedded into our paid social program, and hold agency partners accountable for using it responsibly and effectively.
• Build and manage a structured testing framework that continuously evaluates concepts, hooks, messaging, formats, creators, visual treatments, CTAs, offers, and audience/creative combinations.
• Develop clear hypotheses, establish testing priorities from performance data, customer insights, and platform trends, and create a disciplined process for validating results.
• Own the performance creative strategy and analyze performance at a granular level to understand why something worked.
• Turn media and creative learnings into actionable briefs, and build a feedback loop between media performance, creative development, and business results.
• Ensure a steady pipeline of new creative rather than relying on a small set of proven assets until performance declines.
• Serve as the senior internal partner and strategic lead for our paid media agency and creative testing agency.
• Set clear expectations, KPIs, strategic priorities, and performance standards, and ensure strong execution, optimization, pacing, and accountability.
• Challenge agency recommendations and bring an independent point of view to channel strategy, testing, and investment decisions.
• Lead regular performance and strategic business reviews.
• Partner with Brand, Creative, Analytics, CRM, and other teams to integrate paid social into the broader marketing strategy.
• Collaborate with analytics and measurement partners to improve attribution, incrementality, and experimentation.
• Translate business goals into measurable paid social strategies, and use paid social insights to help shape broader growth and customer acquisition strategy.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in paid social, performance marketing, or digital marketing, with increasing ownership and strategic responsibility.
• Proven track record scaling paid social programs across Meta, TikTok, Reddit, and Nextdoor, with deep, hands-on expertise in Meta, TikTok, and YouTube.
• Experience managing annual paid social budgets of $15M or more.
• Proven track record managing enterprise-level paid social programs across acquisition, consideration, conversion, and/or retention.
• Deep knowledge of AI tools, both within the ad platforms and externally, and a natural curiosity about integrating AI into paid social programs.
• Exceptional understanding of performance creative and what makes it work in a paid social environment.
• Demonstrated experience building creative testing programs and translating results into actionable insights.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to connect media metrics to business outcomes, including incrementality and attribution.
• Experience managing and holding external agencies accountable for strategy and performance; experience managing creative agencies, production partners, or creators is highly desirable.
• Strong strategic thinking, with the ability to move between high-level strategy and tactical execution.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, executives, and agency partners.
• Highly curious and intellectually rigorous; you enjoy understanding why something is working and what should happen next.
• Experience with additional channels such as Pinterest, Snapchat, or emerging platforms is a bonus.
• This position is hybrid - requiring travel to Northlake office as needed. When in office, the noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.

Why Empire Today?

We empower our employees to strive for their unique goals. Within such an inclusive company with unlimited growth opportunities, how far you go is up to you.

We take care of our people. We start investing in you from day one. The perks and benefits we offer help you live well, both at work and at home.

We have an unmatched company culture. We've won multiple awards for employee and customer satisfaction, and we believe it all comes down to our culture of teamwork, creativity, and growth.

We're one of the nation's most recognizable brands. You'll enjoy the stability that comes with a national company and a sense of pride when you're a part of our team.