Senior Paid Search Specialist - Talent Pool

Darkroom; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 81,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Remote-first culture

Health, dental, vision coverage

401(k) with company match

Parental leave

Growth opportunities

Job summary

Darkroom is hiring a Senior Paid Search Specialist in New York to lead paid search campaigns across Google, YouTube, Bing, and emerging AI platforms. You will plan, optimize, and scale high-spend accounts, focusing on CPA/CAC efficiency and revenue growth.

The role blends traditional search with AI-driven strategies, requiring cross-functional collaboration and strategic thinking. The team emphasizes autonomy with accountability, a remote-first culture, and hybrid work with weekly in-office time

Qualifications

• 4+ years paid search advertising experience (Google focus).
• 3+ years managing paid search for growing clients spending $400k+ monthly.
• Expertise in developing, testing, and optimizing ad copy and short form video creative.
• Expertise in creative consultation for successful Paid Social Ads that convert.
• Background in data-driven decision-making and forecasting budgets/spend projections.
• Experience with core ecommerce revenue drivers and reporting on CPA, CAC, iROAS, aMER, CPM.

Responsibilities

• Plan, develop, and implement comprehensive paid media strategies focused on Paid Search to increase brand visibility and drive leads.
• Conduct brand and website audits to understand client value propositions and market them effectively.
• Optimize bid systems, market dynamics, and ad performance to achieve lower costs per acquisition.
• Develop innovative paid search strategies blending traditional search, YouTube, and AI search.
• Conduct competitive research to ensure success in ad space and new audience targeting.
• Manage 6-10 Paid Media accounts with monthly spends ranging from $20,000 to $3M.
• Use Platform Ad Managers and AI tools to generate insights and actions to increase client revenue month over month.
• Master KPIs like CPA, CAC, iROAS, nCAC, MER, aMER, CTR, and CPM.
• Understand industry benchmarks across the ecommerce funnel.
• Implement real-time bidding decisions across multiple platforms.
• Develop quarterly strategies based on metrics, spend, and YoY performance.
• Deep dive into competitor research and brand identity to manage client expectations and brainstorm initiatives.
• Ensure healthy full-funnel acquisition within broader ecommerce context.
• Deliver projections and forecasts aligned with client needs.

Skills

Paid Search Advertising

Funnel Optimization

Copywriting for Ads

Video Creative

Forecasting Budgets

Data-driven Decision Making

PPC Campaign Management

Tools

Google Ads

YouTube Ads

Bing Ads

Koah

Kontext

Perplexity

OpenAI

Job description

About Darkroom

Darkroom is the leading next-generation growth marketing firm engineering the brands of tomorrow. Founded in 2017, we set out to redefine what a modern agency could be, by replacing the inertia of legacy advertising behemoths with a model built for speed, intelligence, and measurable impact. At our core, Darkroom is a human services company powered by Shadow, a universal AI commerce layer that integrates executive-level strategy with proprietary agentic technology. This fusion enables our teams to deliver outsized returns by enhancing creative output, operational efficiency, and revenue generation across every stage of the customer journey. Our track record speaks for itself: billions in attributable revenue driven across e-commerce marketplaces, media networks, DTC ecosystems, and social commerce platforms. Every engagement feeds into our proprietary data infrastructure, enabling a continuous feedback loop that accelerates growth, improves margins, and compounds results across our client portfolio. What began as a boutique design studio has evolved into one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc. 5000) and among the most effective performance media agencies of the 2020s (Varos). Our founders were recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for advancing the intersection of technology, marketing, and advertising, cementing Darkroom’s role as a defining player in the future of media innovation.

About The Role

We are hiring for our Paid Media team, looking for a Senior Paid Search Specialist - a performance-driven marketer with a strong mastery of paid search advertising systems, the evolving AI search environment, and a deep understanding of the AI ecosystem and emerging ad platforms. This is not just a tactical role; it requires strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and high standards of execution across digital advertising platforms, particularly Google, YouTube, Bing, and emerging AI platforms like Kontext, Koah, Perplexity, Claude, and OpenAI (some of these platforms don’t have ad services yet). Though primarily focused on Google, the role will require expertise and campaign deployment on other paid search based platforms as well, and a willingness to try new platforms as AI search product evolve.

What you’ll do:

• Plan, develop, and implement comprehensive paid media strategies exclusively focused on Paid Search to increase brand visibility and drive new user acquisition and leads via paid media campaigns.
• Conduct thorough brand and website audits to understand our clients’ key value propositions, core products, and brand aesthetics and identify opportunities to successfully market them and make them stand out in the marketplace.
• Obsession with the paid search advertising action, bid system, and market dynamics to best convert customers at the lowest possible cost for the brand.
• Keen to develop innovative paid search strategies that blend traditional search, YouTube, and emerging AI search.
• Conduct competitive research to ensure success in the ad space and new acquisition audience targeting.
• Manage between 6-10 Paid Media accounts (including but not limited to: Google, YouTube, Bing, and the emerging AI sSearch Platforms (Koah, Kontext) on behalf of Darkroom clients, with aggregate monthly spends ranging between $20,000 - $3M.
• Utilize Platform Ad Managers, third-party reporting tools, and AI to develop insights and action items intended to increase our clients’ revenues month-over-month and solve for attribution.
• Religious mastery of important KPIs like CPA, CAC, iROAS, nCAC, MER, aMER, CTR, and CPM.
• Understand industry-wide benchmarks throughout all steps in the e-commerce marketing funnel.
• Implement real-time, proactive, and reactionary ad-buying decisions across multiple platforms in response to up-or-down trends happening on ads platforms (you will be in ad platforms daily).
• Preemptively develop quarterly strategies for clientele based on perceived success metrics, ad spends, YoY performance metrics, and projections.
• Deep dive into competitor research, industry knowns, and brand identity to manage client expectations and continually brainstorm new marketing initiatives, creative assets, copy, and review after results.
• Understand full-funnel marketing strategies to ensure new customer acquisition is healthy within the broader e-commerce equation.
• Understand client needs for success and preemptively deliver projections and forecasts that latter into client quarterly strategy.
• Willingness and openness to learn and understand e-commerce P&Ls with a comfortability engaging with financial metrics.

What you’ll need to be successful:

• Mastery of the e-commerce marketing funnel —> offer to ad to landing page to conversion.
• 4+ years minimum of paid media advertising experience within Paid Search, Google in specific (building high converting funnels and driving quantifiable results).
• 3+ years minimum managing paid search advertising for growing clients in the consumer space spending over $400k+ minimum monthly aggregate spend.
• Expertise in developing, testing, and optimizing advertisement copy and short form video creative
• Expertise in creative consultation for successful Paid Social Ads that convert
• Background in data-derived decision-making and forecasting budgets/spend projections linked to perceived results
• Experience with all core e-commerce revenue drivers, reporting on metrics that actually matter (CPA, CAC, iROAS, aMER, CPM)

What It’s Like to Work at Darkroom

Darkroom is not a typical agency. We are looking for A players who want to build something great. We move fast, think deeply, and expect every team member to bring insight and rigor to everything they touch. We hold a high bar for performance, creativity, and ownership — but we also support each other relentlessly. No egos, no red tape — just world-class talent building something remarkable. We believe in autonomy with accountability, truth over comfort, and outcomes over optics.

• Unlimited PTO + US holidays: Rebooting is part of the work. Take the time you need to stay sharp.
• Remote-First Culture: Many roles are fully remote. Employees based in or near our New York or Lisbon HQs are expected to work hybrid with weekly in-office time. Hub locations include the Brazil and Spain.
• Health & Wellness: Company-sponsored medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Finances, growth, and retirement: Darkroom offers a robust 401(k) program with company match and profit-sharing opportunities to help you save and grow as the company grows.
• Parental Leave: Flexible parental leave to support new parents during this important transition.
• Growth: Our interdisciplinary model gives every Darkroomer exposure far beyond their core role. Grow your skills, expand your influence, and stay at the forefront of the industry.

Compensation

The base salary range for this role is $70,000 per year. This range represents the anticipated minimum and maximum for this position. It applies to candidates based in New York, including New York City, in compliance with the New York State Pay Transparency Law and the New York City Salary Transparency Law. Actual compensation within this range will be determined based on experience, skills, and qualifications. This role is also eligible for performance-based compensation. A summary of benefits is listed above.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Darkroom is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national orientation, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.