Sr. Director, Digital Development - Columbia

Sony Music Entertainment; New York (NY); On-site; USD 160,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

401K + employer matching

Paid leave and family-friendly perks

Job summary

Sony Music Entertainment in New York invites a Senior Director, Digital Development to lead early-stage artist strategies within Columbia Records. You will craft viral foundations, map audiences, and test content angles across subcultures to drive traction.

In this high-impact role, you will build seeding infrastructure, collaborate with Marketing and Social teams, and mentor junior colleagues while leveraging AI tools to accelerate research and workflow.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional experience in influencer, social, or digital marketing, with focus on early-stage artists or projects built without existing audiences.
• Hands-on seeding experience: built and ran seeding operations, familiar with page networks and community accounts.
• Proven ability to set strategy used by other teams and to influence senior stakeholders across departments.

Responsibilities

• Own the viral strategy for developing artists and early-stage projects from pre-release to first traction.
• Build accurate audience reads: identify who they are, where they sit online, and their credible entry points.
• Map and test niches and creator communities for artist alignment and permission to land.
• Identify and test content angles inside niches at low cost and high frequency.
• Lead seeding strategy and execution for early-stage projects; brief content and place it.
• Maintain seeding infrastructure: page networks, community accounts, creator relationships.
• Define creative foundations for campaigns that others scale.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Catalog, and Legacy to surface titles with growth signals.
• Monitor catalog releases for movement and flag opportunities proactively.
• Partner with Marketing, Audience, and Social from kickoff to embed viral strategy.
• Build relationships with creators and micro-communities where fit matters more than reach.
• Transition successful projects to Viral Marketing leads with clear strategy and evidence.

Skills

Influencer marketing

Seeding operations

Audience insights

Niche communities

Strategic leadership

Music industry knowledge

Data interpretation

Communication

Tools

AI tools

Job description

About Sony Music Entertainment

At Sony Music Entertainment, we fuel the creative journey. We've played a pioneering role in music history, from the first-ever music label to the invention of the flat disc record. We've nurtured some of music's most iconic artists and produced some of the most influential recordings of all time.

Today, we work in more than 70 countries, supporting a diverse roster of international superstars, developing and independent artists, and visionary creators. From our position at the intersection of music, entertainment, and technology, we bring imagination and expertise to the newest products and platforms, embrace new business models, employ breakthrough tools, and provide powerful insights that help our artists push creative boundaries and reach new audiences. In everything we do, we're committed to artistic integrity, transparency, and entrepreneurship.

Sony Music Entertainment is a member of the Sony family of global companies.

The Senior Director, Digital Development at Columbia Records builds the viral foundation for projects before they scale. Where the wider Viral Marketing team drives influencer campaigns at volume around established artists and priority singles, this role sits at the front end: developing artists, first singles, early-stage projects, and catalog titles showing early signals of movement.

The work is diagnostic, strategic, and hands-on. Read the audience quickly, map the niches that matter, find and test the content that actually works inside them, and run point on the seeding that puts it in front of the right communities. Once a project has traction and a proven approach, it transitions to a Viral Marketing lead to scale further. The role sits within the Viral Marketing team at Columbia Records and works alongside Marketing, Audience and Social teams from project kickoff.

What you'll do:

• Own the viral strategy for developing artists and early-stage projects, from pre-release through the first signs of traction, before campaigns move into scaled execution.


• Build a fast, accurate read on each project's audience: who they are, where they sit online, what they already engage with, and what the artist's credible entry point is.


• Map and pressure-test the niches and creator communities around a project (subcultures, formats, sounds, references) and identify where the artist has real cultural permission to land.


• Identify and test content angles inside those niches at low cost and high frequency. Prove what works before budget scales.


• Run point on seeding strategy and execution for early-stage projects: set the seeding plan, choose the communities and accounts, brief the content, and place it. This is hands-on work, not oversight.


• Build and maintain the seeding infrastructure the front end of a campaign depends on: page networks, community accounts, creator relationships, and the process for moving content through them quickly.


• Establish the creative foundation each campaign scales from: the hook, the format, the angle, the seeding logic, documented clearly enough for the wider Viral team to run with it.


• Work closely with the Catalog and Legacy divisions to surface titles showing early signals of growth, and build viral strategies around them fast enough to catch the moment.


• Monitor catalog and recent releases for emergent movement (UGC velocity, sound usage, search and DSP behavior, playlist and platform signals) and flag opportunities proactively rather than reactively.


• Partner with Marketing, Audience and Social from kickoff so viral strategy is built into the campaign, not bolted on afterward.


• Build early relationships with creators and micro-communities relevant to developing projects, where fit matters more than reach.


• Transition proven projects to the Viral Marketing leads with a clear strategy, evidence of what works, and the seeding and community groundwork in place.


• Report findings, tests, and results to senior staff, translating early signal into recommendations the wider team can act on.

Who you are:

• 7+ years professional experience in influencer, social, or digital marketing, with significant time spent on early-stage artists, emerging brands, or projects built without an existing audience.


• Hands-on seeding experience: has personally built and run seeding operations, not only directed them. Familiar with page networks, community accounts, and the mechanics of placing content at speed.


• Track record of setting strategy that other teams execute, and of influencing senior stakeholders across departments without direct authority over them.


• Demonstrated ability to identify and build inside niche online communities, not only mainstream creator channels.


• Strong instinct for internet culture paired with the research discipline to back it up. Fluent across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and the adjacent platforms where subcultures form.


• Experience testing content and reading results quickly. Comfortable being wrong fast and adjusting.


• Working knowledge of streaming and consumption data, DSP behavior, and third-party trend tools.


• Genuine knowledge of music history and catalog, and real interest in why older records find new audiences.


• In-depth knowledge of music culture, trends, and creator communities.


• Clear written communication. This role produces the strategy that others scale.


• Self-directed and comfortable with ambiguity, able to move on projects that do not yet have structure around them.


• Experience mentoring or developing junior team members, with the judgment to build process where it is needed and leave it out where it is not.


• Experience with AI tools to accelerate research and streamline workflow where appropriate.

What we give you:

• You join an inclusive, collaborative and global community where you have the opportunity to channel your passion every day


• A modern office environment designed to foster productivity, creativity, and teamwork empowering you to bring your best


• An attractive and comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life & disability coverage, and 401K + employer matching


• Voluntary benefits like company-paid identity theft protection and resources for pets, mental health and meditation resources, industry-leading fertility coverage, fully paid leave for childbirth or bonding, fully paid leave for caregivers, programs for loved ones with developmental disabilities and neurodiversity, subsidized back-up child and elder care, and reimbursement for adoption, surrogacy, tuition, and student loans


• Investment in your professional growth and development enabling you to thrive in our vibrant community.


• The space to accelerate progress, positively disrupt, and create what happens next


• Time off for a winter recess

Sony Music is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of age, disability, national origin, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, veteran or military status, marital and civil partnership/union status, alienage or citizenship status, creed, genetic information or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

The anticipated annual base salary does not include any other compensation components or other benefits that an individual may be eligible for. The actual base salary offered depends on a variety of factors, which may include as applicable, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.

New York Pay Range: $160,000—$180,000 USD