Vice President Director, Media Investment

Digitas North America; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 121,000 - 174,000; Full time

Job summary

Digitas North America is seeking a VP/Director, Cross Channel Investments to lead investment across paid media channels, including TV, OOH, video, audio, social, search, display and influencer. You will manage channel investment teams to maintain a consistent go-to-market approach and collaborate with Strategy and DNA to exceed KPI targets.

The ideal leader will win client trust, inspire teams, and negotiate valuable partnerships while upholding strong channels expertise.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of media planning and buying experience; emphasis on performance media or video or retail media is a plus
• Bachelor's degree or higher in advertising, marketing, business, communications, or equivalent
• Analytical background; comfort with data and numbers
• 5+ years of people management; 5+ direct reports
• Deep industry relationships with ad tech firms, brand teams, and publisher/platform partners
• Excellent negotiation skills and ability to communicate incremental value to clients
• Strong communication and writing skills; poised, precise, kind in interactions
• Ability to package, merchandise, and sell in concepts and opportunities
• Strategic thinking with the ability to see the bigger picture
• Self-starter; able to work independently and in a team
• Familiarity with prompt-based interaction and generative AI tools is a plus

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-channel budget planning and ensure recommendations align with strategy and insights
• Oversee channel specialists; manage workflow, QA, and operational excellence
• Serve as main client and team contact for the investment portfolio
• Speak fluently across multiple media channels and advocate for investment opportunities
• Collaborate with client finance to optimize media spend for outcomes
• Provide innovative solutions and strong partner relationships for clients
• Lead performance analysis with Data & Analytics and translate into optimization
• Develop and maintain relationships with practice leads and the investments team
• Champion bespoke agency solutions to evolve client relationships
• Be a steady escalation point for clients and team members
• Report to SVP, Investments

Skills

Media planning

Media buying

Negotiation

Communication

Strategic thinking

Team leadership

AI tools familiarity

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Job description

Company Description

Digitas is the Networked Experience Agency, built on the vision that we create magnetic experiences that earn the right for brands to exist in human networks. Today, and tomorrow. We deliver Networked Experiences by leveraging comprehensive data, technology, creative, media and strategy capabilities. Digitas delivers ambitious outcomes via unique solutions that include Creative Experiences, Integrated Media, Addressable Relationships, Social Marketing and Total Commerce. Celebrated by AdAge as Data and Insights Agency of the Year, U.S Campaign’s Brand Experience Agency of the Year, Media Network of the Year and celebrated by Forrester and Gartner, Digitas serves the world’s leading brands through a global network comprised of more than 5,500 employees across over 65 offices in 43 countries.

The Digitas culture is made up of fearless, inventive and generous Unicorns of all kinds.

Overview

As VP/Director, Cross Channel Investments, you will provide investment leadership across all paid media channels, including but not limited to TV, OOH, video, audio, social, search, display, and influencer. In this role, you will manage the channel investment teams to ensure a consistent go-to-market approach and create synergies with our Media Strategy and Data and Analytics teams to exceed campaign KPIs.

To help with this, we’re looking for an outstanding VP/Director – someone who can win the hearts of clients, inspire their teammates, and skillfully juggle multiple pieces of business.

Sound like you? Read on.

We are seeking a leader who will bring an innovative approach to tactical planning and buying, endless curiosity to identify new opportunities and an ability to achieve greater value through strong partner negotiations and relationships. You will be able to speak fluently to channel buying tactics; often acting as a representative of the full media investment team to clients and the marketplace.

Responsibilities

Day to day your role includes:

Leadership

• Partner with the marketplace, build relationships, and support channel negotiations as needed
• Establish and maintain strong partnerships with relevant media partners in the media ecosystem (i.e. Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc.)
• Oversee the work of multiple channel specialists, managing workflow, QA process, providing strategic guidance and oversight and ensuring operational excellence across all stages of tactical planning and buying
• Serve as a central point of contact for clients and internal teams for the client investment portfolio.
• Speak fluently to multiple media channels, calling on deep expertise from activating one or more channels.
• Work alongside client finance partners to determine how best to spend their media dollars to drive outcomes.
• Bring innovative solutions and out of the box thinking to partners and clients.
• Provide thought leadership on media marketplace evolution, ensuring delivery of strong point of view and industry knowledge
• Manage and maintain relationships with internal practice leads and full investment team
• Serve as champion of bespoke agency solutions and offerings to evolve client relationship
• Be a leader through strength and stability -- functioning as a point of escalation for clients and team members as needed.
• The role reports to SVP, Investments

Planning & Optimization

• Lead tactical plan development and recommendations, ensuring cross channel and channel tactical recommendations ladder up to the media strategy and are backed up by industry trends, competitive and media insights
• Partner with channel teams in the creation, distribution and evaluation of RFPs in the marketplace
• Partner with channel teams to assess proposals and negotiate pricing, added value and more
• Create and lead channel teams on a holistic media plan and flow chart by partner with associated details (flighting, placements, targeting, cost, etc.)
• Lead cross-channel budget shift decisioning and recommendations
• Lead on-going budget management across channels to maximize profitability and exceed client goals
• Oversee total dollars in market, monitoring pacing and navigating over and underspends by channel, and performance cross channel
• Establish processes, where needed, to deliver operational excellence across buying and execution
• Work within teams to troubleshoot and quickly problem solve campaign management issues as they arise, as well as effectively partner with cross functional teams to appropriately communicate issues with clients.

Reporting & Analysis

• Partner closely with Data & Analytics (DNA) on cross channel performance analysis and reporting
• Partner closely with DNA and channel teams on optimization recommendations and opportunities

Parter closely with DNA and channel teams on learning agenda & test and learn strategies

Qualifications

• 10+ years of media planning and buying experience, with a strong foundation in media channel investment and activation (option to add pending client: “;emphasis on performance media or video or retail media, etc”)
• Bachelor's degree or higher, with a concentration in advertising, marketing, business administration, communications, or equivalent
• Analytical background – comfort with data and numbers
• 5+ years of people managing experience, overseeing five or more reports in an account management/client services team
• Deep industry relationships with ad tech firms, brand teams, and publisher/platform partners
• Excellent negotiation skills and understanding of how to add incremental value and communicate that to our clients
• Strong communication and writing skills—you’re poised, precise, and above all, kind when engaging with others
• Able to package, merchandise, and sell in concepts and new opportunities
• Strategic thinking and able to see the bigger picture
• Self-starter with ability to work independently and in a collaborative team setting
• Familiarity with prompt-based interaction and commonly used generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Google Gemini, DALL·E, Midjourney) is a plus, especially for tasks like ideation, research, or content generation.

Additional Information

Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent.

Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off.

• medical coverage
• dental
• vision
• disability
• 401K
• as well as parental and family care leave
• family forming assistance
• tuition reimbursement
• and flexible time off

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [e-mail].

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation Range: USD $121,315.00 - USD $174,300.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 1/1/2028.