Paid Media Lead (Accounts)

HyperionDev; Cape Town; Hybrid; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

Code bootcamps access

Job summary

HyperionDev in Cape Town is seeking a commercially minded Paid Media Lead to own performance across our paid acquisition channels. The role focuses on accountability, strategy, and stakeholder alignment to drive scalable growth.

You will manage key paid media accounts across brands, oversee campaign execution with internal or external partners, and shape budget allocation and strategic direction to deliver revenue targets.

Qualifications

• 3+ years managing large-scale paid media campaigns across platforms (Google, Meta, etc).
• Proven B2C marketing experience with emphasis on lead generation and acquisition.
• Advanced analytics skills with GA, GTM, and data-driven optimization.
• Experience budgeting/forecasting multi-million rand annual budgets.
• Creative and strategic mindset for customer journeys and experimentation.
• Excellent communication to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• CRM/marketing automation experience is a plus.
• Self-starter with ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Own paid media performance across assigned brands or markets and define channel strategy.
• Lead KPI reviews, identify risks and opportunities, and drive action to meet targets.
• Oversee campaign execution and optimization while guiding strategy and scaling decisions.
• Manage and forecast large budgets, plan spend, and adjust based on results.
• Partner with internal stakeholders across marketing, sales, product, and leadership.
• Lead reporting and translate data into actionable recommendations for senior leaders.
• Collaborate with CRO, product, and creative to improve funnels and conversions.
• Maintain relationships with platform partners (Google, Meta) for insights and support.
• Provide direction to paid media specialists or agencies and ensure high execution standards.
• Stay current with industry trends and test new approaches for growth.

Skills

Paid media management

B2C marketing

Campaign optimization

Budgeting & forecasting

Data-driven decision making

Stakeholder communication

A/B testing

Team leadership

Independent/self-starter

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Google Analytics

Google Tag Manager

BigQuery/SQL

CRM

SEO

Figma

Job description

ABOUT US

HyperionDev is one of the largest providers of accelerated tech education in EMEA and one of the oldest providers of 'coding bootcamps' in the world. We work with top universities such as Imperial College London, The London School of Economics, The University of Edinburgh, and Stellenbosch University to deliver structured technical courses and bootcamps that accelerate people into fulfilling tech careers. We have been recognised as one of the top education technology scaleups in the world and gained the financial backing of Meta (previously Facebook) which recognised us as the most socially impactful startup operating in Africa, where we initially started our work.

We are dedicated to closing the global tech skills gap and we achieve this by integrating tech education with human mentorship and expert code review powered by a workforce in Southern Africa, which lowers the cost of an accessible education in technology. This model has been successful, allowing us to reach millions of learners a year from over 60 countries. We have also partnered with government bodies such as the UK's Department for Education who provide scholarships for students to study on our bootcamps and gain employment at companies such as AstraZeneca and the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS).

We're backed by nearly 2000 investors, having raised the largest crowdfunding round of funding for an edtech company in history. As a primarily bootstrapped, profitable, and scale-up tech business join us as we play our part in making the world a more stable, safer, and fair place.

ABOUT THE ROLE

HyperionDev is seeking a commercially minded, results-driven Paid Media Lead to own and drive performance across our paid acquisition channels. This role is focused on accountability, strategy, and stakeholder alignment, ensuring our paid media investment delivers consistent, scalable growth.

As Paid Media Lead, you will take ownership of key paid media accounts across multiple brands, acting as the primary point of responsibility for performance, budget allocation, and strategic direction. You will oversee campaign execution (both directly and via internal or external support), while ensuring activity aligns with broader business objectives and revenue targets.

This is a high-impact role suited to someone who is comfortable owning numbers, managing stakeholders, and leading performance conversations, rather than purely executing campaigns.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Account Ownership & Strategy: Take full ownership of paid media performance across assigned brands or markets. Define and lead channel strategy across platforms such as Google Ads, Meta, YouTube, Reddit, and others, with a clear focus on revenue, lead quality, and efficiency.
  
• Performance & Commercial Accountability: Own core KPIs including CAC, ROAS, CPL, and pipeline contribution. Regularly review performance, identify risks and opportunities, and take decisive action to ensure targets are met.
  
• Campaign Oversight & Optimisation: Oversee the execution and optimisation of campaigns across PPC, paid social, and display. While remaining hands-on when needed, your focus will be on guiding strategy, prioritisation, and scaling decisions rather than purely execution.
  
• Budget Ownership & Forecasting: Manage and allocate significant paid media budgets across channels. Forecast performance, plan spend, and adjust investment dynamically based on results and business priorities.
  
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the key paid media partner to internal stakeholders across marketing, sales, product, and leadership. Communicate performance clearly, manage expectations, and ensure alignment between paid media activity and broader growth plans.
  
• Reporting & Insights: Lead performance reporting and insights, translating data into clear, actionable recommendations. Present results regularly to senior stakeholders, with a strong focus on commercial outcomes rather than vanity metrics.
  
• Funnel & Conversion Optimisation: Work closely with CRO, product, and creative teams to improve the end-to-end funnel. Identify friction points and drive improvements in landing pages, messaging, and user experience to increase conversion rates and lead quality.
  
• Platform & Partner Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with key platform partners (Google, Meta, etc.), leveraging betas, insights, and support to drive performance improvements.
  
• Team Leadership & Direction: Provide direction and guidance to paid media specialists or agency partners. Set priorities, review performance, and ensure high standards of execution across the team.
  
• Continuous Improvement: Stay up to date with industry trends, platform updates, and new opportunities. Proactively test new approaches and scale what works to drive incremental growth.

REQUIREMENTS

Minimum

• Minimum 3+ years of experience managing large-scale paid media campaigns, including hands-on experience with PPC, display, and social ads across platforms such as Google, Meta, and others.
• Proven experience in B2C marketing, both paid and organic, ideally within the tech, education, or SaaS sectors, with a strong focus on lead generation and acquisition (e-commerce considered).
• Advanced analytical skills: Strong command of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager (including consent management), and other web analytics platforms. Ability to analyze campaign performance, conduct competitive and keywords analysis, and use insights to drive optimizations.
• Experience with budgeting and forecasting: Comfortable managing multi-million rand annual budgets and optimizing spend for maximum ROI.
• Creative and Strategic Mindset: Experience in A/B testing, creative optimization, and developing strategies for different stages of the customer journey.
• Excellent communication skills: Ability to clearly articulate complex ideas and campaign results to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience with CRM and marketing automation tools is a plus, as is familiarity with email marketing, landing page optimization, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).
• Action-oriented with a “roll up your sleeves approach”
• A self-starter: You should be able to work independently, manage your time effectively, and drive results in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Preferred

• Experience with scaling ATL advertising budgets
• Experience with BigQuery/SQL used with GA4 is a plus
• Experience leading the marketing of a product to a category leader in the education market
• Knowledge of Search Engine Optimization
• Knowledge of design tools such as Figma

BENEFITS

Hybrid work: We are a hybrid work organisation offering flexibility on your schedule. Remote working options are available for candidates not in proximity of a HyperionDev Campus

Learn new tech skills: We offer our employees the opportunity to enrol part-time in our Coding Bootcamps.

Join the heart of tech in Africa, Europe and the US: You'll work with the best of the best and rub shoulders with the world leaders in edtech, developer education, and developer assessments. Join one of the most ambitious and highest-performing tech companies in the space, with a management team that draws their former experience from top tech companies.

Life-changing work: Solve real problems that make education and tech careers accessible to those who need it most: you're allowed to brag about it.

OUR VALUES

We're a people-forward company with a purpose that underlines everything we do. We're obsessed with the potential in people and challenge them to do their best work. We embrace a culture of growth and learning to deliver on our vision and ours is a relentless quest for improvement.