VP / SVP, Performance Media

Marketing · Senior Leadership Team · Reports to CMO · Remote (ET/CT time zone only)

The Opportunity

We are looking for an elite performance media leader to own every dollar we deploy in paid channels and to make those dollars work harder, smarter, and faster than they ever have. This is not a strategic oversight role. This is hands-on ownership: you will control channel mix decisions, drive real-time budget allocation, and directly move our most important growth metrics every single day.

You will partner with the creative team, manage our agency relationship, hold vendors accountable, and lead a high-performing team that matches your own obsession with performance.

Role at a Glance

Title: VP or SVP, Performance Media (level commensurate with experience)

Department: Marketing

Reports To: Chief Marketing Officer

Location: Remote (Eastern and Central time zones only)

Budget: Full paid media budget ownership across all channels and markets

Key Metrics You Will Own

Success in this role is not ambiguous. You will be held accountable to moving these numbers:

• ROAS
• CPL / CPCS
• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
• Media Efficiency Ratio (MER)
• Reach & Frequency Targets
• Budget Utilization Rate
• Channel Contribution
• Lead Generation Targets

What We're Looking For

Full-Funnel Paid Media Mastery

Proven, hands-on command of every major channel. Not delegated strategy, but working knowledge of mechanics and tradeoffs.

• Deep experience managing large-scale paid media across TV, Radio, CTV, OOH, Meta, Google, Direct Mail, and Print
• Understands channel mechanics well enough to challenge recommendations, identify inefficiencies, and make smart cross-channel tradeoffs
• Can speak to specific optimizations (bid adjustments, audience segmentation, dayparting, creative rotation), not just campaign concepts
• Comfortable moving budget quickly between channels when performance data demands it

Budget Ownership & Fiscal Discipline

Treats the media budget like their own money. High utilization without waste. Real-time decision-making without loss of efficiency.

• Track record managing significant paid media budgets with strong allocation discipline across channels and markets
• Maintains high budget utilization rates while protecting efficiency targets
• Comfortable making real-time spend decisions, scaling up on what works and pulling back on what doesn't, without waiting for weekly reviews
• Can build, defend, and adjust a media plan in response to business conditions, not just follow a preset schedule

Performance-Driven Mindset & Analytical Rigor

Numbers tell a story. This leader not only reads that story accurately but rewrites it through action.

• Fluent in ROAS, CPL/CPCS, CAC, MER, Reach & Frequency, Budget Utilization Rate, and Channel Contribution
• Can diagnose what is driving metric movement and prescribe the right response, not just report the numbers
• Uses data to influence internal stakeholders and agency partners with clarity and conviction
• Comfortable building and presenting performance narratives to executive audiences

Bidding Strategy & Acquisition Targeting

Sharp instincts for bidding, targeting, and setting realistic yet aggressive acquisition goals. Constant optimization, not set-it-and-forget-it.

• Hands-on experience with bidding strategy across paid search, social, programmatic, and direct response TV/audio
• Knows how to set acquisition targets that stretch the team without breaking efficiency guardrails
• Proactively adjusts targeting and bid strategies in response to competitive shifts, seasonality, and market performance
• Does not over-rely on agency recommendations; brings independent judgment and challenges assumptions

Creative Partnership & Test-and-Learn Discipline

Media and creative are one integrated feedback loop, not separate functions that hand off assets and hope for the best.

• Acts as a genuine creative partner: provides clear, data-backed briefs and feedback, not just acceptance of whatever assets come through
• Deeply wired for testing, always running structured experiments across messaging, format, offer, and audience
• Translates performance data into actionable creative direction and cycles learning back to the creative team quickly
• Has a strong point of view on what makes creative work in paid media and isn't afraid to push for it

Local & Tactical Variance Management

Enterprise targets matter, but so does every market. This leader manages performance at a granular level, filling the boards everywhere, not just hitting aggregate numbers.

• Understands that performance varies meaningfully by market and manages at that level of detail
• Actively monitors local channel mix, competitive intensity, and demand signals to adjust tactics by geography
• Ensures local operators are supported with the right media weight and that no market is underserved
• Builds reporting and accountability structures that surface market-level performance, not just rolled-up averages

Innovation Mindset: Test, Fail Fast, Move Forward

Always looking around corners. Proactively brings new channels, formats, and ideas, with the discipline to move fast on them.

• Regularly brings new channel and format proposals to the table with a clear test framework and success criteria
• Runs fast, structured pilots: allocates a meaningful test budget, sets a timeline, and makes a clear go/no-go call
• Kills what doesn't work without ego; scales what does without hesitation
• Keeps a finger on the pulse of the media landscape: emerging platforms, new ad formats, shifts in audience behavior

Agency Accountability: Challenging Tombras

Primary day-to-day owner of the Tombras media relationship. A respectful partner, but never a passive one.

• Sets a rigorous optimization roadmap and holds Tombras accountable to it on a daily and weekly basis
• Pushes back on recommendations, demands evidence, and drives the agenda; does not simply accept what the agency brings
• Owns the output, not just the relationship: if Tombras underperforms, this leader acts
• Structures the relationship to increase transparency, improve speed of optimization, and reduce dependency over time

Vendor & Media Partner Management

Beyond the agency: owns direct pay-per-lead relationships and actively grows the portfolio of lead-generation levers.

• Negotiates directly with media vendors and pay-per-lead partners, pushing for better rates, terms, and exclusivity
• Not beholden to any single partner; actively evaluates alternatives and uses competitive tension to drive better outcomes
• Continuously evaluates new vendor relationships that could expand lead generation capacity
• Manages vendor performance rigorously and is comfortable terminating underperforming relationships

Leadership, Culture & Willingness to Get in the Trenches

High energy, high standards, and not above the work. A builder and a collaborator, not just an executive.

• Drives a performance culture on the team: clear expectations, fast feedback loops, and accountability at every level
• Rolls up their sleeves and works alongside the team when it matters, getting into the data, the platform, and the problem
• Develops talent actively: invests in the growth of direct reports and raises the team's overall capability over time
• Creates a collaborative environment that attracts and retains strong performers

Executive Presence & ELT Readiness

Sits close to the ELT and earns influence by communicating performance with clarity, honesty, and conviction.

• Translates complex media performance into clear business narratives, knowing what to say and what to leave out
• Tells difficult stories with data: does not spin bad results, but frames them with context and a clear path forward
• Influences budget and strategy decisions at the senior level with credibility and preparation
• Represents the performance media function with authority while remaining a strong cross-functional collaborator

What We Are Not Looking For

We want to be explicit about what will not succeed in this role:

• A pure strategist who delegates the mechanics and relies entirely on the agency to handle day-to-day optimization
• Someone who is captured by their agency relationship, unwilling to push back, challenge, or escalate when performance falls short
• An executive who manages up well but is disconnected from what is actually happening in the platforms and the data
• Someone who chases enterprise averages at the expense of local market performance
• A passive creative consumer who accepts whatever assets they receive rather than driving a continuous test-and-learn loop
• Someone who needs a long runway to make decisions; this role rewards speed, judgment, and bias for action

Experience & Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years in performance media, with at least 5 years managing a full channel mix at scale across both digital and traditional channels
• Demonstrated budget ownership of $10M+ in annual paid media spend
• Hands-on experience with Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads, programmatic DSPs, and direct response TV/audio buying
• Proven track record of moving key performance metrics (ROAS, CPL, CAC, MER) meaningfully and consistently
• Experience managing an external media agency relationship, not just as a client, but as a performance-accountable partner
• Strong analytical skills: comfortable in data platforms, performance dashboards, and attribution tools
• Experience managing and developing a team of performance media professionals

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in a high-growth, multi-location consumer brand or service business
• Background in home services, home improvement, or a category with similar local-market media dynamics
• Experience with direct pay-per-lead vendor relationships and negotiation
• Familiarity with media mix modeling (MMM), incrementality testing, and multi-touch attribution
• Proficiency with BI tools such as Looker, Tableau, or comparable platforms
• Experience presenting media performance to C-suite and board-level audiences

Confidential Internal Use Only