Media Director

SUMMARY

We are looking for a smart, experienced, and motivated Media Director to join our San Diego team.

The Media Director is the planning team's standard-bearer for executional excellence and talent development. This role exists to ensure the media plans we deliver for clients are best-in-class in their rigor, their insight, and their outcomes - and that the planners delivering that work are growing, challenged, and supported every step of the way.

A great Media Director is a master of the craft, a trusted client partner, a sharp strategic thinker, and a leader who makes the people around them better. You don't just oversee the work - you elevate it, and you build the team capable of delivering it consistently.

This is a hybrid work from home/office position (in-office attendance is required on Tuesdays & Thursdays) and the candidate must live near San Diego, CA.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Media Knowledge

The Media Director is one of the agency's foremost media planning experts. Your knowledge is deep, current, and actively applied to raise the quality of work across your accounts and your team.

• Demonstrate expert, current knowledge of the full media ecosystem - digital and traditional - and apply it to direct, review, and elevate full-funnel media strategies across assigned accounts
• Set and enforce the standard for how research and planning tools are applied by the team: MRI/Simmons, YouGov, Commspoint, SimilarWeb, and MediaRadar should be used with expert-level rigor and consistently translated into sharp, differentiated strategic insights
• Lead complex budget scenario modeling, financial analysis, and investment strategy across assigned accounts, ensuring plans are both strategically ambitious and financially sound
• Stay current on the media landscape - proactively bringing forward emerging opportunities, platform evolutions, and industry shifts that create value for clients and strengthen the team's knowledge base
• Partner closely with the data and analytics team to ensure measurement frameworks and audience intelligence are embedded in how plans are built and evaluated - bringing an analytically rigorous lens to every stage of the planning process
• Use your expertise to identify gaps in the team's work, raise the bar on quality, and coach planners toward greater strategic sophistication on a consistent basis

Strategic Thinking & Planning

The Media Director owns strategic excellence across their accounts and actively develops the strategic capabilities of the planners they lead. You ensure that every plan reflects clear thinking, strong rationale, and a genuine commitment to client business outcomes.

• Own the strategic direction of media plans for assigned accounts - from audience strategy and channel strategy through budget allocation, measurement planning, and optimization - ensuring every plan is defensible, differentiated, and outcome-focused
• Apply a sophisticated, cross-channel perspective to planning - ensuring channels are not selected in isolation but work together to create connected brand experiences that drive business results
• Proactively identify strategic growth opportunities for clients - new channels, sharper audience strategies, stronger measurement approaches - and present them with a clear and compelling business case
• Lead the team in applying data and audience intelligence rigorously at every stage of planning, from initial brief through post-campaign analysis and learning, in close partnership with the analytics team
• Develop the strategic capabilities of the planners on your team through coaching, structured feedback, and shared ownership of the planning process
• Serve as the strategic lead for assigned accounts in cross-functional planning discussions, bringing a strong, informed, and well-reasoned media POV to the table
• Execute against the strategic vision and planning standards set by the agency while bringing your own expertise and leadership to bear on every account
• Serve as the strategic mentor for Associate Media Directors and Supervisors - actively guiding their strategy development, reviewing and sharpening their strategic recommendations, and building their capacity to own strategy independently over time

Communication

The Media Director is a confident, authoritative communicator who leads high-stakes client interactions with clarity and conviction and actively develops the communication skills of the planning team.

• Lead client presentations for assigned accounts with authority, strategic depth, and the ability to connect media strategy to client business goals in a way that builds confidence and earns trust
• Develop and oversee the creation of presentation materials that tell a strategically compelling story - connecting insights, strategy, channel rationale, and measurement into a clear and persuasive narrative
• Communicate complex media strategies - audience development, channel mix, measurement frameworks - in a way that is accessible and persuasive to senior client stakeholders across varying levels of media sophistication
• Coach and actively develop the communication skills of your team, providing specific and actionable feedback on both written materials and verbal presentations
• Represent the media planning team's POV with confidence in cross-functional agency discussions, serving as a strong advocate for strategic, integrated media thinking

Partnership

The Media Director builds and sustains strong client and partner relationships within their account portfolio and models what effective, value-creating partnership looks like for the team.

• Serve as a senior client partner on assigned accounts - building deep, trust-based relationships that position Shipyard as a strategic business partner invested in the client's success
• Manage key media vendor and partner relationships within your portfolio - leveraging them strategically to create meaningful value and competitive advantage for clients
• Partner closely with media investment leadership to ensure strategic alignment across planning and activation, driving integrated and outcome-focused work from plan development through execution
• Build a strong working relationship with the data and analytics team - ensuring plans are grounded in data intelligence and that measurement is built into the work from the start, not bolted on at the end
• Lead effective cross-functional collaboration with analytics, creative, comms/PR, brand planning, and client engagement - bringing a proactive, solutions-oriented approach to joint planning and problem-solving
• Support the leadership in key agency growth and new business contexts, contributing strategic media thinking and account-level expertise where needed

Team Development

The Media Director is a committed people leader who builds strong, capable planning teams and creates the conditions for planners to do their best work and grow into their next level.

• Directly manage Associate Media Directors and, in some cases, Media Supervisors - providing clear strategic direction, regular feedback, and meaningful coaching that drives both performance and growth
• Identify and develop high-potential team members, creating stretch opportunities that build their capabilities and prepare them for the next level of responsibility
• Build a team culture that values strategic rigor, intellectual curiosity, high standards, and genuine collaboration - and hold that standard consistently
• Set clear performance expectations and hold team members accountable with fairness, directness, and genuine care for their development
• Partner with media leadership on hiring decisions, onboarding, and team structure to ensure the planning function is staffed and developed for sustained excellence

WHAT YOU'LL GET

• The overall target range of base compensation for this role is $135,000 - $145,000. Compensation offered will be determined by additional factors such as location and experience.
• Open PTO
• 40 hours of paid sick time (annually)
• Flexible work hours and remote work
• Paid holidays + holiday closure between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day
• Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life insurance and disability benefits
• 401k program with employer matching
• 6 weeks paid parental leave
• Employee bonus referrals
• Dog-friendly offices
• Company-provided snacks and beverages (yes, beer/wine included)
• ... and lots more!