Director of Paid Media

Do you think in portfolios - not channels?

Does it bother you when a media team treats Amazon, Meta, and Google as three separate businesses with three separate budgets that never compete?

Are you the person who runs geo-holdouts before anyone asks, because you already know platform attribution is lying?

Freebird® is a 9-figure DTC brand serving over 2 million customers and redefining shaving for the modern consumer. We grow through paid media at scale - $50M+ annually across Meta, Google/YouTube, Amazon PPC, Walmart, and TikTok Shop. We need one person who owns all of it.

We're looking for a Director of Paid Media to lead our full ad portfolio: every channel, every dollar, one owner. You'll set the allocation strategy, build the measurement infrastructure, lead and develop the team, and drive sustainable customer acquisition and contribution margin growth across the full business.

This is not a channel manager role. This is a portfolio leadership role. You'll thrive here if you think in marginal dollars, build teams that operate without you in the seat, and treat incrementality as non-negotiable rather than aspirational.

If you own the full portfolio - and can prove it - keep reading.

What You'll Own

Ad Portfolio Performance

• Own $50M+ in annual ad spend across Meta, Google/YouTube, Amazon PPC, Walmart 1P & 3P, and TikTok Shop - every dollar under one owner.
• Treat all channels on equal footing: the marginal Amazon dollar competes directly with the marginal Meta or Google dollar. No channel gets protected budget.
• Maintain portfolio-level efficiency targets: blended CAC, CM after marketing >= 40%, Amazon TACOS <= 12%.
• Deliver sustained improvements in new customer acquisition, contribution margin, and profitable revenue growth across the full portfolio.

Capital Allocation

• Build annual, quarterly, monthly, and promotional investment plans across all channels - grounded in company revenue targets, contribution margin, inventory, and growth objectives.
• Determine where the marginal dollar goes using incrementality data, MMM outputs, and blended business results - not channel-level metrics or platform attribution.
• Connect channel investment to downstream subscription performance: different channels produce subscribers with different LTV and churn profiles. Allocate accordingly - not just on first-order CAC.
• Make confident allocation decisions with imperfect data; document the case and revisit as evidence accumulates.

Incrementality and Measurement

• Build and run a geo-holdout and incrementality testing program that proves what each channel is actually generating - not what platform attribution claims.
• Partner with Growth Analytics to operationalize MMM as the live arbitration layer for marginal spend decisions across the full portfolio.
• Reconcile platform-reported numbers against platform-agnostic measurement; define which signals drive decisions and which are context only.
• Build measurement resilience as platform signals erode: first-party audiences, CRM-seeded targeting, and modeled conversion approaches that reduce dependence on platform attribution.

Team Leadership

• Lead channel buyers, analysts, and external agency relationships without becoming the primary operator in any account.
• Absorb the Amazon PPC buyer into the Paid Media team; establish weekly buyer reviews, branded-first strategy, and budget authority at the Director level.
• Develop strategic leaders - build promotion paths, delegate decision-making authority, and create real accountability at the buyer and manager level.
• Evaluate the TikTok Shop agency relationship: own, restructure, or replace.

Performance Creative Partnership

• Develop a strong point of view on the creative strategies required to unlock performance across Meta, Google/YouTube, TikTok, and Amazon listing surfaces.
• Translate media insights into actionable creative briefs, feedback, and prioritization - including channel-specific and audience-specific angles.
• Identify creative fatigue, messaging trends, and audience signals; partner with Performance Creative on what to test and build next.
• Shape the cross-channel creative portfolio: the formats, messages, creators, and asset types needed to unlock performance across current and future channels.

Portfolio Expansion

• Sequence and launch international market expansion with market-specific creative, attribution environments, and fulfillment constraints accounted for before committing scale spend.
• Build disciplined testing frameworks with clear hypotheses, success criteria, measurement plans, and scaling thresholds before committing material budget.
• Develop a retail media strategy across Walmart Connect and emerging retail media networks - not just the supply chain relationship, but the ad inventory opportunity.
• Build the roadmap for expansion into TV/CTV, offline, native, direct mail, and other emerging channels based on incrementality, measurement readiness, and business impact.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with the Amazon GM on promo calendar, catalog, and operational context while keeping all spend decisions inside Paid Media with clear guardrails.
• Work with Creative, Analytics, CRO, Retention, Finance, and executive leadership to improve company-wide growth.
• Communicate performance clearly across all channels: what changed, why it changed, what was learned, what action to take.
• Operate as a trusted business leader whose decisions reflect the needs of the overall business - not any individual channel's metrics.

What Success Looks Like

• Portfolio blended CAC and CM after marketing improve year over year - across the full portfolio, not one channel.
• Amazon TACOS holds at or below 12%; CM after marketing holds at or above 40%.
• Incrementality testing program is live and actively driving allocation decisions - not sitting in a deck.
• MMM is operationalized as a live decision tool in partnership with Growth Analytics.
• The paid media team has clear ownership at every level - you are not the primary operator in any account.
• New channels (international, retail media, CTV) are launched with clear hypotheses, measurement plans, and scaling thresholds - not instinct alone.

Requirements

We are looking for someone who:

• Has personally managed marginal dollar allocation across Meta, Google, Amazon, and at least one additional channel simultaneously, treating them as competing inputs to a single portfolio - not separate businesses. Non-negotiable.
• Has designed and run geo-holdout and incrementality tests to prove what channels are actually generating beyond platform attribution. Non-negotiable for a role with halo dynamics across channels.
• Has worked with or built mixed-media models as a live decision tool - not just a retrospective exercise.
• Actively architects campaigns for algorithmic performance - Advantage+, Performance Max, and similar systems - rather than just not disrupting them; has a clear point of view on when to intervene and can defend it.
• Deep understanding of contribution margin, CAC, LTV, payback periods, TACOS, and halo-capture mechanics; comfortable partnering with FP&A on forecast models rather than defaulting to channel-reported revenue.
• Understands how channel and creative mix shapes downstream subscriber LTV, churn rate, and payback period - makes spend decisions that reflect long-term subscriber value, not just cheapest initial conversion.
• Has developed buyers, analysts, and managers into strategic leaders without staying in the operator seat - demonstrates real delegation and accountability, not oversight in name only.
• Strong creative instincts across paid social, search, and retail surfaces; provides actionable feedback that improves performance, not just directional preference.
• Translates multi-channel complexity into clear business recommendations; earns credibility with executive leadership without defaulting upward on decisions that belong to the role.
• Experience scaling TV/CTV, offline, native, direct mail, or emerging channels.
• International market expansion - launching paid programs in new markets with market-specific creative and attribution constraints.
• Experience building an in-house incrementality and MMM function from scratch.

Benefits

• Remote-first & flexible.
• Medical, dental & vision insurance. Health coverage for you and your family.
• 401(k) with company match
• Unlimited PTO. Recharge when you need it.
• Own meaningful outcomes.
• Move fast and make an impact. Join a profitable, high-growth brand where great ideas quickly become reality.
• Autonomy with accountability. You'll have the freedom to make decisions, build systems, and drive results.
• No politics, just execution. We value ownership, collaboration, and solving problems together.
• Kind and people-focused culture. We communicate openly, support each other, and celebrate wins together.
• We embrace growth and change, never settle, and continuously improve.
• We move fast, keep it simple, and innovate without fear.

Originally posted on Himalayas