Senior Director, Planning
San Francisco, CA - USA
Job Summary
Agency:
PHdJob Function:
MediaJob Subfunction:
Media Planning and BuyingJob Description:
Senior Director of Media Planning
The Role
Were looking for a Senior Director of Media Planning who will lead our planning practice set strategic standards across the agency and drive client outcomes through integrated full-funnel thinking. Youll own the P&L for assigned accounts mentor a team of planners and leaders and champion a planning philosophy that moves the industry forward. Youll be our strategic voice in the roomwith clients with leadership and across the agency.
This is a leadership role where your strategic thinking shapes not just individual client success but how our entire planning practice operates.
What Youll Do
Strategic Practice Leadership
- Develop and champion our integrated media planning philosophy (CULTURE COMMUNITY CONVERSION) across all client relationships and new business
- Set planning standards and best practices that define how we approach strategy measurement and client partnership
- Build proprietary frameworks and methodologies that differentiate our planning approach competitively
- Lead thought leadership: position the agency in industry conversations around effectiveness media strategy and consumer behavior
- Influence agency offerings: work with leadership to evolve our services capabilities and client value proposition
Client & Account Leadership
- Own P&L for assigned strategic accounts; drive revenue growth profitability and client satisfaction
- Lead account strategy at C-suite level: position yourself as a business partner and strategic advisor not a media vendor
- Challenge client briefs systematically: identify gaps in their media strategy and propose comprehensive solutions that move them beyond conventional thinking
- Build custom media architectures based on business objectives competitive dynamics and consumer journeymoving beyond category norms
- Own client outcomes: ensure integrated planning translates into seamless execution and measurable business results
Team & Talent Development
- Build and lead a high-performing planning team (including Associate Directors and Planners) creating a culture of strategic rigor and excellence
- Mentor leaders and emerging talent toward integrated systems-based thinking
- Establish planning processes and standards that elevate work across the practice
- Develop career paths and succession plans; attract top planning talent to the agency
- Champion continuous learning: foster a team that stays current on research effectiveness studies and media landscape evolution
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Partner with Creative Insights Analytics and Commerce to embed planning in all agency work
- Lead integrated pitch teams and new business development; position planning as the foundation of agency strategy
- Collaborate with Buying Research and other departments to ensure strategic plans execute flawlessly
- Shape client briefing processes: embed full-funnel thinking into how we scope plan and measure work
Business Development & Growth
- Contribute to new business pitches and RFP responses positioning our planning philosophy as a competitive advantage
- Identify growth opportunities within existing accounts; propose expanded scope and services based on strategic insights
- Build reputation as a thought leader: speak at industry events contribute to research and elevate agency profile in planning circles
What Were Looking For
Strategic & Leadership Competencies
- Systems thinker: You understand how brands grow. You connect media strategy to business outcomes consumer psychology and long-term brand equity. You can architect integrated strategies that balance short-term performance with long-term brand building.
- Strategic leader: You set direction make tough calls and inspire teams toward ambitious outcomes. You mentor with conviction. You raise standards.
- Client strategist: You think like a business partner not a vendor. You challenge clients respectfully defend recommendations with data and logic and build trust through strategic rigor.
- Practice builder: Youre not just executing plansyoure building capability setting standards and shaping how an entire team approaches planning.
- Business acumen: You understand P&L profitability and how to grow client revenue. You balance strategic ambition with financial discipline.
- Communication: You distill complexity into clarity. You present strategy with conviction to clients teams and leadership. You inspire alignment.
Experience & Skills
- 15 years of media planning experience with 5 years in a senior leadership role managing planning teams and/or P&L
- Proven track record of leading integrated campaigns that drive both brand growth and performance results
- Deep expertise across traditional digital social programmatic and emerging channels
- Strong understanding of media measurement attribution analytics and effectiveness research
- Demonstrated ability to develop talent and build high-performing strategic planning teams
- Experience leading new business development and shaping agency offerings
- Proficiency with media planning and analytics tools; comfortable with data-driven decision making
- P&L management experience; comfortable owning revenue margin and profitability
Ideal Profile
- You have a point of view on how advertising works and have shaped industry thinking (through writing speaking or influence)
- Youre deeply familiar with effectiveness research (Binet & Fields Byron Sharp IPA effectiveness) and apply it to planning
- Youve built a planning practice or elevated planning capability within an agency
- Youve challenged conventional wisdom and moved clients toward more sophisticated strategies
- Youre comfortable with ambiguity change and the tension between strategic purity and commercial reality
- You want to mentor others raise planning standards and build something meaningfulnot just execute plans
- You attract top talent and create an environment where planners want to grow
What We Offer
- Strategic influence across the agencyyour ideas shape how planning is done across all accounts
- Leadership of a talented ambitious planning team committed to excellence
- P&L accountability and the opportunity to drive meaningful business growth
- A platform to shape industry thinking: invest in research speak at conferences contribute to the conversation
- Partnership with agency leadership to evolve our capabilities services and client value proposition
- Exposure to marquee clients complex business challenges and strategic opportunities
- Professional development: investment in research certifications and industry engagement
- Competitive compensation benefits and equity participation (based on agency structure)
- A collaborative culture where strategic thinking is valued and excellence is the standard
The Bottom Line
Youre not managing plansyoure leading a practice. Youre shaping how an entire team approaches strategy how clients think about media and how the agency competes. You understand that the best media planning integrates brand and performance challenges conventional thinking and drives both business outcomes and long-term brand equity. You develop leaders attract talent and set standards. If you think strategically at scale lead with conviction and want to build a planning practice that changes the industrythis is the role for you.
$150000-$210000
Omnicoms policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager. Our objective is to increase this requirement over time and many of our agencies as well as Omnicoms corporate group already require five days of in-office attendance.
Omnicom is committed to hiring and developing exceptional talent. We agree that talent is uniquely distributed and were focused on developing inclusive teams that can bring the best solutions to everything we do. We strongly believe that celebrating what makes us different makes us better together. Join uswe look forward to getting to know you. We will process your personal data in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice.
Link to Recruitment Privacy Notice: US Job Seekers:
It is the policy of Omnicom and any of its affiliates to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race religion color ethnic origin gender gender identity age marital status veteran status sexual orientation disability or any other basis prohibited by applicable federal state or local law. EOE/AA/M/D/V/F.
Required Experience:
Exec
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