Digital Media Director

About KEN

KEN is a media agency that uses data and cultural instinct to build campaigns that evoke emotion, spark curiosity and forge lasting connections. Our belief is simple: everything is media. We work across sound, sight, touch, scent and taste to deliver results that last and can be measured.

Our work starts with three questions: where the brand is going, who we're reaching and what's out there in the media landscape. From there we deliver cross-channel media strategy, retail and commerce media, multi-touch attribution, consumer journey mapping, audience building, flowchart management and in-flight optimization and reporting.

Role Overview

We're looking for a senior, client-facing digital media leader to lead digital and retail media across KEN's roster, from planning to the final report. Embedded in our office as part of the team, you'll find the digital and commerce opportunity in every brief, build it into the plan and make sure it gets delivered and measured.

You'll partner with our Head of Media on the digital side of pitches and RFPs and act as the senior digital point of contact for clients. You'll work with the digital execution team that handles media activation, packaging every plan so it's delivered well and reported clearly. You'll also set the standards, playbooks and training that grow KEN's in-house digital capability.

Role details

The Digital Media Director reports to the Head of Media. This is an on-site, full-time at the KEN office in Austin, Texas.

Key Responsibilities

• Client Leadership: Act as the senior digital point of contact for KEN’s clients. Meet with clients to discuss strategy, present results, guide ongoing updates and recommend new channels or products that fit their goals.
• Partnership with the Head of Media: Work closely with KEN's Head of Media to align digital with each client's overall media strategy, share pitch and account priorities and present a single, integrated plan.
• Retail Media and Commerce: Lead retail media planning and help build KEN's retail media offering. Build retail media strategies across on-site and off-site inventory (Amazon Ads and DSP, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, Instacart, Kroger Precision Marketing and emerging retail media networks) that tie brand building to sell-through. Plan joint business plans and co-op investments with retail partners, use closed-loop sales data and clean rooms (such as Amazon Marketing Cloud) to measure incremental sales and connect retail media to the client's broader brand and media plan.
• Amazon Ads: Own Amazon strategy, budget setting and pacing within the total media plan, including tentpole flighting for Prime Day, Big Deal Days and key product launches. Lead Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, from campaign structure and keyword and audience targeting to bid, budget and placement optimization, headline placements, Store traffic drivers and video units. Plan and optimize Amazon DSP across programmatic display, online video and OTT on Fire TV. Report Amazon performance in the same dashboard as the rest of the plan, tracking ROAS, ACOS, TACOS, new-to-brand and branded search lift and brief Bakery on creative specs and assets for Sponsored Brands and DSP units.
• Pitch Support: Partner with the Head of Media on the digital and retail media part of new-business and organic-growth pitches. Build the digital recommendation, present it alongside KEN leadership and help scope deliverables, budgets and timelines.
• Organic Growth: Set retention and growth goals for the digital part of each account and spot ways to expand digital and retail media programs with existing clients.
• Digital Planning: Review incoming client opportunities and prepare a summary for leadership. Build cross-channel digital plans (programmatic, CTV/OTT, paid social, creator and influencer amplification, search, digital audio, DOOH, retail media) that connect to KEN's wider media strategy, audience work and consumer journey mapping. Use approved advertising intelligence and sales enablement platforms in new pitches and opportunities.
• Data and Audiences: Advise clients on first-party data, audience activation and conversion APIs and support clean room work as KEN's capabilities grow. Keep plans compliant with evolving privacy rules and signal loss.
• Package and Hand-off: Turn every approved digital media plan into a clear, complete brief for the strategy and activation teams: objectives, audiences, channel-level budgets, flowcharts, KPIs and measurement framework, creative specs and timing. Be the bridge between the client team and the digital execution team so nothing gets lost.
• Creative Partnership: Work with Bakery Agency on digital and retail creative specs, asset timelines and testing plans so creative is built for each platform and placement.
• Campaign Delivery: Work with the execution team on budgets, scope, asset collection, review and launch. Oversee quality and in-flight optimization and own the client conversation about digital performance by delivering regular, actionable insights that explain what's working, what isn't and what we're doing next.
• Digital Standards and Playbooks: Build and maintain KEN's digital campaign playbooks, pacing documents, optimization logs, naming conventions and dashboards so every account runs to the same standard.
• Measurement and QBRs: Lead post-campaign reporting and quarterly business reviews that are well structured, insight-driven and tied to client priorities. Advise on attribution modeling, incrementality testing and MTA.
• Pipeline Reporting: Track the digital part of every media pitch and active account (opportunity, status, spend, results) and report it regularly to the Head of Media, KEN leadership, partner leadership and the execution team so digital stays visible.
• Team Development: Mentor and train planners, strategists, buyers and assistants on digital and retail media. Review their work, help build their platform skills and support the team's growth as KEN scales.
• Tools and Technology: Recommend digital, retail media and AI tools that improve planning, measurement and efficiency and help the Head of Media evaluate their ROI.
• Escalation: Bring complex technical issues (advanced attribution, tracking, API integrations, media mix modeling) to the strategy and technology team and translate the answers into clear business value for clients.
• Process Improvement: Find and fix friction in workflows between KEN, its clients, Bakery and the execution team, including using AI to automate repeatable work.
• Industry Knowledge: Keep up with platforms, inventory, retail media networks, privacy rules and AI and bring new ideas to clients before they ask.

Requirements

Qualifications

• Our ideal candidate has the following qualifications. For the right candidate, we're willing to build a development plan to help bridge any gaps.
• 7+ years in digital media at an agency or in-house, with 3+ years in a senior, client-facing role.
• 2+ years planning and managing retail media programs, including hands-on Amazon Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP management through tentpole events like Prime Day, plus at least one other major retail media network (Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, Instacart, Kroger or similar).
• Experience contributing to the digital part of pitches and RFPs.
• Familiarity with planning and running campaigns across major platforms, such as DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, CM360, SA360, Meta, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, Google Ads, Spotify and Vistar.
• Experience designing cross-channel media plans for clients with complex KPIs, including sales and retail KPIs such as ROAS, iROAS, ACOS, TACOS and new-to-brand.
• Experience mentoring junior team members.
• A degree or diploma in business, marketing or communications, or equivalent industry experience.
• Required core skills
• Retail Media Expertise: Strong working knowledge of on-site and off-site retail media, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, keyword and bid strategy, retail DSPs, closed-loop measurement and clean rooms and how retail media works alongside brand and upper-funnel media.
• Leadership: Build and maintain strong relationships with all stakeholders in complex agency environments.
• Consultative Communication: Strong presentation skills and the ability to turn technical and data concepts into clear business value for senior clients.
• Brief Writing: You write tight, complete briefs that a separate team can run with.
• Measurement Fluency: Solid grasp of attribution, incrementality, tracking and reporting.
• Collaboration: You work smoothly across teams, connecting client-facing, creative and technical people.
• Organization: You keep many accounts and pitches moving at once, prioritize well and see projects through to the finish.
• Coaching: You enjoy teaching and raising the bar for the people around you.
• Curiosity: A real interest in digital advertising and the drive to keep learning as the industry changes.
• Nice to have
• Experience formally managing direct reports.
• Hands-on experience with clean rooms such as Amazon Marketing Cloud.
• Experience across three or more retail media networks.
• Experience in an embedded or hub agency model.
• Platform certifications (such as Amazon Ads, Google, Meta or The Trade Desk).
• Diversity
• We celebrate diversity on our team. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, veteran status or other considerations. Please let us know if you need any accommodations during the application process.