Sr Director II, Connections & Media - Stills

What You'll Do for Us

• Holistic Media Strategy & Planning: Turn the unified media vision into integrated, actionable media plans for NAOU. Lead the development of holistic omni‑channel media strategies that align with brand marketing objectives and commercial goals. Ensure each plan is audience‑centric and platform‑specific, building best‑in‑class connection plans across paid (e.g. TV, digital, mobile, search, OOH, print), earned (PR, influencers, organic social), owned (websites, apps, packaging, loyalty platforms), and shared (retail partnerships, shopper touchpoints) channels.
  
  Balance upper‑funnel brand‑building tactics with lower‑funnel commerce and conversion‑driving tactics in a cohesive plan.
• Media Investment & Activation Oversight: Oversee the end‑to‑end media buying and activation process across all channels, ensuring efficient investment and high‑impact execution. Lead the development of media budget allocation and channel mix recommendations, guided by data and past performance. Direct media investment strategy and negotiations – including emerging areas like retail media networks and shoppable media – working closely with media agencies and vendors to secure optimal deals and value‑added opportunities.
  
  Manage day‑to‑day execution through agency partners, ensuring campaigns launch on time and deliver against KPIs. Continuously monitor in‑flight media performance (e.g., pacing, quality, brand safety), and adjust tactics or spend as needed to maximize ROI and yield.
• Data‑Driven Audience Planning & Insights: Leverage business and consumer data to inform smarter media planning and audience targeting. Work with Analytics and Data Science teams to interpret customer insights, purchase behavior, and segmentation studies, shaping audience strategies that pinpoint who we should engage, when, and on which platforms. Apply advanced analytics (such as look‑alike modeling, propensity scoring, or using our first‑party data and unified data platform) to refine targeting and personalize messaging across media channels.
  
  Ensure media plans are built on clear data‑driven insights – for example, identifying high‑value consumer cohorts for a brand and aligning media touchpoints to their path‑to‑purchase. Use these insights to brief agencies on targeting parameters and to challenge old assumptions (e.g., testing new channels or formats for harder‑to‑reach audiences).
• Measurement & Analytics Integration: Embed measurement and analytics into every media initiative to track performance and inform optimization. Partner with the Marketing Analytics/Insights team to utilize tools like marketing mix modeling (MMM), multi‑touch attribution, brand lift studies, and competitive spend analysis, in order to gauge program impact across revenue, brand equity, and shopper engagement. Set clear KPIs and success metrics for each campaign upfront (e.g., ROAS, incremental sales lift, brand health metrics) and ensure the appropriate tracking is in place.
  
  Post‑campaign, lead rigorous analyses and post‑mortems – assessing results versus targets, understanding drivers of success or shortfall, and extracting learnings. Incorporate learnings into future planning cycles, creating a continuous improvement loop. If a campaign under‑delivers, pinpoint whether it was strategy, creative, or execution, and recommend data‑backed adjustments moving forward.
• Cross‑Functional Alignment & Integration: Serve as the primary bridge between the media function and other teams (Brand Marketing, IMX, Creative Content, Commercial/Shopper Marketing, etc.) to ensure media strategies are fully integrated into broader marketing plans. Participate in brand and campaign planning meetings to represent media opportunities and constraints, helping shape briefs and creative ideas that will work across different channels. Translate business objectives and marketing priorities into actionable media briefs for the team and agencies – for example, if a brand's goal is to drive trial among a new demographic, translate that into an audience‑first media approach with specific channel tactics.
  
  Communicate complex media concepts and consumer behavior trends in simple,…