Associate Director, Retail Media Strategy

As the Associate Director of Retail Media Strategy
, you will be part of the Kinesso Commerce team and play a pivotal role in scaling our retail media services, capabilities, and talent across the IPG Mediabrands network. Acting as a functional expert and strategic consultant, you will help elevate the craft of commerce and full‑funnel retail media activation across onsite search, display, and offsite retail media.

• Act as a subject matter expert in retail media, sharing knowledge, best practices, and actionable recommendations with agency teams.
• Collaborate with eCommerce leadership to shape and support the agency’s ongoing & evolving approach to retail media.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with retail media partners like Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Loblaws Advance, and others. Stay up to date on new ad products, measurement tools, and capabilities, and identify relevant test‑and‑learn opportunities for clients.
• Co‑develop and continuously refine retail media strategies to meet client needs in line with emerging trends, platform updates, and shifting priorities.
• Support internal certification programs in partnership with external platforms.
• Support test‑and‑learn programs, case study development, and agency‑wide playbook evolution.

• Define and enforce campaign execution standards to ensure consistent quality across all clients and channels.
• Build scalable Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Quality Assurance (QA) practices to enable repeatable, high‑quality delivery.
• Consult with activation teams, using data and KPIs to guide campaign optimization and overall performance improvement.
• Monitor performance trends to identify opportunities and gaps; recommend strategic and operational improvements.

• Support onboarding of new clients with commerce‑specific onboarding processes and education.
• Provide strategic support for pitch planning and proposals, and client education sessions including retail media POVs and performance frameworks.

• Mentor and develop activation specialists and campaign managers across the agency.
• Champion a strong learning culture, leading knowledge‑sharing sessions and workshops.
• Scale best practices, frameworks, and tools across the IPG Mediabrands network, ensuring operational consistency and performance.

• Foster collaboration between craft teams (e.g., search, display, content, analytics) to ensure cohesive commerce strategy delivery.
• Partner across internal teams (e.g., Account, Analytics, Strategy) and specialty business units to ensure alignment and seamless operations to execution.
• Facilitate alignment and adoption of commerce solutions across inter‑agency and inter‑craft teams.

• Proven experience in planning and executing e‑commerce and retail media campaigns, with a successful track record of leading teams and managing in a matrixed environment; experience with large CPG clients is a strong asset.
• Deep passion for e‑commerce and retail media excellence, with expertise in campaign and budget optimization, media metrics, measurement, and data analysis to drive actionable recommendations.
• Hands‑on experience managing self‑serve campaigns on platforms such as Amazon Ads, Instacart Ads, Criteo, and Loblaws Advance.
• Strong understanding of retail media tools and channels, including onsite search, DSP and having worked with partners like Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Instacart, and Loblaws Advance.
• Experience developing and executing always‑on tactics, tentpole event strategies, and launch campaigns; skilled in crafting data‑driven proposals and strategic recommendations.
• Passionate and knowledgeable about retail media and digital marketing trends, emerging consumer tech capabilities.
• Skilled in retail media bid management tools (like Pacvue, Skai, Stackline, Intentwise); in‑depth Pacvue experience is a plus.
• Strong skills in presenting, communicating, and working directly with clients.
• Deep analytical ability to turn data into insightful and practical recommendations.
• Strategic thinker…