Director of Paid Media and Performance Marketing

Medela LLC

McHenry, IL (Three days on-site, two days home office)

www.medela.com

Salary Starting at $140K plus bonus

Lead Global Media Strategy. Drive Performance. Deliver Measurable Business Growth.

What Makes You Successful as our Director of Paid Media and Performance Marketing

You understand paid media from every angle. You're as comfortable discussing long-term media strategy with executive leadership as you are reviewing campaign performance, evaluating audience strategies, or challenging agency recommendations.

You bring expertise across:

• Paid media strategy
• Media planning
• Campaign execution and media buying
• Audience development and targeting
• Performance measurement and attribution
• Campaign optimization
• Budget management
• Agency leadership
• Data-driven decision making

You know how to connect media performance directly to commercial results and business growth.

-Are you the type of paid media leader who knows how to build the strategy—and then execute it? Have you personally developed media plans, optimized campaigns, managed agency partners, and transformed media investments into measurable business growth?

-We're seeking a Director of Paid Media and Performance Marketing to lead our global paid media strategy while owning media investment and performance across North America and priority focus markets.

This is a highly visible leadership role responsible for driving customer acquisition, demand generation, brand awareness, and profitable growth through innovative media strategies and data-driven decision making.

-As the company's paid media expert, you'll shape media strategy, lead our global media agency relationship, and partner with senior leaders across Marketing, Commercial Excellence, eCommerce, CRM, Sales, Finance, and Insights & Analytics to deliver measurable business results.

-We're looking for someone who has deep, hands-on experience across the entire paid media lifecycle—strategy, planning, execution, buying, measurement, and optimization—and who enjoys balancing strategic leadership with hands-on involvement to maximize performance.

What You'll Do as Director of Paid Media and Performance Marketing

Lead Paid Media Strategy

• Define, develop, and continuously evolve the company's global paid media strategy aligned with business objectives, commercial priorities, and brand strategy.
• Own global paid media investment strategy while providing governance and strategic leadership across priority markets.
• Develop annual paid media strategies and investment plans that support customer acquisition, demand generation, product launches, revenue growth, and market share objectives.
• Identify emerging media opportunities, advertising technologies, and innovative channels that strengthen competitive advantage.
• Establish paid media governance, channel standards, measurement methodologies, agency operating models, and best practices across markets.
• Serve as the company's paid media subject matter expert and trusted advisor to senior leadership.

Drive Performance Marketing

• Lead performance across the entire customer journey—from awareness and engagement through acquisition, conversion, retention, and customer lifetime value.
• Develop sophisticated audience strategies utilizing first-party data, CRM insights, remarketing, retention audiences, lookalike modeling, and lifecycle marketing.
• Continuously optimize targeting, creative, bidding strategies, channel mix, and budget allocation to maximize performance and return on advertising spend.
• Champion testing, experimentation, and continuous improvement across all paid media programs.

Lead Agency Partnerships

• Serve as the strategic owner of the company's global media agency relationship.
• Establish campaign objectives, KPIs, governance processes, and performance expectations.
• Conduct regular business reviews and hold agency partners accountable for delivering measurable business outcomes.
• Lead agency RFPs, evaluations, partner selection, onboarding, and contract negotiations.
• Provide informed direction and challenge agency recommendations through your own expertise across paid media strategy, planning, execution, measurement, and optimization.

Manage Media Investments

• Own North American paid media budget allocation and investment strategy across all paid channels.
• Optimize media investments to maximize customer acquisition, revenue growth, and marketing effectiveness.
• Partner with Finance on forecasting, investment planning, and business case development.
• Recommend investment adjustments based on campaign performance, commercial priorities, and market conditions.

Analytics & Measurement

• Partner with Digital Analytics & Insights to establish scalable reporting, dashboards, and KPI frameworks.
• Analyze campaign performance and customer behavior to identify actionable business opportunities.
• Present performance insights and investment recommendations to executive leadership.
• Champion a culture of accountability, measurement, and data-driven decision making.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Commercial Excellence, Brand Marketing, CRM, eCommerce (Amazon), Sales Leadership, Revenue Management, Finance, and Insights & Analytics.
• Ensure paid media investments support integrated product launches, commercial initiatives, revenue growth, customer acquisition, and profitability.
• Evaluate new advertising technologies and media platforms that improve performance and efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with company policies, privacy regulations, and brand standards.

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop members of the paid media team.
• Establish departmental priorities, objectives, and performance expectations.
• Foster a collaborative, innovative, commercially focused, and data-driven culture.
• Support hiring, onboarding, succession planning, and professional development.

What You'll Bring as Our Director of Paid Media and Performance Marketing

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, or a related field required.
• Master's degree preferred.
• Professional certifications in Google Ads, Meta Blueprint, Google Analytics, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, DV360, or related advertising platforms preferred.

Experience

• 8+ years of progressive experience in paid media, digital marketing, media strategy, or performance marketing.
• 3+ years of people leadership experience required.
• Demonstrated success developing and executing multi-channel paid media strategies.
• Strong North American paid media leadership experience with demonstrated success operating in matrixed organizations.
• Experience managing significant paid media budgets and optimizing investment performance.
• Proven success managing media agencies and strategic vendor relationships.
• Demonstrated experience leading media agency RFPs, agency evaluations, partner selection processes, and contract negotiations.
• Strong expertise across Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, DV360, YouTube, programmatic advertising, retail media, and emerging digital channels.
• Experience utilizing analytics to optimize campaign performance and media investments.
• Experience within healthcare, medical device, consumer products, or FMCG industries.
• Experience working within regulated environments preferred.

What We Offer Our Director of Paid Media and Performance Marketing

• Comprehensive benefits plan
• 401K with match
• Money Purchase Plan
• 16-week Paid Parental Leave
• Generous PTO package, plus 14 paid holidays
• The opportunity to shape the global paid media strategy for an innovative consumer brand
• A collaborative culture where your ideas and expertise make a measurable impact
• A great place to work!

At Medela, we are guided by our mission to turn science into care to nurture health for generations in everything we do. Through advancing research, observing natural behavior, and listening to our customers, we have become the healthcare choice for more than 6 million hospitals and homes worldwide, and remain committed to supporting millions of moms, families, patients, and healthcare professionals around the world by developing pioneering innovations for better outcomes.

If you are interested in this opportunity, we are looking forward to receiving your application. For this position we only consider direct applications, no recruiting firm submissions - thank you for your understanding.

As an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sex, protected veteran status, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, HIV/AIDs status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity (transgender status), weight, height or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law or ordinance.

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