Senior Manager, Audience Strategy & Activation

About the Role

The Hearst Corporate Data Team is seeking a Senior Manager, Audience Strategy & Activation to serve as the strategic link between Hearst''s enterprise audience platform and the commercial teams that bring its value to market. Reporting to the VP, Audience Analytics, this role will partner closely with Ad Sales and the Corporate Data Team to develop scalable audience products, enable revenue-generating sales opportunities, and operationalize enterprise audience activation across Hearst''s advertising ecosystem.

As Hearst continues to expand its enterprise identity and audience capabilities, this role will ensure those capabilities are translated into advertiser-ready solutions. You will identify audience opportunities, develop standardized audience offerings, create sales enablement materials, coordinate audience activation, and work across business and technical teams to maximize the commercial value of Hearst''s audience assets.

The ideal candidate combines expertise in audience strategy, advertising technology, and cross-functional program management with a strong understanding of digital advertising, consumer data, and audience activation platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Ad Sales, and client-facing teams to identify advertiser needs and develop scalable audience solutions that support revenue growth.

• Develop and maintain a portfolio of enterprise audience products, including standardized audience definitions, audience packages, and reusable audience segments that can be leveraged across Hearst''s consumer divisions.

• Create compelling sales enablement materials-including audience one-pagers, audience profiles, methodology documentation, and pitch materials-that clearly communicate audience composition, scale, insights, and business value.

• Collaborate with the VP, Audience Analytics to evaluate audience performance, identify new audience opportunities, and optimize audience offerings based on advertiser demand and campaign outcomes.

• Coordinate the activation of enterprise audiences across advertising platforms (GAM), clean rooms, demand-side platforms (DSPs), data management platforms (DMPs), and other activation technologies.

• Serve as the primary liaison between Audience Analytics, Ad Sales, Product, and Engineering, to ensure audiences are accurately built, documented, governed, and delivered.

• Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of enterprise audience products, including intake, prioritization, governance, documentation, activation, and ongoing optimization.

• Establish best practices, documentation standards, and governance processes for enterprise audience development and activation across Hearst.

Qualifications

• 6-10 years of experience in audience strategy, advertising technology, marketing technology, customer analytics, audience development, sales strategy, or digital media.

• Strong understanding of digital advertising ecosystems, audience segmentation, identity resolution, audience activation, and consumer data products.

• Experience partnering with Ad Sales, Sales Strategy, Marketing, Product, or Analytics teams to develop advertiser-facing solutions and support revenue-generating initiatives.

• Demonstrated ability to translate business needs into scalable audience products and operational workflows.

• Experience working with ad sales and other audience activation platforms, including CDPs, DMPs, DSPs, clean rooms, identity platforms, or other advertising technology solutions.

• Strong analytical skills with experience evaluating audience performance, campaign effectiveness, and audience utilization.

• Excellent project management and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to coordinate cross-functional initiatives across business and technical teams.

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including experience creating executive presentations, sales collateral, and client-facing documentation.

• Bachelor''s degree required; advanced degree preferred.

• Preferred experience in publishing, digital media, advertising technology, audience measurement, first-party data strategies, or enterprise audience platforms.

Compensation & Benefits

In accordance with applicable law, Hearst is required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role if hired in New York City. The reasonable estimate, if hired in New York City, is $180,000 to $200,000. Please note this information is specific to those hired in New York City. For candidates outside New York City, the salary range will be aligned with the specific location. A final decision on the successful candidate's starting salary will be based on a number of permissible, non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to skills, experience, training, certifications, and education. Hearst provides a competitive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, 401(k), paid holidays and paid time off, employee assistance programs, and more.