Wavelength Strategy — Director of Paid Media

Wavelength Strategy is a boutique digital firm dedicated to elevating digital persuasion and paid media strategy for Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations. Our team combines decades of campaign management and digital communications experience to help our clients move the voters they need to win.

Our approach is:

• Creative-first. To change minds and win elections, we need to do more than reach the right voters: We need to speak their language. We believe the goal of digital advertising’s targeting capabilities should be to tailor content—from issue to treatment to messenger—to the voter and the platform where it’s served.

• Immersive. We’re committed to full integration and concierge service for our clients, and we’re discerning about the number and kind of clients we work with. We believe that the best results come from knowing a campaign in and out, being part of every strategy conversation, and taking the time to make higher quality creative—from scripts to finished products.

• Cutting-edge. We’ve partnered with platforms and third-party vendors to develop state-of-the-art testing and modeling on measurable persuasion metrics as well as performance testing. Our mission is to migrate digital goals to broader campaign goals: moving the needle and winning.

About the role

As Director of Paid Media your day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Serving as the cross-departmental representative for the media team. You will create and refine processes that allow the company to produce and execute the strongest, clearest strategies at the pace that politics requires.
• Managing and allocating projects across deputy directors of paid media. As the head of the paid media department, you will be responsible for ensuring the full team is equipped to launch, QA, and report on all media programs accurately and promptly.
• Supervising, participating in, and regularly adapting the full campaign operations process: Media program scoping, media planning, trafficking, QA, launch, and reporting.
• Developing full-service, cross-channel media plans that integrate in-house media buying platforms (Meta, Google Ads, Programmatic) and managed service vendors and publishers.
• Working closely with partners, data, and media strategists to develop thoughtful and data-informed digital media plans that align with clients’ goals, whether persuasion, mobilization, or awareness.
• Designing targeting universes using the Voter File and other online data sources.
• Interfacing directly with media publishers and advertising partners to source inventory, negotiate rates, gauge value, and integrate their offerings into our media plans.
• Producing and reviewing client-facing reports that tell a clear narrative on a program’s progress and success.
• Trafficking and QAing ads in Meta Ads, Google Ads, Snap, and CM360. While your team will manage day-to-day campaign management, you’ll support this work when necessary.
• Overseeing ongoing performance, optimization, and regular reporting to track results towards our clients’ goals.
• Playing an active role developing and improving media team processes, and communicating department needs to other department staff and senior leadership.

About you

At Wavelength, we pride ourselves on cultivating a management-forward, mission-driven, and empowering environment that sets every member of our team up for success—and we want to work with people who are just as committed to those values. The ideal person for this role:

• Has a strong and clear philosophy on the political paid media landscape, the developing place of digital in that landscape
• Has experience structuring, hiring, and managing a political paid media team and developing its processes.
• Has 6+ years experience in media planning, trafficking, planning, and reporting on paid digital media campaigns from start-to-finish, especially for persuasion and mobilization.
• Has 2+ years experience managing a team of media strategists, planners, or buyers. Experience managing managers is a plus, but not required.
• Has a high degree of proficiency in Google Ads and Meta Ads Manager. Experience in a programmatic DSP and/or Campaign Manager 360 is a plus, but not required.
• Has interest in using campaign research and data to develop successful paid media strategies, pinpoint audience targets, and match messages to the right voters.
• Has significant experience building ad reports, including exporting and manipulating platform data, building concise and informative reporting tables, and outlining meaningful and actionable insights that reflect the data presented.
• Relishes opportunities to test, optimize, analyze, and apply learnings within and across campaigns, and uses metrics to determine actions and measure progress towards goals.
• Is eager to grow, learn, try big ideas, share knowledge, and keep up to date with industry best practices and cutting-edge techniques.
• Pays obsessive attention to detail and has exceptional organization and project management skills, particularly with managing and tracking large-scale media budgets, and pacing and optimizing a high volume of campaigns simultaneously.
• Thrives in fast-paced, high-pressure environments and can unfailingly meet tight deadlines with minimal errors.
• Demonstrates initiative, works collaboratively, and willingly contributes to the team, including pitching in wherever work needs to be done.
• Is passionate about Democratic politics and progressive issues, and is fired up about helping win elections in 2026.

Employment details

• Location: Wavelength Strategy is headquartered in Washington, DC but this position will be flexible, remote though a strong preference for a candidate based on the East Coast.
• Employee status: Full-time, exempt
• The minimum salary expectation for this position is $120,000, dependent on relevant experience.
• Health care: 100% employer-paid; includes vision and dental

Wavelength Strategy is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people from all backgrounds to apply. Wavelength celebrates diversity and is committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills, and to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status, pregnancy or related condition, or any other basis protected by law. Wavelength’s hiring and employment decisions are based solely on a person’s merit and qualifications.