Open Vacancy: This role is a current, active position and we are accepting applications.
Our client is an independently owned omnichannel marketing agency focused on driving shopper conversion and sales lift through insight-led and data-driven marketing. Our clients are based in Canada and the U.S.
Our client is seeking an experienced media planner who combines strategic thinking, analytical rigour and confident client communication with hands-on delivery discipline. You will strengthen their planning and media team, support a major beverage account and lead the day-to-day media work for other assigned clients.
This is an individual-contributor Manager role with significant client, partner and campaign leadership responsibilities. The role may provide functional direction and coaching to execution specialists.
Under senior leadership, you will drive media planning and performance for a major beverage account while owning day-to-day briefs, planning, and reporting for other agency clients. You will lead agency-side Amazon DSP strategy—transitioning from an external managed service to guiding an internal specialist. Collaborating across client, creative, and media teams, this is an active campaign-ownership role rather than a coordination position or full-time DSP trader.
Responsibilities
Strategic Planning & Channel Management
- Translate business objectives, shopper insights, and briefs into audience definitions, channel roles, budgets, flighting, and measurable outcomes.
- Connect paid social, search/SEM, programmatic, retail media networks (RMNs), and online video to pre-shop, retail, and foodservice/on-premises journeys.
- Apply regional and linguistic market dynamics, recommending channels based strictly on brief requirements.
- Develop clear client presentations and obtain agency leadership approval on recommendations.
Media Planning & Buying
- Brief vendors, assess audience evidence, challenge targeting and forecasts, compare proposals, and negotiate recommendations.
- Prepare booking instructions and secure required approvals before spending.
- Manage partner delivery against approved media plans.
Campaign Development & Execution
- Own media workback schedules, asset specifications, trafficking handoffs, tracking briefs, and launch-readiness checklists.
- Coordinate deliverables alongside assigned Account Directors and Project Managers.
- Obtain partner quality-assurance evidence to confirm campaigns reflect approved dates, budgets, targeting, and creative.
Data Analysis & Reporting
- Monitor pacing, delivery quality, and results, investigating discrepancies and turning partner data into actionable client recommendations.
- Distinguish attributed results from true incremental business impact while clearly stating measurement limitations.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Bring media implications into strategy and creative planning early, aligning pre-shop media with retail and on-premises activation.
- Coordinate media requirements and handoffs while creative production and physical rollout remain with designated owners.
Budget Management
- Maintain planned, committed, and actual spend across media, data, technology, and service fees to flag variances early.
- Reconcile delivery and invoices, preparing vendor commitments for authorized approval within designated signing limits.
- Support project scoping and fee estimates, identifying potential scope, budget, or resourcing implications before additional work proceeds.
Workflow & Compliance
- Keep estimates, actual hours, dependencies, decisions, and approvals current in project management systems.
- Maintain reusable planning and reporting templates.
- Verify brand, privacy, category, and platform requirements with appropriate owners prior to campaign launch.
Occasional business travel within Canada and USA may be required for client or partner meetings.
Amazon DSP Strategy & Partner Ownership
Amazon DSP expertise is an essential part of this agency-wide role. You must be able to develop the strategic recommendation, direct execution specialists and explain performance. DSP is considered where it fits the client and brief; it is not a default channel for every account.
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Strategic Planning: Define campaign objectives, audience strategies (prospecting/remarketing), supply/format choices, flighting, and reach/frequency models, integrating Amazon DSP with broader search and commerce plans.
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Managed-Service Briefing: Specify campaign parameters, targeting, investment, tracking, and guardrails in partner briefs, actively challenging assumptions on costs and deliverables.
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Activation & Optimization: Oversee setup checks, pacing, and audience/supply performance, providing clear optimization direction and escalating issues promptly.
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Measurement & Verification: Set success metrics, validate data availability pre-launch, and evaluate reach, media quality, and conversion while questioning attribution windows and reporting gaps.
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Governance & Future Capability: Obtain leadership approvals for plan changes, maintain change logs and learnings, and lead knowledge transfer as the agency transitions to internal DSP capabilities.
Prior hands-on Amazon DSP execution is valuable, but daily platform operation is not the primary requirement for this hire. Demonstrated ownership of Amazon DSP planning and performance is required; Sponsored Ads-only experience does not satisfy this requirement.
What You Bring
- 6+ years of media, shopper-channel, or integrated planning experience at the manager level within an agency or specialist partner environment.
- Deep understanding of media, retail-media, and shopper landscapes across grocery, convenience, liquor, and foodservice/on-premises occasions, including regional/linguistic nuances and major retail-media buying models, inventory, and measurement.
- Proven track record in Amazon DSP strategy, audience development, supply selection, budgeting, managed-service oversight, and partner optimization (candidates should be prepared to discuss non-confidential examples).
- Strong planning skills across paid social, programmatic, search/SEM, and retail media, backed by a solid grasp of shopper insights, CRM, and e-commerce funnels.
- Confidence leading day-to-day client media discussions, building persuasive recommendations, and exercising sound independent judgment within approved boundaries.
- Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills, precise budget management, vendor-cost scrutiny, and insightful performance reporting.
- Disciplined project management across concurrent briefs, live campaigns, and deadlines, with the ability to estimate effort, prioritize, and flag capacity/scope risks early.
- Constructive approach to challenging assumptions, holding partners accountable, and providing clear direction to internal and external teams.
- Degree in marketing, communications, or a related field or equivalent experience.
Additional Strengths
- Sector experience across CPG, beverage-alcohol, foodservice, or on-premises channels.
- Prior hands-on DSP execution, Amazon DSP certification, or U.S. market exposure.
- Familiarity with Amazon Marketing Cloud (ability to brief specialist analysis) and experience coaching activation specialists.
AIP Connect believes in equal opportunity. Our recruitment consultants are committed to inclusive recruitment and selection practices and will not discriminate based on age, colour, ability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
Accessibility: If you need any accommodations during the interview process, please let us know.
Posted Salary: Actual compensation within this range will be determined based on job-related skills, relevant experience, education, and training. This range reflects base salary only and does not include eligibility for bonus program or other benefits.
For the most accurate and up-to-date details on this role, please refer directly to AIP Connect’s careers page, as third-party sites may not reflect current information.
