Group Director, Search | Growth Marketing Team

WHY DEPT®?

We are pioneers at heart. What this means, is that we are always leaning forward, thinking of what we can create tomorrow that does not exist today. We were born digital and we are a new model of agency, with a deep skillset in tech and marketing. That’s why we hire curious, self-driven, talented people who never stop innovating.

Our culture is big enough to cope and small enough to care. Meaning, that with people across 20+ countries, we’re big enough to provide you with the best tools, global opportunities, and benefits that help you thrive. While acting small by investing in you, your growth, your team, and giving you the autonomy to solve our clients' problems, no matter where you are in the world. 

This is a hybrid role located in Chicago, IL and is requiring 2 days on-site a week. 

ABOUT YOU

You are the driving force behind the success of paid search within the organization, with a deep understanding of strategy and the media landscape. Your leadership skills and technical expertise foster high-performing teams that exceed goals and consistently deliver strategic solutions. You are a master strategist, ensuring that every aspect of the organization flourishes, from staffing to client retention and profitability. You champion innovation, collaborate with partners to cultivate cutting-edge practices and lead the charge for profitable new business opportunities. 

As a coach, mentor, and leader, you nurture talent and build succession plans that ensure unwavering performance. You are shaping the paid search landscape and leaving an indelible mark of success on the organization.

PROFICIENCY EXPECTATIONS

Group Directors are pivotal in the organization as the most senior leaders for paid search activation strategy. They deeply understand how it weaves within the integrated media ecosystem and are responsible for driving technical expertise and delivery excellence across all search channels. They successfully oversee a team of highly specialized paid search experts that operate towards DMUS standards and are committed to supporting career growth plans and ensuring the satisfaction of all team members.

• Work on new processes and initiatives that can be put forward within the org to meet group-wide goals
• Proactively developing team staffing and growth plans to ensure their org can cover for any employee losses & new business opportunities while maintaining a balance of healthy team utilization.
• Group Directors oversee paid search activation teams to ensure all accounts successfully surpass goals and that the activation teams provide proactive strategy.
• Manages Directors, mentoring them into influential leaders who can own and grow their book of business and multi-layer team structure
• Regularly review client margins and ensure your accounts meet or exceed margin goals as Finance determines. Address when profitability levels are too low or signal we are not investing enough into the relationship
• Ensure all tracks within their org have both a high client retention and employee retention rate, identify core issues, proactively develop plans to mitigate issues from restructuring track staffing models, adjusting account teams, identifying skill gaps and up-leveling their employees, to re-evaluating client needs at an SOW/services level.
• Actively involved in the pitch process for new business opportunities, owning staffing forecasting, populating the pricing tool, and ensuring healthy coordination with new business and finance to be able to staff, support, and service new business clients profitably
• In-depth understanding of how financials work regarding hiring, promotions, raises, bandwidth, client ROI, and client investment opportunities. 
• Accountable to Client Partner(s) in delivering tactical plans that ladder up to overall brand strategy and agreed KPIs
• Support client partners in managing client relationships as related to paid search strategy, team, and performance
• Ensures effective collaboration of paid search strategy and implementation for flawless execution of search campaign strategy and activation towards client overall goals.
• Manage recruiting & interview process with the recruiting team 
• Point of escalation for all activation team members within their track- understands when to step in and coach the team on any advanced strategy, optimizations, processes, or next steps to mitigate issues and drive search growth.
• Oversees their activation team resourcing, consistently updating tracking to ensure utilization numbers are accurate and the team is fully utilized towards targets. Understands when their team is open for bandwidth and ready to take on clients.

Consistently assess team/account fit, ensuring we have the ri