Director, Search-SEM

Company Description

This is a hybrid role, requiring three days in-office each week. If you are contacted for an interview, your recruiter will discuss specifics with you, inclusive of any necessary reasonable accommodations.

About Spark Foundry:

Spark Foundry is a global media agency that exists to bring HEAT – Higher Engagement, Affinity, and Transactions – to brands. By combining flawless media fundamentals with aggressive innovation, Spark inspires consumers to pay more attention, to care more about our clients’ brands, and to buy more products and services from them.

Balancing the nimble spirit of a startup with the powerhouse soul of Publicis Media, Spark Foundry delivers the best of both worlds to a client roster that spans some of the world’s best and most beloved brands and companies. We combine boutique-caliber insights and service with the buying clout and first-look access of a global leader, bringing the heat to challenger brands that want to act like giants, and to giant brands that want to act like challengers.

With a bottom-up culture that celebrates diversity and aims for all voices to be heard, Spark has become a magnet for the industry’s best talent, with one of the best retention rates in the industry. And by applying a whole-person approach to professional and personal development, Spark develops a workforce that is well prepared for today’s challenges, and also poised to create meaningful careers in the years to come. 

Because we know that heat arises the intersection of complementary forces, our professionals come from myriad disciplines and backgrounds: data, analytics, and insights, content and creative production, communications and strategy, finance and marketing, and sociology, psychology, and other liberal arts disciplines.

Job Description

Overview: 
The Paid Search Director will have responsibility for the growth, management, retention, and satisfaction of a portfolio of key accounts. The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead clients strategically and tactically in search marketing. They will oversee a team in the conception and delivery of innovative, business-building, search marketing solutions to include organic and paid optimization, evolving search platforms, and advanced analytics. The Director will also provide engagement leadership, develop senior level client relationships, and will serve as an expert and trusted advisor to assigned clients. Proven account management, leadership, and experience in an agency environment is essential. 
 

Role Objectives: 

Product 

• Overall control of workflow and assigned responsibilities within their group. They will oversee the progress of all projects and provide assistance, where necessary, to assure timely completion of projects. 

• Ensure projects are produced completely, correctly, and efficiently. 

• Set strategic principles for client search initiatives based on objectives 

• Develop action plans for achieving and measuring campaign success including determining key metrics and processes for measurement and optimization 

• Evaluate and recommend full spectrum of search alliances, including all appropriate partners, search platforms, bid and campaign management tools 

• Work with strategic planning, digital planning and outside ad agencies to ensure paid search complements all client marketing activity 

• Keep clients and agency counterparts informed on latest developments in the industry 

• Grow agency paid search business through new business wins and organic client growth 

• Involved in client and inter-agency education of paid search and will be responsible for developing intellectual capital, including best practices, case studies, and official agency points-of-view 

People 

• Stimulate team productivity and growth 

• Establish and foster a corporate culture that inspires talent 

• Allocate assignments to leverage each person’s individual skills, as well as motivating their interests and challenging their minds 

• Encourage thorough evaluation of paid social marketing strategies, finding opportunity for competitive advantage 

• Develop careers by providing ongoing feedback and conducting employee evaluations 

• Recruiting and retain top talent, growing the social team to deliver on client and agency goals 

Clients 

• Provide effective long-term strategic guidance and counsel to include: 

• Master, identify, and communicate overall trends in search and those related to client industries 

• Define and evaluate client(s) competition online, as well as how it relates to their search initiatives 

• Establish appropriate account