Director, Owned Media & Community

Reporting to the Sr. Director, Brand | Creative | Owned Media, The Director of Owned Media & Community leads AutoNation’s owned media ecosystem, turning social channels into a high‑growth engine that builds brand affinity, drives engagement, and fuels performance across all lines of business. This role owns enterprise social strategy, community engagement, and local enablement, ensuring AutoNation shows up consistently, credibly, and culturally across platforms.

The ideal candidate blends strategic leadership with strong operational execution, understands how brand and performance work together, and brings deep fluency across the social ecosystem -, knowing how to leverage different platforms to activate distinct strategies, audiences, and moments. They are passionate about building modern, scalable social organizations that deliver both cultural relevance and measurable impact. 

 

Organizational Relationships: 

This role partners closely with Brand, Creative, Campaigning, Local Marketing, Customer Experience, Operations, PR, and agency partners. The Director will lead and mentor a growing team spanning content creation, community engagement, insights, and local enablement. 

Job Responsibilities: 

• Own AutoNation’s enterprise owned media and community strategy across core and emerging platforms. 

• Build and lead a modern social  operating model grounded in always- on storytelling, cultural relevance, and measurable performance. 

• Establish channel strategy, voice governance, playbooks and KPIs. 

• Oversee publishing, moderation, crisis management and community engagement across platforms.  

• Launch proof-point storytelling and micro-campaigns that activate the brand narrative. 

• Lead local enablement strategy, ensuing brand- safe, authentic execution at scale 

• Partner with analytics and media teams to connect owned media performance to business outcomes. 

• Manage social technology stack, tools, and vendor relationships. 

• Facilitate regular cross-functional planning meetings, ensuring teams alignment and on-time delivery. 

• Ensure brand consistency and creative quality across all owned platforms. 

• Demonstrate and advocate company vision, mission, and values; adhere to company policies and procedures.

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, or related field.  

• 8-10+ years of experience in owned media, social, or community leadership roles. 

• Proven experience building and scaling social teams and operating models. 

• Deep understanding of platform dynamics, culture, and community management.  

• Strong cross-functional leadership, executive communication and stakeholder-management skills.  

• Strategic thinker with a creative, solutions-oriented  approach to problem-solving. 

• Must meet company’s requirements for employment. 

 

Physical Requirements: 

• Business travel (up to 30%) 

• Standard office environment