Director, TAAG

Company Description

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 Technology & Activation Group (TAAG) is a team of Digital Marketing technology, operations and measurement professionals supported by best-in-class technology and expertly-designed procedures.  

TAAG is an integral part of Spark Foundry’s Data, Insights, and Analytics (DTAI) practice and operates by turning the data we create into a true asset for our business. TAAG will support and complement our DTAI teams today, and manage the organization’s technology expertise to educate some of our most valuable media professionals of tomorrow. 

We are looking for a marketing technology leader with expertise in the fields of marketing technology, media performance management and measurement, and ad operations. The individual we are seeking will be confident with senior agency executives and clients, and clear in delivering our agency point of view and recommendations. They must have the ability to translate business data requirements into technical solutions, develop measurement strategies, and manage key relationships with digital media technology, operations, data and research partners, building best-in-class capability within Spark Foundry. 

In addition to their responsibility as a agency expert in digital media operations, data, tools and technology, this person will be responsible for cultivating and leading a team of client-assigned resources who are responsible for the end-to-end delivery of the following media planning and activation functions: 

• Digital media campaign KPI creation and alignment to business opportunities/goals 

• Operational alignment of campaign evaluation/measurement plan to campaign strategy 

• Digital technology & infrastructure direction and decision making 

• Data management and insights platform recommendations 

• Data governance for client and agency measurement compliance 

• Full-funnel digital media advertising operations (inclusive of emerging digitally-distributed media) 

• Data management and generation of campaign optimization insights  

 
Role Objectives: 

• Oversee individual TAAG team across offices, as needed, and support the investment and creative teams to activate digital campaigns (display, video, social, mobile, and programmatic)  

• Co-lead strategic conversations with client and investment teams around technology integrations that can improve efficiency, range, or quality of data, or support new media  

• Support your TAAG in all aspects of the trafficking process  

• Lead the more complex aspects of trafficking, including Floodlight tags, DMP integrations, etc.  

• Lead conversations with the investment team on ways to work faster and smarter. Collaborate with fellow TAAG Managers on process to prevent errors, to ensure consistency, to create a bomb-proof QA checklist  

• Collaborate with vendors on behalf of creative agencies when troubleshooting is required  

• Become a Subject Matter Expert on any number of technologies; keep yourself and the team up to date on the ever-evolving media landscape through regular research and writing POVs  

• Share best practices across TAAG to improve our output and standardize our work  

• Accountable for verification process and ongoing optimization for campaigns on a regular basis based on client needs  

• Accountable for campaign activation process and ensure deadlines are met across investment teams, creative agencies, and clients to ensure on time launch  

• Accountable for overall TAAG admin management across the US  

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Qualifications

• 8 years’ industry experience required 

• 3 years’ experience managing teams who work with marketing technology tools 

• BA/BS education preferred or commensurate experience  

• Demonstrated ability to navigate and manage high volume of workload under ever-changing landscape  

• Strong client management/consultative experience both presenting and resolving issues.  

• Extensive experience leading and managing technical projects, including problem solving, strategic technology roadmaps and implementation  

• Extensive experience leading and managing advertising technology projects from ideation through completion  

• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills   

• Solid written and verbal communication skill with ability to communicate/translate complex concepts to non-technical audience  

• Strong understanding and experience with digital media buying and technology practices during campaign planning and execution  

• Ability to juggle several mission critical projects effectively – keeping others adequately up to speed and ensuring deliverables meet expected timelines.  

• Ability to effectively coach and develop junior colleagues  

• Results orientations with strong independent and team project management and time management skills   

• Experience proficiency with Microsoft office suite, especially with Excel and PowerPoint  

• Strong client facing presentation skills  

• Experienced proficiency with digital marketing technology, especially ad servers, tag management systems, DMP’s, brand study partners, verification technologies  

• Strong personal skills to be able to manage your individual team  

• Strong Leadership presence  

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

23-3966