Senior Director Brand Media Marketing Management

Our vision for the future is based on the idea that transforming financial lives starts by giving our people the freedom to transform their own. We have a flexible work environment, and fluid career paths. We not only encourage but celebrate internal mobility. We also recognize the importance of purpose, well-being, and work-life balance. Within Empower and our communities, we work hard to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, and our associates dedicate thousands of hours to volunteering for causes that matter most to them.

Chart your own path and grow your career while helping more customers achieve financial freedom. Empower Yourself.

The Senior Director of Brand Media Management is accountable for defining and leading Empower's enterprise brand media strategy across the full funnel. This role serves as the senior authority on paid brand media, overseeing planning, investment, execution, and measurement across broadcast, digital, emerging media, and integrated brand campaigns.

Operating as Empower's senior media steward, the Senior Director owns the relationship and performance governance of the external media agency, ensures tight integration between media and brand creative teams, and partners with senior leaders across Brand, Marketing, Analytics, Finance, Product, and Communications to drive brand growth, media effectiveness, and investment accountability.

While the role initially leads primarily through agency and cross-functional influence, the Senior Director is expected to design and scale the brand media organization over time, including defining future-state roles, building internal capabilities, and assuming direct people leadership as the function matures.

What you will do:

Strategic Media Leadership

* Define and lead enterprise-level brand media strategies that advance Empower's brand vision, support priority initiatives and product launches, and strengthen long-term brand health.
* Translate brand positioning, audience insights, and business priorities into integrated media strategies that deliver reach, relevance, and measurable impact at scale.
* Set the long-term vision for Empower's brand media ecosystem, including channel mix evolution, audience segmentation, investment philosophy, and new media opportunities.
* Establish strategic frameworks and standards for brand media planning, activation, and optimization across the organization.
* Champion a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and data-driven decision-making within the Brand organization and across Marketing.
* Act as an enterprise advocate for media best practices, elevating media literacy and strategic alignment across senior stakeholder groups.

Agency Management & Governance

* Serve as the senior day-to-day owner of the external media agency relationship, providing strategic direction and governance across planning, buying, measurement, and analytics.
* Ensure strong integration and collaboration between the brand creative agency and media agency to maximize creative effectiveness and media efficiency.
* Lead annual agency performance evaluations and oversee scopes of work, contract negotiations, and compensation structures in partnership with Procurement and Legal.
* Partner closely with Brand Strategy, Performance Marketing, CRM, Analytics, Finance, Product Marketing, and Corporate Communications leaders to ensure cross-channel alignment and executional excellence.
* Collaborate with analytics and insights partners to define learning agendas, advance attribution and MMM capabilities, and translate findings into actionable media strategy and optimization.
* Partner with Finance to lead media budget planning, forecasting, pacing, and quarterly investment reviews, ensuring disciplined stewardship of brand media spend.

Media Planning, Optimization & Measurement

* Lead and continuously refine Empower's end-to-end media planning and activation cycle, including strategic development, campaign architecture, and optimization frameworks.
* Oversee media effectiveness measurement, including attribution insights, MMM outputs, brand lift studies, and executive-level reporting dashboards.
* Ensure rigorous post-campaign analysis and insight synthesis that drives continuous improvement and informs future investment decisions.
* Develop and govern a holistic measurement framework that integrates brand and performance indicators to support enterprise decision-making.
* Own competitive media intelligence, monitoring spend levels, channel usage, messaging approaches, and emerging platform adoption.
* Translate competitive insights into strategic implications and recommendations for brand and executive leadership.
* Identify short- and long-term media trends and define a forward-looking roadmap that positions Empower at the forefront of marketplace innovation.

Innovation & Testing

* Establish and lead a structured testing and learning agenda across emerging platforms, formats, partnerships, and measurement technologies.
* Ensure Empower proactively adapts to shifts in consumer behavior, media consumption, and industry dynamics, including CTV/OTT, retail media, streaming audio, creator and influencer ecosystems, and privacy-driven targeting changes.

What you will bring:

* 12-15+ years of progressive media experience, ideally combining agency leadership with in-house brand media ownership.
* Proven success leading enterprise-scale paid media programs across TV, digital, social, and emerging platforms.
* Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, including senior agency leadership and complex cross-functional teams, with readiness to transition into direct people leadership.
* Strong track record translating brand and business strategy into integrated, high-impact media plans.
* Advanced fluency in media analytics, MMM, attribution models, brand KPIs, and optimization methodologies.
* Deep expertise in audience strategy, media mix optimization, and brand-to-performance integration.
* Exceptional communication, executive presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
* Highly strategic and analytical thinker with the ability to distill complexity into clear, actionable direction.
* Strong operational rigor with proven ability to manage large budgets and multiple high-priority initiatives.

Education

* Bachelor's degree in marketing, Business, Communications or a related field.
* MBA or advanced degree preferred but not required.

unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time, including CPT/OPT.***

What we offer you

We offer an array of diverse and inclusive benefits regardless of where you are in your career. We believe that providing our employees with the means to lead healthy balanced lives results in the best possible work performance.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• Retirement savings - 401(k) plan with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%), financial advisory services, potential company discretionary contribution, and a broad investment lineup
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year
• Business-casual environment that includes the option to wear jeans
• Generous paid time off upon hire - including a paid time off program plus ten paid company holidays and three floating holidays each calendar year
• Paid volunteer time - 16 hours per calendar year
• Leave of absence programs - including paid parental leave, paid short- and long-term disability, and Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
• Business Resource Groups (BRGs) - BRGs facilitate inclusion and collaboration across our business internally and throughout the communities where we live, work and play. BRGs are open to all.

Base Salary Range

The salary range above shows the typical minimum to maximum base salary range for this position in the location listed. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation offered may vary from posted hiring range based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.

Equal opportunity employer * Drug-free workplace

We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age (40 and over), race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, religion, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable state or local law.

***For remote and hybrid positions you will be required to provide reliable high-speed internet with a wired connection as well as a place in your home to work with limited disruption. You must have reliable connectivity from an internet service provider that is fiber, cable or DSL internet. Other necessary computer equipment, will be provided. You may be required to work in the office if you do not have an adequate home work environment and the required internet connection.***

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