Senior Vice President, Media Investment

Company description

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at center of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, Starcom partners with the world's leading marketers and brands, including Bank of America, Best Buy, Kellogg Company, McDonald's, Novartis, Samsung, Visa and more.

This role at Starcom will serve as a member of Publicis Groupe's strategic internal agency, Constellation.

Constellation serves as an internal-facing brand formed by a collective of Publicis Groupe agencies to address our client's creative, data, strategy, media, and technology requirements. Team members collaborate across agencies while functioning as sub-divisions within their respective brands to provide dedicated support for the client. By acting as a unified interface, Constellation eliminates operational silos and presents a single service entity and primary point of contact for the client.

Overview

The SVP, Media Investment serves as the senior investment lead across one of our largest client businesses. This individual is accountable for translating business priorities, audience strategies, and media plans into investment approaches that drive measurable outcomes, maximize business impact, and create competitive advantage.

Working in partnership with Media Strategy & Planning leadership and cross-functional teams, the SVP oversees media investment strategy, marketplace engagement, and investment stewardship across lines of business. The ideal candidate combines deep marketplace expertise, commercial acumen, and operational rigor with the ability to lead teams, steward significant investment decisions under compressed timelines, and thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Business & Client Leadership

• Serves as the senior investment lead across the largest portion of the business.
• Acts as a trusted advisor to client leadership on investment strategy, marketplace dynamics, media effectiveness, and commercial opportunities.
• Partners with Strategy & Planning and Analytics leadership to translate business priorities into actionable investment recommendations.
• Connects media investment decisions to broader business objectives, growth opportunities, and commercial outcomes.
• Represents the media organization in senior client discussions, executive reviews, planning sessions, and marketplace engagements.
• Leads effectively in a high-velocity environment requiring rapid decision-making and investment stewardship under compressed timelines.

Media Investment Leadership

• Helps define and implement the investment vision, marketplace approach, and standards of excellence across the account.
• Leads investment strategy across established and emerging channels.
• Oversees investment planning, budget allocation, partner recommendations, optimization, and scenario development.
• Balances short-term business performance with long-term strategic objectives.
• Drives investment rigor, quality, and accountability across all lines of business.

Marketplace Leadership

• Maintains executive-level relationships with key publishers, platforms, vendors, and marketplace partners.
• Serves as a senior voice on marketplace dynamics, innovation, and channel evolution.
• Develops partnerships that unlock differentiation, incremental value, and measurable business impact.
• Negotiates opportunities beyond traditional media buying, including content, commerce, data, and measurement partnerships.
• Ensures the business benefits from the strongest thinking and opportunities across the marketplace.

Operational & Commercial Leadership

• Serves as a steward of the business from an investment, operational, and financial perspective.
• Oversees budget stewardship, staffing inputs, commercial considerations, and investment governance.
• Supports business planning, revenue stewardship, margin management, and financial accountability.
• Ensures teams manage media investment with discipline, transparency, agility, and accountability.
• Identifies opportunities to improve operating effectiveness and accelerate decision-making.

Innovation & Team Leadership

• Identifies new investment approaches, partner models, and capabilities that improve effectiveness and business impact.
• Champions innovation, emerging technologies, automation, and AI-enabled solutions.
• Builds, leads, and develops a high-performing media investment organization.
• Coaches teams on marketplace expertise, negotiation, commercial acumen, and client leadership.
• Participates in recruiting, talent development, retention, and succession planning.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business, or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience in media investment, activation, channel strategy, marketplace leadership, or integrated media leadership.
• 10+ years of experience across digital, video, social, programmatic, retail media, OOH, and emerging media environments.
• 7+ years of experience managing teams and leading large-scale client businesses.
• Deep understanding of media investment, marketplace dynamics, publisher and platform ecosystems, negotiation strategy, media economics, performance analytics, and measurement frameworks.
• Strong relationships across the publisher, platform, vendor, and partner community.
• Proven ability to steward large-scale investment decisions in fast-paced, constantly evolving business environments.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate competing priorities and accelerated timelines.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, negotiation, and client leadership skills.
• Strong operational and financial acumen, including experience with budget stewardship, commercial models, staffing, and business planning.
• Demonstrated ability to drive alignment across complex organizations and multiple cross-functional teams.
• Passion for innovation, marketplace leadership, talent development, and advancing the future of media investment.

Additional information

The Power of One starts with our people! To do powerful things, we offer powerful resources. Our best-in-class wellness and benefits offerings include:

Paid Family Care for parents and caregivers for 12 weeks or more
Monetary assistance and support for Adoption, Surrogacy and Fertility
Monetary assistance and support for pet adoption
Employee Assistance Programs and Health/Wellness/Comfort reimbursements to help you invest in your future and work/life balance
Tuition Assistance
Paid time off that includes Flexible Time off Vacation, Annual Sick Days, Volunteer Days, Holiday and Identity days, and more
Matching Gifts programs
Flexible working arrangements
'Work Your World’ Program encouraging employees to work from anywhere Publicis Groupe has an office for up to 6 weeks a year (based upon eligibility)
Business Resource Groups that support multiple affinities and alliances

The benefits offerings listed are available to eligible U.S. Based employees, are reviewed on an annual basis, and are governed by the terms of the applicable plan documents.

We also offer medical and voluntary benefits to our freelancers and temporary employees. Voluntary benefit options include supplemental medical insurance, transportation, and parking benefits, legal benefits, pet insurance, and auto and home insurance. You must be actively employed for 90 consecutive calendar days in order to be eligible for Publicis medical and voluntary benefits. 

Starcom is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our employment decisions are made without regard to actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, medical condition as defined by applicable state law, genetic information, marital status, military service and veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws and ordinances.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [email protected].

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

 

Compensation Range: USD $180,215.00 - USD $256,100.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. This role may also be eligible for bonus or incentive compensation. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 12/1/2026.