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About the Role
The Associate Director, Planning (AMD) serves as an essential strategic and operational lead within a planning pod. In this role, you bridge high-level strategy and flawless execution, leading the development of integrated media recommendations while managing day-to-day client relationships. You are responsible for translating strategic direction into actionable, audience-first plans that tightly align media placement with creative messaging. Operating with a blend of analytical rigor and creative problem-solving, you coach and manage junior planning talent, elevate team output, and ensure operational and financial discipline across assigned accounts.
Responsibilities
- Lead the development of strategic and tactical media recommendations that align with client business objectives.
- Translate audience insights and competitive data into ownable, audience-first media strategies using syndicated tools (MRI-Simmons, Resonate, YouGov, etc.).
- Identify category white space and craft unique media moments that amplify creative impact and go beyond standard media placements.
- Evaluate campaign performance against objectives, providing strategic POVs on optimizations and marketplace trends.
- Develop strategic analyses (geographic, target audience, competitive audits) to guide plan direction and client spend recommendations.
- Own day-to-day client relationships, serving as a key point of contact and driving weekly status, recommendations, and campaign reviews.
- Partner seamlessly across cross-functional agency teams—including Client Experience, Strategy, Creative, Activation, Analytics, CRM, and Finance—to deliver integrated output.
- Represent a strong, clear media POV in key client presentations and internal strategic discussions.
- Build and maintain productive, professional relationships with media vendor partners to stay ahead of marketplace innovation.
- Manage, mentor, and coach junior pod members (Supervisors, Senior Planners, Planners), fostering their growth in planning craft, tool usage, and soft skills.
- Master the art of delegation—balancing oversight with direct support to ensure flawless delivery while building bench strength.
- Evaluate current pod workflows, resources, and bandwidth, elevating capability needs or operational challenges to the Director.
- Oversee flawless client budget management, including reviewing and approving flowcharts, media authorizations, and spend allocations.
- Partner with Activation and Finance to ensure draft invoices match planned investments and maintain overall billing accuracy.
- Identify organic growth opportunities across Media, Data & Analytics, and CRM, partnering with leadership to bring value-add ideas to clients.
- Translates data and insights into clear, creative, and actionable media strategies.
- Builds trust and strong alignment with clients and internal cross-functional leads.
- Effectively delegates and develops junior planners into strong, autonomous strategists.
- Maintains absolute precision in media math, flowcharts, and financial stewardship.
- Proactively brings solutions and media POVs to the table rather than just identifying issues.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
- 5-8 years of media planning experience within an agency setting.
- Proven experience developing integrated plans across traditional and digital channels.
- Demonstrated experience direct-managing or mentoring junior planning team members.
- High proficiency in industry planning and research tools (e.g., MRI-Simmons, Resonate, YouGov, Vivvix, PathparseLong, SQAD, Guideline/MediaTools, Nielsen).
- Strong media math acumen, financial discipline, and analytical problem-solving skills.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with a track record of effective client presentation.
Skills
- Media planning
- Integrated media planning
- Audience insights
- Competitive data analysis
- Media strategy development
- Client relationship management
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Team management and mentorship
- Budget management
- Financial discipline
- Analytical problem-solving
- Written communication
- Verbal communication
- Client presentation
- MRI-Simmons
- Resonate
- YouGov
- Vivvix
- PathparseLong
- SQAD
- Guideline/MediaTools
- Nielsen
Location
- Remote
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- 5-8 years
- Associate Director
Education Level
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
About the Company
- MissionOne Media is a brand within BarkleyOKRP that combines full-funnel media planning and buying services, CRM, data, analytics, retail media, SEO, and digital experiences.
- We're an independent media partner offering transparency, integration, and a relentless focus on business impact.
Equal Opportunity
- At BarkleyOKRP, DEI+B drives work that matters. We believe people and creativity are made of the same substance, and when every perspective is valued, the impact is stronger. We build belonging as a business strategy, power inclusive creativity that delivers measurable results, and hold ourselves accountable as a B Corp committed to progress over performative intent. When people are valued, the work carries greater impact.