Associate Director, Media Planning & Buying (Fundraising) US | 2025

What to know

Execute innovative marketing strategy through a diverse channel mix, for leading NGOs, charities and brands. As an Associate Director in the Paid Media Team, you'll oversee the execution of digital advertising campaigns across clients ranging from leading UK and global charities and UN bodies, to global brands and their CSR programmes.

You will know how to drive strong performance metrics for clients, whilst thinking holistically about the brand and how these metrics contribute to wider conversation about marketing budgets and long-term growth objectives. You will be a senior member of our media practice in London, supporting the Media Director in shaping processes and innovating our client channel mix to drive results.

This may be the right role for you if you’re someone who is equally strategic, creative, and analytical. Switching seamlessly from a client presentation to writing an insightful analysis of campaign performance, and rolling up your sleeves to launch advertising campaigns in new platforms are no big deal for you. You’re used to spending most of your day speaking in acronyms — terms like CPA, DSP, VTR, and ROAS are a natural part of your vocabulary — and you know how to explain them to clients and colleagues.

You will use your depth of experience to inform your work but also use your curiosity to keep ahead of the changing sector in order to ensure we’re innovating for our clients wherever possible.

The company

Blue State is the purpose-driven creative and tech agency for brands and causes looking to inspire people to take action and drive create real change. With clients including the UNHCR, Google, Amnesty International, UNICEF, Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) and Oxfam, Blue State cultivates and mobilises communities, raises money and influences policy, builds platforms, and transforms how organisations engage their most important people. Led by some of the most creative and analytical minds from the political, nonprofit, and brand worlds, Blue State is an independent agency with 150+ employees in the US and London.

A day in the life

• Translate clients’ strategic visions into media objectives and KPIs to accomplish a wide range of client objectives including direct response (lead gen and fundraising), awareness, persuasion, and advocacy.
• Analyse ongoing and historical performance data to identify opportunities for improvement, make strategic recommendations, and generate reporting and insights to drive optimisation.
• Have a strong POV on measurement, attribution, and conversion tracking, and apply that knowledge to strategic recommendations and ongoing campaign management.
• Participate in (and frequently lead) client-facing interactions — you’ll be the subject-matter expert for the platforms you manage.
• Plan, build, manage, and optimise media campaigns across multiple platforms, and oversee others in the team across multiple accounts to ensure media buying is efficient, effective and compliant.
• Work collaboratively with other internal or external teams, including media planners, strategists, account directors, designers, and analysts, to produce campaigns, creative ideas, audience and target recommendations, and experimental designs.
• Be an internal and external thought leader and help keep us up to date with the latest digital media trends by maintaining relationships with media partners, and engaging in media R&D projects, writing blog posts, and participating on panels.

The team

As part of the Media team, you’ll work closely with a cross-disciplinary group of Blue State employees on various projects. London is a small and close-knit team, where everyone has an opportunity to shape new approaches, grow and learn from their colleagues, and take advantage of a personal development fund to stretch their skills even further. You’ll have the opportunity to work with some of the most inspiring charities, ambitious brands and passionate advocacy and social change campaigns.

What we offer

• Unlimited time off (inclusive of sick, personal and vacation days)
• $1,000 annual in professional development funds (local equivalent)
• Fully subsidised health and dental insurance for employees (subject to tax)
• Generous pension match via salary sacrifice
• Generous paid holiday schedule
• Parental leave policy for up to 32.5 week of coverage at full pay, inclusive of all genders and supporting a range of family structures
• Group Income Protection (GIP)
• Group Life Assurance (GLA)
• Optional holiday travel insurance
• Pre-tax season ticket loans
• Cycle to work (up to £2000)
• Remote work flexibility

We approach in-office working with a hybrid model, with presence in our office required at two days per week.

Some things we're looking for

• 6-8 years experience in a hands-on paid media planning and buying role using a mix of digital channels (Social, Search, Display, Video, Audio, etc)
• Demonstrated experience translating client business goals into cohesive media strategies and specific KPIs, and a record executing campaigns that delivered on those goals.
• Ability to effectively manage multiple clients and projects on time, within budget, and meet performance goals.
• High proficiency with digital advertising platforms — you’ve demonstrated a level of mastery of paid social, paid search, and/or programmatic trading — as well as Google Analytics and other measurement platforms
• Exceptional attention to detail, especially with regards to campaign setup and trafficking, QA, and reporting.
• Ability to adapt to new situations, solve problems on the fly, and communicate with those around you.
• A shared passion and curiosity for delivering change. This includes comfort with ambiguity, a restlessness that resists the status quo, and a commitment to quality that ensures we’re always making progress.

At Blue State, diversity is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. We encourage those from underrepresented communities — women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, those with disabilities and people at all the intersections in between — to apply. Even if you don’t think your current skill set checks every box, but this role seems to align with your strengths, we want to hear from you.

Blue State is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible application and interview process. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a disability, including the use of AI tools throughout the hiring process, please contact us at [email protected] with the subject line: Accommodation Request to get started.

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