Associate Director, Performance Marketing

Associate Director, Performance Marketing

United States

At Viral Nation, we specialize in building social-first ecosystems for brands to connect with the modern consumer journey. Our integrated solutions align strategy, talent, media, and technology with culturally relevant creativity to scale the world’s fastest-growing digital brands. Viral Nation offers a fluid, creative, and growth-oriented environment that will support your ambitions to apply your talents in an open, collaborative, and fast-paced culture. Our ability to stay at the forefront of the industry has fuelled our success and will guide us in paving the path forward. We’re driven to push boundaries and think beyond today to deliver strategies, and we’re just getting started.

While we continuously exceed our goals, we need your help – our success is only as great as our people. Strong performance leads to high expectations, and we must keep raising the bar!

The Associate Director leads team members across a portfolio of clients. You serve as a cross-channel performance expert accountable for strategy quality, measurement riggor, team development, and client growth across paid social, paid search, and programmatic. You translate brand strategy and business goals into high-performing campaigns across owned, retail, and e-commerce channels.

What You'll Do Here:

• Lead integrated performance strategy across a portfolio of clients, with an emphasis on paid social, and leading paid search, and programmatic if your client portfolio requires it.
• Manage and develop a team of Managers, elevating strategic quality and executional excellence across pods.
• Own senior client relationships; serve as escalation point and trusted advisor.
• Owns the development of quarterly, semi-annual and/or annual business reviews.
• Set and uphold measurement, attribution, and QA standards across the portfolio (platform attribution vs. GA, incrementality, lift testing, and retail / commerce measurement where relevant).
• Lead the optimization of media budgets across accounts, using forecasting and reallocation to maximize ROI, working closely with Managers to ensure budgets are accurate and on track to spend in full.
• Identify growth opportunities within your account portfolio and partner with leadership to expand scopes.
• Bring forward emerging capabilities (social commerce and TikTok Shop, new platforms, AI-enabled workflows) as portfolio opportunities.
• Create playbooks and principles to scale best practices and educate internal and client stakeholders.
• Partner cross-functionally with Business Intelligence, Client Services, Creative, and Influencer teams for integrated delivery.

What You Need To Have:

• 6+ years of performance marketing strategy, execution, and measurement across paid social (primary), paid search and programmatic.
• Minimum of 2+ years of experience managing team members, providing mentorship and support developing growth goals.
• Proven ability to lead strategy across multiple and complex client accounts.
• Strong measurement and attribution expertise across owned, retail, and e-commerce outcomes (DTC, major retail partners, and social commerce / TikTok Shop a plus).
• Strong storytelling and ability to influence senior internal and external stakeholders (VP / GM level).
• Highly organized, with strong accountability for timelines, deliverables, and campaign performance.
• Proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment, collaborating with cross-functional teams within an integrated agency environment.

Compensation Philosophy:

At Viral Nation, compensation is structured, performance-led, and market-aligned. Pay decisions are intentional, based on role requirements, performance, and market alignment by country, and are set to maintain internal pay equity across comparable roles and levels.

Compensation progression is tied to demonstrated performance, expanded scope, and sustained contribution over time, not tenure alone. Employee compensation is reviewed regularly through formal performance reviews and check-ins to ensure alignment with role expectations and impact.

AI in Recruitment:

Viral Nation does not use AI-enabled tools to screen, assess, rank, or select candidates – our hiring teams make all hiring decisions. AI note-taking tools may be used during interviews.

DEI Commitment:

Viral Nation is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our agency. Viral Nation welcomes applications from people with visible and non-visible disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruiting and selection process.