Senior Media Planner

Our client, a full-service digital marketing agency, is seeking a Senior Media Planner to join their team on a full-time basis. This is a hands-on, digital-first planning role supporting a large tourism account, with additional exposure to clients across tourism, technology, and consumer verticals.

This person will take approved media strategies and turn them into fully executable plans - owning channel mix, budgets, flighting, flowcharts, materials, and ongoing reconciliation across digital and traditional media. The ideal candidate is highly detail-oriented, comfortable managing significant budgets independently, and has experience negotiating directly with media vendors.

Type

Full-Time, Salaried

Location: Hybrid onsite Monday/Wednesday for candidates within 60 miles of downtown Chicago; fully remote candidates may be considered in IL, FL, GA, IN, MI, MN, NV, SD, or TN.

Salary: $75,000–$100,000 DOE

Responsibilities

• Build and own multi-channel media plans, translating approved strategies into detailed budgets, flowcharts, flighting, and campaign plans
• Plan across digital and traditional channels including paid social, programmatic, CTV, streaming audio, OLV, publisher direct, print, OOH, broadcast, and airport media
• Own working media budgets from initial allocation through revisions, pacing, authorizations, invoicing, and final reconciliation
• Maintain highly accurate budget trackers and flowcharts, adjusting monthly allocations to align with approved plans
• Review and approve media invoices, proof of performance, and associated documentation for accuracy
• Negotiate annual vendor contracts across traditional media channels including OOH, broadcast, and airport placements
• Request and evaluate vendor performance metrics for custom media placements
• Manage media specifications, creative calendars, materials tracking, tagging, and trafficking requirements
• Partner closely with creative, strategy, analytics, account, and project management teams to keep deliverables, timelines, and budgets aligned
• Handle ongoing client requests, media POVs, plan revisions, and optimization needs
• Independently manage multiple accounts, deadlines, and priorities while knowing when to escalate issues to senior leadership

Qualifications

• 4+ years of media planning experience, with a strong emphasis on digital media
• Demonstrated hands-on experience personally building media plans, flowcharts, budgets, and flighting from approved strategy
• Strong financial accountability with experience owning budget pacing, revisions, media authorizations, invoice approvals, and reconciliation
• Direct experience independently negotiating vendor contracts; OOH, broadcast, airport, or similar traditional media experience strongly preferred
• Advanced Excel skills with the ability to independently build and manage complex budget trackers, flowcharts, and reconciliation documents
• Experience planning across multiple digital and traditional media channels
• Strong working knowledge of paid social platforms and digital media ecosystems
• Experience with Strata, Mediaocean, or a similar media planning platform is a plus
• Tourism, travel, destination marketing, or other multi-market account experience is highly preferred
• Exceptional attention to detail and comfort working with complex budgets and financial data
• Proven ability to independently manage multiple accounts, deadlines, and workstreams without sacrificing accuracy
• Strong cross-functional communication and collaboration skills