Director, Strategic Planning

Director, Strategic Planning

Tinuiti is the largest independent full-funnel marketing agency in the U.S. across the media that matters most, with $4 billion in digital media under management and more than 1,200 employees. Built for marketers who demand growth and accountability, Tinuiti unites media and measurement under one roof to eliminate waste—the biggest growth killer of all—and scale what works. Its proprietary technology, Bliss Point by Tinuiti, reveals the truth around growth and waste, and how to capitalize on it. With expert teams across Commerce, Search, Social, TV & Audio, and more, Tinuiti delivers measurable results with brutal simplicity: Love Growth. Hate Waste.

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As a Director, Strategic Planning, you will lead the strategic planning capability for key clients while advancing Tinuiti's broader media planning and strategy discipline. You will turn audience, cultural, competitive, and marketplace insight into integrated media strategies that help clients grow market share, strengthen their brand, and drive profitable business outcomes. You'll serve as the senior strategic planning lead on assigned accounts, guide teams in developing media plan scenarios and recommendations, and partner closely with Client Partners, channel specialists, communications planners, Analytics/Econometrics, and Product to ensure strategy is consumer-centric, measurable, and clearly presented. You will also help raise the standard of planning craft across the team through coaching, tools, frameworks, and thought leadership.

Level and scope alignment

• Level: Director (People Manager) - Oversees a client's integrated media planning relationship and manages planning talent across Managers / Senior Managers, and Associate to Senior Media Planners.
• Team: Leads and develops a team of planners; sets goals, reviews work quality, provides coaching, and helps build a strong planning bench.
• Scope: Owns strategic planning for key client accounts and acts as the senior planning lead within a broader client team; accountable for strategic quality, client confidence, and the consistency of planning outputs across assigned business.

Key responsibilities

Client-Centric

• Own the strategic planning relationship for one or more key clients, translating briefs into clear growth opportunities, consumer barriers, and integrated media strategies that inform major client decisions.
• Drive strategic planning initiatives by translating client briefs into growth opportunities, identifying the right consumer target and barriers, and designing media strategies centered on client priorities.
• Deliver strategic insights and media planning expertise to guide recommended media approaches, sufficiency, ecosystems, and scenario planning models that meet marketing objectives.
• Stay ahead of shifts in the media ecosystem, cultural tentpoles, and consumer trends to strengthen client strategies and identify new opportunities.
• Support new business pitches in collaboration with Strategic Planning leadership and Business Development.

Product-Led

• Lead and evangelize adoption of Tinuiti's planning suite and broader product/tool ecosystem within planning work, ensuring strategies are scalable, efficient, and grounded in strong inputs.
• Maintain strong fluency in audience, planning, and research tools; help clients and internal teams understand what the tools can do, how the data is structured, and where the limitations are.
• Construct narratives from planning and research data that guide clients toward action and connect product/tool outputs to business goals.
• Provide feedback on new planning and research partners/tools that can improve Tinuiti's end-to-end planning capability.

Data & Measurement-Driven

• Analyze complex client data, market dynamics, and consumer needs to identify what matters most and convert those findings into clear, consumer-centric strategic recommendations.
• Build clear, consumer-focused narratives from complex datasets to inform client strategy, partnering with research and tool providers where needed.
• Understand predictive models and advanced measurement methodologies, and connect planning outputs to MMM, incrementality, attribution, and broader measurement frameworks as appropriate.
• Ensure strong QA and analytical rigor across planning outputs, acting as a first line of defense against errors in planning and audience data.
• Oversee testing and analytical approaches that help clients make better planning decisions and learn from results over time.

The Tinuiti Way

• Deliver data-backed consumer strategy and media planning expertise with a deep understanding of channel capabilities, performance measurement, and how channels work together across the full marketing mix.
• Demonstrate expert-level critical thinking by combining data with media planning fundamentals to assess, challenge, and sharpen strategic decisions and media mix recommendations.
• Apply deep practical and strategic expertise across paid, earned, and owned media to advance client objectives and improve the quality of integrated planning.
• Lead client education on media fundamentals and the implications of different media scenarios and recommendations.

Owner Mindset

• Evangelize strategic thinking and a strong point of view in day-to-day client work and team leadership.
• Take accountability for client strategy and media mix outcomes, leading by example and learning quickly from both successes and challenges.
• Proactively identify and collaborate on cross-sell opportunities and contribute meaningfully to major new business efforts.
• Coach and mentor more junior team members on advanced strategic thinking, problem solving, and skill development.

People Leader

• Lead and mentor a team of planners, fostering collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement in the strategic planning function.
• Set clear goals and expectations, review planning work for quality, and provide ongoing developmental feedback and coaching.
• Help shape training curricula, templates, and planning outputs that raise the overall capability of the team.
• Build stretch opportunities and pathways for emerging planning talent to grow into more senior strategic roles.
• Build and scale a strong planning bench by coaching planners, reviewing output quality, and challenging thinking to raise the standard of strategic work across the account.

Ways of working and values

• Greatness attracts Greatness: Raise the craft bar, seek feedback, and embrace new tools and AI responsibly.
• Clients grow, we grow: Anchor strategy in business outcomes with innovation, precision, and proof.
• Culture of ownership: Act with speed, reduce waste, and own results end-to-end.

Professional & Technical Qualifications

• 10+ years of media strategy and planning experience.
• 2+ years of people management experience managing planners or adjacent IC talent, including coaching, quality review, performance feedback, and goal setting.
• Strong experience across both linear and digital channels, with particular strength in video and social planning.
• Expert command of the media landscape and strong point of view on planning, insight, and competitive tools.
• Deep familiarity with planning and research tools (e.g., Kantar, SimilarWeb, Pathmatics, MRI, eMarketer, and related platforms).
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted client relationships and act as a strategic advisor.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to improve personal and team effectiveness, encourage responsible experimentation, and coach others in role-appropriate, trust-but-verify use of AI.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, especially executive storytelling and presentations.
• Experience managing and developing planning talent.
• Ability to travel to onsite meetings as needed (typically limited).

KPIs (directional; set as Rocks)

• Strategic quality of integrated media plans and scenarios
• Client satisfaction and retention on planning-led accounts/workstreams
• Same-store growth or business impact influenced through planning recommendations
• Adoption and quality of planning tools, frameworks, and outputs
• Team capability growth, quality of work, and readiness for larger scope
• New business and cross-sell contributions through planning insights and narratives

FLSA Classification: Exempt

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or