Associate Director

We were founded on the belief that the world needs more creativity. It’s what drives all our decision-making. There is just so much ineffective, badly crafted work in the world that never gets noticed, has zero impact and is a waste of client budgets. We are here to change all that. When you truly embrace creativity as a competitive advantage, you will see it transform your world and your business. We’ve witnessed this over and over with our own clients. And, as a purpose-driven company, we also use our creativity to do good in the world by supporting causes we truly believe in. 
 
With 200 staff in New York, Toronto, and Vancouver, Z.A.K. is a magnet for top global talent. Want to change your world as a marketer? Let’s fight sameness together.

Who We’re Looking For:

We’re in search of an Associate Director, Investment & Analytics who’s obsessed with turning plans into performance and excited to help scale a fast-growing discipline. This client-facing role will oversee the day-to-day investment, trafficking, optimization and reporting work across a portfolio of Zulumatic clients. By bringing systems thinking together with strong platform and vendor knowledge, they will help ensure execution is precise, transparent and connected to business growth.

We believe media buying should be fast-moving and transparent, and operational excellence in execution gets us there. Analytics is intertwined in that process, closing the feedback loop with consumers and generating insights that can inform ongoing investment and future planning. 

What You’ll Be Doing:

Based in Toronto, this role will manage and mentor a small team of campaign managers and analysts while staying close to the work. In partnership with senior media leadership, they will be accountable for day-to-day delivery across assigned clients and bring a strong understanding of the transactions that underpin media ecosystems and the variables affecting reach, frequency, pacing and overall performance. With an open and collaborative approach, they will build constructive relationships with creative leaders, team members, clients and partners. More specifically, you will: 

• Investment & vendor management: Manage account-level negotiations and package development; steward budgets, manage SLAs, share category intelligence and hold partners accountable for delivery; maintain financial discipline across assigned accounts
• Trafficking & launch readiness: Oversee specs, tags, assets, QA and flighting; build and review technical spec sheets, manage deadlines and uphold brand-safety requirements
• Platforms & administration: Guide actualization and reconciliation; oversee CM360/ad server setups, pixels, GTM and UTMs; maintain taxonomy and naming standards
• Optimization & pacing: Monitor pacing across spend, reach and frequency; direct creative rotation, audience and placement tuning, and frequency caps; maintain clear change control
• Measurement & reporting: Help evolve source-of-truth dashboards and visuals; translate performance data into clear, decision-ready actions for clients and internal teams
• In-market testing: Partner with Strategy and Analytics to turn learning agendas into test plans; coordinate lift and incrementality reads, contribute inputs to MMM/MTA where applicable, and document findings and recommendations after each flight
• Finance alignment: Manage monthly actualization, invoice reconciliation and variance resolution with vendors and Finance for assigned clients
• Process & governance: Maintain and improve playbooks, checklists, naming conventions and approval paths; support privacy, consent and data-governance requirements
• Technology stewardship: Contribute to the evaluation, rollout and day-to-day governance of tools that power buying, including audience insight, targeting, verification/suitability, reporting/BI, and clean-room or attribution tools where applicable
• Team & cross-functional collaboration: Set clear priorities and review outputs, work shoulder-to-shoulder with Strategy, Creative/Production and Client Leadership to turn client goals into well-executed campaigns

Who You Are: 

• Data-literate and practical: You value rigor and have a bias towards action that builds clarity
• A clear and concise communicator: You interpret data and deliver insights that simplify complexity
• **Detail-exact:**You’re focused on accuracy and delivery. Nothing ships without clean tags, specs and QA
• A collaborative operator: You bring people across disciplines together to solve problems

What You Bring: 

• 7+ years of progressive experience in media investment, activation, operations and/or analytics across a mix of paid social, programmatic, search and video/CTV
• 2+ years managing or mentoring team members and reviewing the quality of campaign execution, reporting and client deliverables
• Hands-on depth in at least two channels across paid social, programmatic, search or video/CTV, plus strong working knowledge of ad servers
• Strong reporting and analytics capability building or managing source-of-truth dashboards, setting KPIs, interpreting survey data and contributing to attribution
• Vendor-management experience across account-level negotiations, packaging, delivery management and issue resolution with publishers, platforms and data partners

If you’re a media thinker who loves building systems, developing people and making execution better every day, we want you on the team. 

Compensation for this role ranges from $110,000 to $140,000 CAD, depending on experience.

Zulu Alpha Kilo is an equal opportunity employer. It prohibits discrimination based on age, colour, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and any other legally protected class in accordance with applicable federal, provincial, and local laws. Zulu Alpha Kilo is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible workplace. If you are contacted for an interview and require accommodation during the interviewing process, please let us know.

This job posting relates to an existing vacancy. Zulu Alpha Kilo uses artificial intelligence systems in the recruitment process to screen, assess, or select applicants but all hiring decisions are made by humans. 

We appreciate your interest in joining Zulu Alpha Kilo. When applicable, please include a link to your portfolio with your application. Although all applications are reviewed, only those selected for interviews will be contacted.