Paid Media Senior Manager 6 month FTC

Position Summary

Key Responsibilities

Media Strategy & Category Leadership 

• Lead the development and execution of the media strategy for the assigned Beauty category, ensuring alignment with brand priorities, commercial goals and broader ELC transformation objectives. 
• Translate category, consumer and business insights into clear media strategies that build long-term brand equity while delivering measurable performance outcomes. 
• Develop integrated full-funnel media plans across awareness, consideration, traffic, conversion and retention, ensuring media activity is connected across the consumer journey. 
• Partner with brand teams to ensure media strategies support key launches, hero product priorities, retailer moments, tentpole campaigns and always-on growth opportunities. 
• Set strategic direction for media investment across channels, audiences, formats and markets, ensuring investment is focused on the highest-impact opportunities. 

Performance Media & Optimisation 

• Drive media effectiveness and efficiency across paid media activity, with a clear focus on measurable business outcomes including reach, engagement, traffic, conversion, revenue, ROAS and profitable growth. 
• Lead performance reviews and optimisation recommendations across campaign planning, audience strategy, budget allocation, bidding, targeting, creative performance and media scheduling. 
• Use data and analytics to identify opportunities to improve campaign performance, consumer engagement, media ROI and sales impact. 
• Work with agency and analytics partners to establish clear KPI frameworks, measurement plans and reporting cadences across campaigns. 
• Ensure campaign learnings are captured, shared and embedded into future planning to continuously improve media performance. 

Budget Management & Investment Governance 

• Own the planning and management of category media budgets, ensuring spend is allocated effectively against strategic priorities and financial targets. 
• Partner with internal stakeholders and agency teams to manage budget phasing, cost efficiency, forecast accuracy and investment trade-offs. 
• Establish and uphold governance frameworks, best practices and planning principles for media investment across the category. 
• Provide clear recommendations on budget shifts and optimisation opportunities based on performance, market conditions, launch priorities and commercial impact. 
• Support annual planning and target-setting processes, ensuring media investment is aligned with category growth ambitions. 

Key Responsibilities contd.

Retail, Digital & Performance Integration 

• Ensure seamless integration of media across brand, online, retailer and retail media environments to maximise visibility, traffic and sales impact. 
• Partner with Online, Retail and Commercial teams to align media plans with retailer calendars, merchandising priorities, promotional moments and ecommerce growth opportunities. 
• Collaborate with retail media partners and platforms to identify opportunities for improved data-sharing, campaign activation, targeting, measurement and conversion performance. 
• Support the integration of paid search, retail media, social, programmatic, video, influencer amplification and other performance channels into cohesive category plans. 
• Champion a connected approach to media that links brand-building activity with lower-funnel performance and commerce outcomes. 

Agency, Partner & Stakeholder Management 

• Lead day-to-day strategic relationships with media agencies, performance partners, retail media networks, media owners and relevant external partners. 
• Ensure agency partners deliver against agreed scopes, service levels, campaign standards, reporting requirements and performance expectations. 
• Partner with Creative, Brand and Global teams to ensure assets are fit for platform, optimised for performance and aligned to brand standards. 
• Influence and engage senior stakeholders across Marketing, Online, Retail, Creative and Analytics, providing clear strategic recommendations and performance updates. 
• Act as the category media expert, bringing thought leadership, best practice and external market intelligence into the organisation. 

Innovation, Measurement & Capability Building 

• Lead the media innovation roadmap for the assigned Beauty category, identifying new opportunities across platforms, formats, data, automation, AI, measurement and creative optimisation. 
• Stay close to industry trends, consumer behaviour, platform developments and media best practice to ensure ELC remains competitive in a rapidly evolving media landscape. 
• Partner with Insights & Analytics to improve measurement frameworks, attribution approaches, test-and-learn plans and performance reporting. 
• Build media capability across internal stakeholders by sharing learnings, codifying best practice and helping brand teams understand the role of media in driving growth. 
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation and disciplined execution. 

What This Role Does

• This role turns category ambition into high-impact media strategy and measurable execution. 
• It connects brand-building with performance marketing, ensuring media plans are not only creatively strong and brand-right, but also commercially accountable. The Senior Media Manager will identify where media can most effectively influence consumer behaviour, determine how investment should be deployed, and ensure campaigns are optimised to deliver against both equity and sales objectives. 
• The role brings structure and governance to media planning, helping teams make sharper investment decisions, improve performance visibility and scale best practice across brands. It also acts as a critical connector between internal teams and external partners, ensuring that campaigns are planned, executed, measured and optimised with discipline. 
• The Senior Media Manager will be expected to lead strategic planning, challenge assumptions, interpret performance data, identify growth opportunities and influence stakeholders at all levels. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can move comfortably between strategy, execution, analytics and commercial performance.

What You Will Need To Be Successful In This Role

• Experience & Technical Expertise 
• Significant experience in media, performance marketing, digital marketing, retail media or ecommerce, ideally within beauty, luxury, consumer goods or a fast-paced brand-led environment. 
• Strong understanding of full-funnel media planning, including paid social, paid search, programmatic, video, display, retail media, ecommerce media and emerging digital channels. 
• Proven experience developing and executing media strategies that deliver measurable brand and commercial outcomes. 
• Strong knowledge of campaign planning, buying, optimisation, reporting and performance measurement. 
• Experience managing media budgets, optimising investment and making data-led recommendations to improve ROI. 
• Strong understanding of retail media, paid search and commerce media environments, including brand and non-brand search optimisation. 
• Experience working with media agencies, retail media networks, platform partners and external media owners. 

Strategic & Commercial Capability 

• Ability to translate business objectives, consumer insights and category priorities into clear media strategies. 
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to connect media activity to traffic, conversion, revenue, profitability and brand growth. 
• Confident using data to diagnose performance, identify opportunities and make practical optimisation decisions. 
• Ability to balance long-term brand equity with short-term performance outcomes. 
• Comfortable managing complexity across multiple brands, stakeholders, campaigns and priorities. 
• Leadership & Stakeholder Management 
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence across Brand, Online, Retail, Creative, Analytics and agency teams. 
• Ability to set direction, bring structure to ambiguity and align cross-functional teams around shared objectives. 
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present strategy, performance and recommendations clearly to senior audiences. 
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to deliver high-quality work at pace in a dynamic environment. 
• Collaborative, inclusive and able to build trusted relationships with internal and external partners. 

Mindset & Behaviours 

• Strategic thinker with a performance mindset. 
• Highly analytical, commercially focused and results-oriented. 
• Curious about media innovation, consumer behaviour, digital platforms and the evolving beauty landscape. 
• Confident challenging the status quo and identifying smarter ways to drive effectiveness and efficiency. 
• Strong attention to detail, with a commitment to excellent execution. 
• Able to lead from the front while remaining hands-on in campaign performance, optimisation and delivery. 

Compensation & Benefits

•    1 day working from home
•    25 Days Annual Leave (exc. Bank Holidays)
•    1 day Annual Leave to celebrate your birthday
•    Holiday Purchase opportunity
•    Bonus Opportunity
•    Car allowance 
•    Ability to work Remotely/Abroad up to 18 days per calendar year 
•    Summer Fridays
•    Generous Staff Discount
•    Mental Health Wellbeing Initiatives 
•    Benefits platform with exclusive discounts and offers
•    Employee resource groups 
•    LinkedIn learning