Director, Paid Media & Search Strategy

The Director, Paid Media & Search Strategy serves as Gartner Conference Marketing's internal authority on paid media strategy, audience development, search strategy, channel planning, measurement, and platform best practices across search, social, video, display, programmatic, and emerging channels. This role bridges marketing strategy, agency partnership, and campaign execution by translating business objectives into effective media strategies, guiding audience and channel decisions, evaluating agency recommendations, driving innovation, and ensuring paid media investments deliver measurable business impact. This role owns the expertise, judgment, and strategic guidance that informs how paid media and search are leveraged to drive audience engagement, registration growth, and business outcomes. What You Will Do: Paid Media Strategy Leadership Develop paid media strategies aligned with business objectives, marketing goals, and growth priorities. Define channel recommendations across Google Search, Google Display Network, YouTube, Performance Max, Microsoft Ads, LinkedIn, programmatic media, and emerging platforms. Guide investment strategies, budget allocation decisions, and optimization priorities across channels, audiences, and campaign objectives. Lead test-and-learn initiatives designed to improve campaign effectiveness and uncover new opportunities. Audience & Targeting Strategy Own audience strategy across paid media programs, translating ICPs, sales priorities, and marketing objectives into actionable targeting and segmentation approaches. Partner with Sales and Marketing leadership to refine audience prioritization and optimize performance across customer, prospect, account, industry, and buying group segments. Platform Expertise & Governance Serve as Gartner Conference Marketing's internal subject matter expert across paid media platforms and advertising technologies. Establish governance, best practices, measurement standards, and strategic guidance while educating stakeholders on platform capabilities, limitations, and emerging trends. Partner closely with Marketing Operations to ensure campaign execution aligns with strategic intent, audience strategy, measurement standards, and established best practices. Evaluate new platform capabilities and opportunities that can improve marketing performance and efficiency. Search Strategy & Organic Visibility Provide strategic leadership across organic search, paid search, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and emerging AI-driven search experiences. Partner with SEO resources to develop search visibility strategies that align with business objectives and audience priorities. Ensure alignment between SEO, paid search, content, and audience targeting strategies. Evaluate how evolving search behavior and AI-driven discovery impact Gartner's acquisition strategy. Agency & Vendor Leadership Evaluate, challenge, approve, or reject agency and vendor recommendations based on business objectives and industry best practices. Serve as the organization's internal authority for assessing external recommendations and strategic direction. Hold agencies and partners accountable for strategic quality, innovation, operational excellence, and performance outcomes. Team Leadership & Capability Development Manage and develop the SEO function, providing strategic direction, coaching, and professional development. Foster collaboration across Paid Media, SEO, Marketing Operations, Analytics, Sales, and Marketing teams while building organizational expertise in acquisition strategy and emerging search channels. Performance Governance & Optimization Define measurement frameworks, KPIs, dashboards, and reporting requirements in partnership with Analytics teams. Partner with Analytics, CRM, and Marketing Operations teams to improve attribution, audience targeting, performance visibility, and measurement approaches. Analyze performance trends and translate insights into strategic recommendations related to audience refinement, channel optimization, and budget allocation. Drive continuous testing, optimization, and periodic reviews of campaign structure, targeting, measurement frameworks, and reporting approaches. Innovation & Capability Development Evaluate emerging platforms, technologies, and acquisition opportunities, including Meta, AEO, AI-driven search experiences, and future advertising innovations. Lead testing strategies and drive adoption of opportunities that improve performance and organizational capability. Lead regular reviews with Gartner marketing experts and research teams to assess emerging trends, audience behaviors, platform evolution, and opportunities impacting paid media, search, and acquisition strategies. What You Will Need: 10+ years of progressive experience in paid media, digital marketing, performance marketing, media strategy, or related disciplines. Demonstrated expertise across search, paid social, video, display, and programmatic advertising channels. Experience developing audience strategies and targeting approaches in complex B2B organizations. Experience managing agency relationships, influencing senior stakeholders, and evaluating strategic recommendations. Strong understanding of measurement methodologies, attribution concepts, and campaign performance evaluation. Experience leading or partnering closely with SEO functions. Preferred Qualifications Experience operating within a Center of Excellence model supporting multiple business units or stakeholder groups. Deep expertise across Google Ads, Performance Max, YouTube, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, and programmatic platforms. Experience managing significant media investments and budget allocation decisions. Experience in B2B marketing, event marketing, demand generation, or information-services environments. Who are we? At Gartner, Inc. (NYSE:IT), we guide the leaders who shape the world. Our mission relies on expert analysis and bold ideas to deliver actionable, objective business and technology insights, helping enterprise leaders and their teams succeed with their mission-critical priorities. Since our founding in 1979, we’ve grown to 20,000 associates globally who support over 13,000 client enterprises in ~90 countries and territories. We do important, interesting and substantive work that matters. That’s why we hire associates with the intellectual curiosity, energy and drive to want to make a difference. The bar is unapologetically high. So is the impact you can have here. What makes Gartner a great place to work? Our vast, virtually untapped market potential offers limitless opportunities – opportunities that may not even exist right now – for you to grow professionally and flourish personally. How far you go is driven by your passion and performance. We hire remarkable people who collaborate and win as a team. Together, our singular, unifying goal is to deliver results for our clients. Our teams are inclusive and composed of individuals from different geographies, cultures, religions, ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities and generations. We invest in great leaders who bring out the best in you and the company, enabling us to multiply our impact and results. This is why, year after year, we are recognized worldwide as a great place to work. Gartner is the world authority on AI At Gartner, you’ll join a company at the very center of the AI revolution. Gartner has proactive, objective guidance throughout clients’ AI journeys. We set the standard for how organizations leverage artificial intelligence to drive meaningful impact. You’ll have access to unmatched resources, expertise, and technology, and play a key role in helping Gartner and our clients innovate and grow as we leverage AI to transform business and technology landscapes. It’s an exciting time to be at Gartner, with limitless opportunities to make a real impact, grow your skills, and build a lasting, meaningful career in a field that’s reshaping the way we operate. If you’re passionate about AI and want to be part of a team that’s guiding the leaders who shape the world, Gartner is the place for you. What do we offer? Gartner offers world-class benefits, highly competitive compensation and disproportionate rewards for top performers. In our hybrid work environment, we provide the flexibility and support for you to thrive — working virtually when it's productive to do so and getting together with colleagues in a vibrant community that is purposeful, engaging and inspiring. Ready to grow your career with Gartner? Join us. Gartner believes in fair and equitable pay. A reasonable estimate of the base salary range for this role is 120,000 USD - 167,000 USD. Please note that actual salaries may vary within the range, or be above or below the range, based on factors including, but not limited to, education, training, experience, professional achievement, business need, and location. In addition to base salary, employees will participate in either an annual bonus plan based on company and individual performance, or a role-based, uncapped sales incentive plan. Our talent acquisition team will provide the specific opportunity on our bonus or incentive programs to eligible candidates. We also offer market leading benefit programs including generous PTO, a 401k match up to $7,200 per year, the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount, and more. The policy of Gartner is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship status, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status and to seek to advance the principles of equal employment opportunity. Gartner is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer and offers opportunities to all job seekers, including job seekers with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access the Company’s career webpage as a result of your disability. 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