Paid Media Lead

Our Marketing Centre of Excellence (CoE) has been formed with the aim of building world class capabilities across key marketing disciplines, from planning through to rapidly evolving digital marketing channels. It changes the emphasis of what we do from product to customer and capability, with the ambition of delivering on our One Aviva strategy. The Marketing CoE sits alongside similar Data and Digital CoEs, supporting our GoToMarket (GTM) teams as they translate business objectives into actionable customer centric campaigns, communications and experiences.

The Marketing CoE is made up of 5 specialist teams - Marketing Strategy, Reporting and Planning; CRM, Content and Creative; Digital Marketing and Paid Media; Customer Insight and Research; the team will lead on all marketing activity. We have a great opportunity for a senior paid media leader to join the Digital Marketing and Paid Marketing team as Paid Media Lead, reporting into the Head of Digital and Paid Marketing.

This role owns a portfolio of activity across multiple products, balancing multiple large scale through the line campaigns and always-on performance trading. We’re looking for someone with a strong track record leading commercial paid media teams in complex organisations—someone who can set direction, coach and mentor a team of paid media professionals, and build scalable capability and best practice across creative, ad formats, and paid/owned/earned channels to deliver growth.

A bit about the job:

• You will be responsible for leading the development and execution of integrated media strategy across a multi-product portfolio, managing multiple concurrent campaigns and always-on activity to deliver business growth.
• You will be the lead for direct trading targets, translating commercial objectives into channel plans, performance goals and optimisation roadmaps.
• The Paid Media Lead will oversee continuous optimisation, partnering with Paid Search, Social and SEO leads, and will design and implement an always-on test & learn approach to drive efficiency, generate actionable insight and improve customer outcomes.
• The role also owns media channel planning across traditional and digital media (TV, programmatic, video, radio, press, partnerships, affiliates, content partnerships etc.)—identifying new opportunities and building the rationale for investment, including budget allocation, forecasts and clear measurement plans.
• You will partner with our media agency and platform partners to bring forward innovation and provide senior counsel to stakeholders on where to invest, why, and what impact to expect, using the latest measurement and attribution frameworks including MMM and econometric modelling.

Skills and experience we’re looking for:

• Significant experience at a senior level owning paid media at a portfolio level across multiple brands, products and propositions; successfully delivering multiple campaigns and always-on trading performance activity in parallel to deliver ambitious commercial outcomes.
• Proven experience developing channel strategies and partnerships for through-the-line campaigns and always-on commercial trading programmes, operating effectively within a complex matrix, and leading agency/partner relationships to drive best practice and innovation.
• Significant experience owning performance reporting and insights, defining core metrics tied to trading targets, and using clear storytelling to influence and secure buy-in from senior stakeholders.
• Strong technical capability in media channel planning, partnerships, budget allocation and developing a robust rationale for full funnel investment (including forecasts, incrementality considerations and measurement), alongside deep expertise in test-and-learn to improve efficiency and performance through first-party data, audience development, martech utilisation and creative formats.
• Demonstrated people leadership in developing, coaching and mentoring paid media professionals in an agile working environment, building capability and standards to create a high-performing team within their direct remit and up-skilling broader Customer & Marketing colleagues.

What you’ll get for this role:

• Starting salary circa £90,000 (depending on location, skills, experience, and qualifications).
• Bonus opportunity – 12% of annual salary. Actual amount depends on your performance and Aviva’s.
• Generous pension scheme – Aviva will contribute up to 14%, depending on what you put in.
• 29 days holiday plus bank holidays, and you can choose to buy or sell up to 5 days.
• Aviva-funded Private Medical Benefit to help you get expert support when you need it.
• Make your money go further – Up to 40% discount on Aviva products, and other retailer discounts.
• Up to £1,200 of free Aviva shares per year through our Matching Share Plan and share in the success of Aviva with our Save As You Earn scheme.
• Brilliantly supportive policies including parental and carer’s leave.
• Flexible benefits to suit you, including sustainability options such as cycle to work.
• Make a difference, be part of our Aviva Communities and use your 3 paid volunteering days to help others.
• We take your wellbeing seriously with lots of support and tools.

Aviva is for everyone: We’re inclusive and welcome everyone – we want applications from all backgrounds and experiences. Excited but not sure you tick every box? Even if you don’t, we would still encourage you to apply. We also consider all forms of flexible working, including part time and job shares. We flex locations, hours and working patterns to suit our customers, business, and you. Most of our people are smart working – spending at least 50% of their time in our offices every week – combining the benefits of flexibility, with time together with colleagues.

To find out more about working at Aviva take a look here. To learn more and explore the full Aviva Reward, use the salary calculator on the Aviva website. We encourage all eligible candidates to apply online. If you require an alternative method of applying or have any queries, please contact our recruitment team.