Performance Media Director in City of London

Who are we? A world where complexity is the only constant demands a new breed of company. Brave Bison is a different beast: a media, marketing and technology company purpose built for the digital era. Our universe is made up of award-winning business arms Brave Bison, Engage, SocialChain and MTM. We’re underpinned by leading marketing training practice, MiniMBA, as well as our very own social-first media network who deliver monthly views in the billions for some of the biggest channels in sport and entertainment across YouTube, Snap, Meta and TikTok. We’re a global collective who live and breathe digital, working with some of the boldest brands in the world to capitalise on the complexity that defines the modern marketing landscape.

Our mission: New platforms, new behaviours, new audiences, new trends, new technologies, new regulations—our clients’ worlds get more complex daily. Their agency partnerships shouldn’t. It’s our job to cut through the chaos, make the complex simple and navigate a clear path to growth for them. That’s why we make it our mission to capitalise on complexity for our clients—across consultancy, capability and execution—by crafting dynamic digital solutions that outpace tomorrow’s challenges.

Our values:

• Bold Curiosity: We run at change and challenge convention because we love to push the boundaries of what the world thinks is possible. We champion discovery, go deep into our clients’ worlds and are always hungry to learn more about them, our specialisms and each other.
• Connected Clarity: We are focused in our collaboration — joining the right dots between our clients, our partners and our herd of experts to deliver agile solutions at speed and scale. We set a shared ambition from the outset, are transparent at every stage and always strive to make the complex simple.
• Positive Encouragement: We want to make working with us the best part of someone’s day. We lift one another up, find the fun in the day to day and are committed to ensuring everyone belongs.
• Constant Impact: We believe in outcomes over outputs. We’re goal orientated, results driven and data‑led. We show up with passion every day. And we’re always honing our craft.

About Brave Bison Performance: With over 20 years experience growing our clients’ businesses through digital media, we help brands leverage the right data, right partners and right tech to capitalise on complexity and supercharge their online growth. By going deep into our clients’ world, investing their budget where it will work the hardest and ensuring that we only win when they win, we stand for braver digital in a world of opportunity.

Role Overview: Brave Bison Performance & Commerce is looking for a Performance Media Director to lead the strategy, planning, and activation for one of our flagship global accounts: New Balance. This is a high‑visibility, high‑impact role for someone who lives and breathes performance media, understands how modern consumers actually behave, and can translate that into cross‑channel strategies that punch above weight. You'll bring depth in Paid Search, Paid Social, and Programmatic Display, paired with a test‑and‑learn mindset and a passion for building future‑fit performance ecosystems. You’ll sit at the heart of one of the fastest‑growing agency groups in the UK, partnering directly with senior New Balance stakeholders and leading a team of talented specialists across channels and markets. You'll also play an active role in shaping Brave Bison's paid media proposition - contributing to new business, thought leadership and the agency's wider growth. If you love solving complex performance problems and pushing brands forward through digital excellence, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead Performance Strategy for New Balance: Own the vision and execution of EMEA and regional performance media strategy across Paid Search, Paid Social, Display, and emerging channels. Partner closely with New Balance stakeholders to shape seasonal plans, commercial responses, product‑launch frameworks, and full‑funnel thinking. Translate brand moments, athlete partnerships, and product priorities into data‑driven, audience‑first media plans that drive measurable outcomes.
• Cross‑Channel Planning & Innovation: Build performance frameworks that link new audiences through traffic‑focused campaigns with lower‑funnel conversion and retention. Create integrated planning approaches that combine media, creative, retail, and commerce signals. Stay ahead of platform innovation and bring Brave Bison‑level energy to identifying new opportunities, formats, partnerships, and betas. Champion AI adoption across the department - identifying where automation, predictive tooling, and AI‑enabled optimisation can meaningfully improve performance and efficiency.
• Paid Search, Social & Display Excellence: Provide senior technical leadership across Google Ads, SA360, Microsoft, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, DV360, and other key platforms. Ensure world‑class campaign architecture, optimisation routines, automation strategies, and measurement frameworks. Partner with analytics and creative teams to continually improve performance through audience segmentation, dynamic creative, and predictive modelling.
• Senior Client Leadership: Act as the primary performance partner for New Balance across EMEA and key regional teams - seen as a genuine extension of their senior marketing leadership. Lead strategic presentations, quarterly business reviews, performance deep dives, and annual planning cycles. Deliver clear, story‑driven insights that cut through complexity and focus on commercial impact - with a particular emphasis on ROI storytelling that connects media activity to business outcomes. Proactively unlock new opportunities to strengthen New Balance's performance engines across EMEA. Balance assertiveness and diplomacy to constructively challenge client thinking where needed, driving better outcomes through structured problem‑solving and well‑evidenced recommendations.
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, inspire, and challenge a multidisciplinary team of search, social, and programmatic experts. Foster a culture built on curiosity, innovation, experimentation, and operational excellence. Support learning pathways, certifications, platform training, and ongoing career development. Drive a growth mindset across the team - modelling resilience, encouraging proactive development, and holding yourself and others accountable for continuous improvement.
• Measurement, Insight & Performance Growth: Elevate measurement frameworks that integrate platform data, attribution, incrementality testing, and business outcomes. Work closely with analytics to build dashboards, reporting suites, and predictive tools. Champion test‑and‑learn programmes across markets, continually raising the performance bar. Own portfolio‑level forecasting and oversee QA frameworks to ensure budgets, pacing, and quality standards are consistently airtight across all markets.
• Business Development & Thought Leadership: Contribute to Brave Bison's paid media new business strategy - supporting pitches, crafting compelling narratives, and coordinating cross‑functional input to help win work. Represent the agency externally through thought leadership, industry events, and marketing activity that reinforces Brave Bison's performance credentials.

Skills & Experience Required:

• Essential: 7–10+ years' experience in performance media with deep specialism in Paid Search, Paid Social, and Programmatic Display. Proven track record leading large or global e‑commerce or retail accounts (sporting goods experience a plus). Highly confident working with senior marketing stakeholders. Strong analytical capability and ability to convert data into commercially relevant insights. Exceptional communication and storytelling skills with a bias for clarity and impact. Experience managing and growing high‑performing teams. Confident constructively challenging senior stakeholders and driving structured problem‑solving across client and agency teams. Demonstrable experience championing AI adoption and automation within performance media. Expert understanding of: Google Ads, SA360, Microsoft Ads, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, DV360 or similar DSPs, GA4, tracking infrastructure, attribution models.
• Desirable: Experience in global or multi‑market media structures. Familiarity with retail media, product feed optimisation, and commerce platforms. Exposure to predictive modelling or advanced automation tools. Experience developing performance‑creative frameworks. Involvement in new business pitches or agency thought leadership activity.

What Makes This Role Special: You’ll lead performance strategy for one of the world’s most iconic sport and lifestyle brands. You’ll shape the future of New Balance's EMEA performance marketing, partnering at the highest levels. You’ll be part of a brave, independent, fast‑moving agency group that empowers people to experiment, challenge norms, and create standout work.

What you’ll get: Our people make us who we are, so to make sure we attract and retain the best and brightest in the industry, we offer an attractive benefits package. We are the UK’s first carbon neutral agency (a status we have held since 2018), with a serious commitment to monitoring and reducing the impact our work has on the planet across three core sustainability pillars of Greenhouse Gases, Waste & Recycling and Sustainable Consumption. Here’s a snapshot of just some of the benefits we think you might also like:

• Dynamic working: To keep that work‑life harmony in check, we’re flexible on where and when you work.
• Private medical insurance: To keep you fighting fit and give you and your family peace of mind.
• Income protection: We know it feels good to be covered, just in case.
• Calm Subscription: Now more than ever, it’s important to mind your mind!
• 25 days annual leave: This increases to 27 days after three years with us, and then increases every subsequent year up to a max. of 30 days.
• Christmas closure: No need to save holiday days for the Christmas closure period. It's on us!
• Birthdays off: One extra day to celebrate your big day.
• Summer hours: Between June and Aug we finish at 15.00 every Friday.
• Online coaching and mental health support: Unlimited via OpenUp.
• Remote Working: Work abroad for up to one month a year.
• Performance & Salary: Reviewed twice a year for everyone.

Finally, we’re proud and committed to being an equal opportunity workplace, providing equal opportunities for all and treating all existing employees and all job applicants in the same way, regardless of their age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity status and marital & civil partnership status.