VP of Paid Media - strategy in Maidstone

HYBRID: At least 2 days a week in our office in Maidstone, Kent.

Are you ready to redefine search? Reflect Digital, the award-winning agency blending behavioural science, AI-powered insights, and creative strategy, is searching for a VP of Paid Media - Strategy to lead our future. This pivotal role goes beyond traditional Paid Media, tasking you with expanding our clients’ presence across the entire discovery ecosystem - from search engines to LLMs and emerging answer platforms. Join us and shape the next generation of digital performance.

About Us: Reflect Digital is an award-winning, behavioural science-led digital marketing agency. Since 2011, we have been connecting our clients with their audience by understanding customer motivations to deliver exponential growth. Our strategies seamlessly blend behavioural science, AI-powered insights, and marketing creativity to deliver next-generation search experiences, earning us multiple accolades, including Agency of the Year 2024 and Employer of the Year 2025.

What We Value:

• We’re a Family – An inclusive, caring environment where we support, challenge and look out for each other.
• Love our Craft – We are passionate about digital strategy and development, putting education at the forefront.
• Going for Gold – We maintain an unwavering ambition and drive for success, remaining curious and agile.

The Pivotal Role: As VP of Paid Media - Strategy, you will bridge Paid Media, Growth, SEO, Behavioural Science, and Creative to deliver unified, insight-led, full-funnel strategies. Acting as the strategic lead across our portfolio, you will champion innovation, develop new Paid Media capabilities, drive commercial opportunities, and help the department evolve into a centre of excellence.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Direction – Oversee the strategic direction of Paid Media activity across the full client portfolio, ensuring approaches reflect emerging behaviours across search engines, LLMs, social discovery platforms, retail media, and AI-driven ad ecosystems.
• Conduct strategic reviews with Paid account managers to elevate cross-channel thinking, embed audience and behavioural insights, and ensure innovation and best practice.
• Stay close enough to client objectives to step in as Paid account lead if required.
• Introduce new channels, AI-powered optimisation techniques, creative testing frameworks, incrementality studies, and behavioural-led Search experiments.
• Review all Quarterly Business Plans and strategic presentations, ensuring strong narrative and strategic rigour.
• Collaborate with SEO, Content, Behavioural Science, Digital PR, the Strategy Director, and Head of Search to deliver holistic behavioural search strategies.

Sales & Marketing:

• Identify and develop cross-sell and upsell opportunities across channels, creative production, data/BI, and behavioural science-informed testing.
• Partner with the Strategy Director to lead Paid Media contributions in RFPs, proposals, pitches, and scoping.
• Represent Paid Media at key industry events, particularly around AI-driven performance, creative intelligence, and future-of-search marketing.
• Ensure forecasting, revenue modelling, planning, and commercial recommendations are accurate and progressive.

Team & Department Development:

• Support Paid account managers to strengthen strategic thinking, cross-channel knowledge, creative understanding, and communication confidence.
• Share frameworks, tools, behavioural insights, industry updates, and Search knowledge to enhance strategic output.
• Lead the development of Strategy as a core pillar of the Paid Media department, building towards a larger, structured Paid Strategy function.
• Foster curiosity, innovation, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and a test-and-learn culture.

Innovation, Quality & Best Practice:

• Champion a culture of experimentation, performance innovation, and continuous optimisation across channels and workflows.
• Work closely with the Data and Innovation teams to identify tools, technologies, and AI-driven resources for predictive modelling, creative optimisation, and audience understanding.
• Maintain high standards of strategic quality across all deliverables, ensuring clarity, precision, and demonstrable value.

Continuous Professional Development:

• Complete relevant Google exams (including GA4) and platform certifications annually.
• Stay up to date with Paid Media, Search, and AI-driven industry developments, sharing viewpoints proactively and contributing to thought leadership.

About You:

• Strategic Thinking: You see the bigger picture across Paid, SEO, LLMs, social platforms, creative, and user behaviour to shape long-term direction.
• Leadership: You inspire strategic thinking, elevate team performance, and foster innovation.
• Commercial Awareness: You confidently identify high-value growth opportunities and contribute to revenue expansion.
• Communication & Networking: You are clear, persuasive, and influential in senior environments, confidently representing the agency externally.

Package and Perks:

• Salary: £60k+ DOE
• Work/Life Balance: Flexible working, 4-day work week, and hybrid working available.
• Annual Leave: 28 days (ex., Bank Holidays) plus Birthdays, Charity day and slow down between Christmas and NY.
• Healthcare: Private Healthcare from Vitality.
• Breakfast Club and healthy snacks.
• Weekly Wellbeing Sessions.
• Access to trained Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA).
• Lunch & Learn and Brunch & Learn sessions.
• Internal and external training opportunities.
• Endometriosis Friendly Employer.
• Career Progression.
• Agency Partnerships.

Ready to lead the future of discovery? Apply now!

Diversity and inclusion are at the heart of what we value as an organisation. Reflect Digital is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other status protected by law. Our People team is happy to support any reasonable adjustments that are needed within the recruitment process, such as additional time or different application or interview formats. If we can do something to alter the recruitment process to better suit you, please let us know when you apply. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all employees, volunteers, subcontractors, freelancers, and clients. Your information will be kept confidential according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Reflect Digital we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

To watch staff testimonials about our company culture you can watch this video on YouTube.

Interview process - What to expect. This is a more detailed breakdown of our interview process and what to expect at every stage. As stated above, if you need any reasonable adjustments to be made to this process, please let us know at application stage.

Cultural Interview with People Director & Hiring Manager interview via Google Meets - 1 hour.

Task Stage - A task is set in advance and then a task Interview in person (where applicable to the role) - 1.5hrs at the Maidstone office.

Video or phone interview with our CEO.