Associate Director, Search Capability & Craft Excellence The Associate Director, Search Capability & Craft Excellence will act as a subject-matter expert supporting the development and scale of Omnicom Media's modern Search practice. The role will help translate changes across paid search, automated buying, AI-powered discovery and emerging search environments into actionable guidance, tools, training and client-ready narratives. Working across teams, this person will move initiatives from idea to implementation by clarifying requirements, coordinating pilots, documenting best practices, enabling practitioners, tracking adoption and capturing proof. Success requires deep paid-search expertise, disciplined program management, strong writing and presentation skills, and the ability to create clarity across a complex stakeholder environment. What this role will own: Search strategy and standards: Translate platform capabilities and market developments into practical guidance. Develop and maintain Search playbooks, POVs, execution standards, best practices and capability frameworks that improve consistency and quality across platforms, verticals and campaign types. Innovation, productization and automation: Support channel-specific innovation from ideation through requirements, development, testing, integration and rollout. Alpha, beta and pilot programs: Identify appropriate accounts, coordinate participation and training, establish feedback loops, track milestones and adoption. AI Search and emerging search environments: Help shape guidance across AI Mode, AI Max, Performance Max, conversational and answer-engine advertising, search discoverability and agentic commerce. Pressure-test new opportunities for client fit, readiness, controls, measurement and scale. Practitioner education and certification: Maintain channel-specific onboarding and training content, support certification pathways, and coordinate platform and partner learning sessions that strengthen practitioner fluency and adoption of best practices. Community and knowledge distribution: Lead search community meetings by curating relevant updates, source speakers and ensure materials are accessible through Search community channels and shared repositories. Thought leadership: Support the development of landscape perspectives, guidance rapid-response POVs. Case studies and proof: Source, validate, write and organize case studies across teams. Build a searchable evidence base for client growth, new business, leadership communications and practitioner learning. New business and client growth support: Contribute to pitches, RFIs and strategic client requests through capability definition, audits, platform and partner perspectives, case-study selection and clear articulation of Omnicom's Search differentiation. Partner and marketplace evaluation: Support structured evaluations of search platforms and emerging partners, including capability assessment, advertiser-control and transparency requirements, risks, roadmap questions and recommendations. Provide Search input as partnerships are shaped and socialized. Measurement and learning agendas: Help define test plans, success criteria and reporting frameworks for priority initiatives. Separate platform claims from evidence, capture limitations and turn results into decisions on whether to stop, refine, expand or scale. Program management: Maintain roadmaps, priorities, owners, dependencies, risks, decisions and status reporting across the Search Capability & Craft Excellence portfolio. Drive follow-through across multiple workstreams without losing strategic intent
Qualifications:
6+ years of relevant paid-search, search strategy, performance media or digital capability experience; agency or enterprise-scale experience strongly preferred.
Deep working knowledge of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, including Search, Shopping, Performance Max, AI-powered campaign capabilities, audience activation, feeds, measurement and platform automation.
Strong understanding of SA360 or comparable campaign-management platforms, web analytics, conversion measurement and experimentation fundamentals.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional programs from ambiguous brief through launch, adoption and continuous improvement.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing POVs, playbooks and clear recommendations.
Strong analytical judgment: able to interpret performance data, assess evidence quality, identify limitations and connect findings to business decisions.
Comfort working with product, data, engineering, measurement and platform-partner teams; able to translate practitioner needs into structured requirements.
Highly organized, proactive and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and senior stakeholders in a fast-moving environment.
A test-learn-scale mindset balanced with governance, advertiser control, brand safety and operational rigor.
Preferred experience:
Experience with AI Search (like ChatGPT Ads), conversational advertising, generative-AI workflows, agentic tools or search-discoverability strategy.
Experience building or rolling out internal products, automation, QA tools, playbooks across multiple accounts or teams.
Google Ads Search certification; additional Microsoft Advertising, SA360, Analytics, Shopping or Performance certifications are valuable.
