KINESSO - Associate Director, Retail Media Strategy

Position Summary

As the Associate Director of Retail Media Strategy, you will be part of the Kinesso Commerce team and play a pivotal role in scaling our retail media services, capabilities, and talent across the IPG Mediabrands network. Acting as a functional expert and strategic consultant, you will help elevate the craft of commerce and full-funnel retail media activation across onsite search, display, and offsite retail media. 

Reporting to the Senior Director of Retail Media Strategy, you will significantly contribute to delivering excellence, consistency, and innovation in how our teams set up, activate, and scale holistic retail media strategies for our clients. You will lead the development of standardized processes and deliverables (e.g., retailer landscapes, scorecard audits, onboarding frameworks), implement training and certification programs, and drive operational and strategic integration across teams and client engagements. 

As a key member of our commerce craft leadership team, you will help ensure best-in-class execution, support the upskilling of e-commerce activation teams across our agencies, and foster cross-functional alignment—ensuring our commerce solutions consistently deliver both performance and client satisfaction. 

Key Responsibilities

Retail Media Strategy & Innovation 

• Act as a subject matter expert in retail media, sharing knowledge, best practices, and actionable recommendations with agency teams. 

• Collaborate with eCommerce leadership to shape and support the agency’s ongoing & evolving approach to retail media. 

• Build and maintain strong relationships with retail media partners like Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Loblaws Advance, and others. Stay up to date on new ad products, measurement tools, and capabilities, and identify relevant test-and-learn opportunities for clients. 

• Co-develop and continuously refine retail media strategies to meet client needs in line with emerging trends, platform updates, and shifting priorities. 

Retail Media Practice Development & Standardization 

• Support with internal certification programs in partnership with external platforms. 
• Support test-and-learn programs, case study development, and agency-wide playbook evolution. 

Performance Optimization & Operational Excellence 

• Define and enforce campaign execution standards to ensure consistent quality across all clients and channels. 

• Build scalable Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Quality Assurance (QA) practices to enable repeatable, high-quality delivery. 

• Consult with activation teams, using data and KPIs to guide campaign optimization and overall performance improvement. 

• Monitor performance trends to identify opportunities and gaps; recommend strategic and operational improvements.

Client Enablement & Pitch Support 

• Support onboarding of new clients with commerce-specific onboarding processes and education. 

• Provide strategic support for pitch planning and proposals, and client education sessions including retail media POVs and performance frameworks.

Team Leadership & Capability Building 

• Mentor and develop activation specialists and campaign managers across the agency. 

• Championing a strong learning culture, leading knowledge-sharing sessions and workshops. 

• Scale best practices, frameworks, and tools across the IPG Mediabrands network, ensuring operational consistency and performance.\

Cross-functional & Network Collaboration 

• Foster collaboration between craft teams (e.g., search, display, content, analytics) to ensure cohesive commerce strategy delivery. 

• Partner across internal teams (e.g., Account, Analytics, Strategy) and Specialty Business Units to ensure alignment and seamless operations to execution. 

• Facilitate alignment and adoption of commerce solutions across inter-agency and inter-craft teams. 

Desired Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in planning and executing e-commerce and retail media campaigns, with a successful track record of leading teams and managing in a matrixed environment; experience with large CPG clients is a strong asset. 

• Deep passion for e-commerce and retail media excellence, with expertise in campaign and budget optimization, media metrics, measurement, and data analysis to drive actionable recommendations. 

• Hands-on experience managing self-serve campaigns on platforms such as Amazon Ads, Instacart Ads, Criteo, and Loblaws Advance. 

• Strong understanding of retail media tools and channels, including onsite search, DSP and having worked with partners like Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, Instacart, and Loblaws Advance. 

• Experience developing and executing always-on tactics, tentpole event strategies, and launch campaigns; skilled in crafting data-driven proposals and strategic recommendations. 

• Passionate and knowledgeable about retail media and digital marketing trends, emerging consumer tech capabilities 

• Skilled in retail media bid management tools (like Pacvue, Skai, Stackline, Intentwise); in-depth Pacvue experience is a plus. 

• Strong skills in presenting, communicating, and working directly with clients. 

• Deep analytical ability to turn data into insightful and practical recommendations. 

• Strategic thinker with excellent execution and attention to detail. 

• Experience leading cross-functional teams and aligning with partners and agencies. 

• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with external vendors and media partners. 

KINESSO is the technology-driven performance marketing agency that sits at the very heart of IPG Mediabrands, providing actionable growth for both our agency partners and clients. We turn 'action' into 'outcome' for our clients, leveraging our unique capabilities in optimization, analytics, AI, and experimentation. KINESSO has brought together the collective power of what was formerly Matterkind, Reprise, and Kinesso under one collective entity that will serve as the most powerful delivery engine in the industry. We have extensive offerings spanning across performance marketing and data and technology. Fueled by a deep understanding of consumer behavior, we offer an end-to-end engine of planning and optimization while also delivering on data-driven strategy for social platforms, actionable growth in e-commerce, and creating curated marketplaces specific to each client's function and needs. The company has more than 6,000 employees operating in more than 60 countries. Learn more at www.KINESSO.com 

What's in it for you?
•    Generous paid time off with a minimum of 37 paid days off including vacation and monthly wellness days. We also have four-day long weekends, half-day summer Fridays, and meeting-free Friday afternoons year-round.
•    A flexible hybrid work model that works for you.
•    A focus on personal development with formal training opportunities, including mental health training and inclusion education for everyone.
•    A chance to be part of and grow within a global network of agencies.
•    The opportunity to contribute to our company culture by joining one of our many community-based employee groups, such as Black Employee Network, Girls on Fire, Hispanic or Latinx Alliance, Neuro Network, Pan-Asian Network, and Rainbow Lounge.

KINESSO is an equal opportunity employer, committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, colour, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship, genetic information, disability, or any other basis prohibited by applicable federal, provincial, or municipal law. If you require an accommodation in any aspect of the selection process, please reach out to [email protected]