Director, Media Strategy & Planning

Are you mission-driven and passionate about helping others succeed?

Do you strive to lead, follow, and act with integrity?

Are you the one who honors your commitments?

Is building trusting relationships an integral part of why you do what you do?

Do you push limits and challenge the status quo?

If you answered YES, keep reading to discover how you can significantly contribute to Team USA's success!

Here's a summary of responsibilities:

The Director, Media Strategy & Planning will play a key role in driving Team USA's fan engagement efforts by developing and implementing a comprehensive media strategy to grow our fanbase and deepen brand love across the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic ecosystem. This individual will lead Team USA's integrated media planning efforts, acting as a center of excellence that works collaboratively and cross-functionally with key stakeholders across the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement. This strategic role will oversee the development of innovative and effective media strategies that drive brand awareness, engagement, and conversion at scale, connecting our paid, institutional, partnership, and owned media channels to efficiently reach our target audiences with impact and deliver business outcomes including viewership, digital and social engagement, merchandising, donations, and ticket sales. This role will serve as a key strategic voice on the Integrated Marketing team with the mission to discover, inspire, and engage fans of Team USA and ignite U.S. Olympic and Paralympic fandom on the road to Milan-Cortina 2026, LA 2028, and beyond.

Here's how you'll have an impact:

Cross-Functional Media Campaign Strategy

• Oversee cross-functional media and direct marketing campaign strategy and develop a coordinated approach to defining campaign goals, KPIs, target audiences, and key messages to acquire new fans and build fan lifecycle & loyalty opportunities.
• Lead end-to-end campaign management, including multi-channel cross-functional journey definition & mapping; prioritize campaigns across fan audiences, tying vision through execution and feedback.
• Lead cross-functional partners, including marketing leads across the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic ecosystem of organizations, working closely with data, finance, creative, and analytics to plan cohesive campaigns and uncover opportunities to optimize conversion points across departments.
• Monitor effective benchmarks for measuring the impact of fan engagement programs and analyze, review, and report on the effectiveness of campaigns.
• Provide detailed awareness of audience & market research, media consumption landscape, ad performance innovations, trend analysis, staying current on industry standards, features & functionality releases, sophisticated workflows, and personalization methodologies.

Channel Strategy & Media Planning

• Serve as a principal omnichannel thought leader across a cross-functional team to develop, execute, and optimize a cutting-edge digital integrated media strategy and plan campaigns from conception to launch.
•  Develop a holistic media strategy and determine the appropriate channel strategy and media mix. Lead all day-to-day aspects of media planning across multiple campaigns across institutional, paid, owned, and shared channels.
• Lead integrated media investment strategy and develop cross-organizational media guidance aligned with business objectives in partnership with Stakeholder Business and Marketing leads
• Forecast the media budget inclusive of institutional and partnership media value ensuring it is allocated effectively across different channels and campaigns
• Manage relationships with media agencies, vendors, and media partners to optimize partnerships
• Identify and evaluate new media opportunities such as emerging channels and technologies to drive innovation in media planning

Direct Marketing

• Develop and implement the overall digital fan engagement strategy to build loyalty across the fan base
• Oversee the planning, execution, and optimization of all direct marketing campaigns across various channels.
• Establish a center of excellence to build alignment between departments and their messaging tactics across overall brand objectives
• Develop an overarching direct marketing fan lifecycle strategy across multiple departments to promote alignment and consistency across the overall movement while also focusing on KPIs of engagement, conversion, and ROI
• Test and iterate on marketing strategies to optimize performance and improve ROI

Campaign Management

• Identify and implement continuous campaign improvement via testing methodologies on all digital marketing elements to improve engagement and conversion rates
• Work with CRM and Business Innovation teams with the goal of fully functioning data integration. Follow through in the customer lifecycle process to deliver against fan engagement, athlete engagement, fundraising, and other revenue goals 
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholder marketing leads to identify key segments  and create targeted messaging both through email and other digital channels including social media and personalization of web properties
• Utilize data-driven insights to optimize media buying, ensuring maximum ROI across various channels and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our performance channels
• Own campaign management and reporting, working closely with our analytics and data teams to bring our measurement capability of advertising to the next level and to develop in-depth analytics of LTV, CPA, ROI, and incrementality

Ad Operations

• Drive the commercial strategy of Team USA Owned & Operated digital & social media channels, managing packaging approach from booking, delivery, operations, and reporting of paid amplification campaigns for our partners 
• Direct a cross-functional internal and inter-agency team supporting media packaging and ad operations support functions.
• Provide direct supervision of team members, including hiring, mentoring, coaching, and motivating to maximize collective performance. Contribute to an atmosphere for outstanding teamwork through clear expectations, frequent communications, and providing fair and consistent feedback. 
• Monitor inventory availability and campaign delivery to ensure campaigns are running as expected, pacing to delivery, and objectives are being met
• Plan and deliver paid amplification campaigns for partners across social platforms

Here are the skills and experience you'll need to be effective:

• Completion of a Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, or Communications or equivalent work experience
• 8+ years in customer engagement with industry-leading domestic/global brands
• Media planning experience at a media agency, premium sports, and/or entertainment property 
• Experience in and knowledge of customer relationship management and digital and social engagement platforms 
• Demonstrated experience and passion for developing and managing successful direct-to-consumer email/CRM programs
• Proven ability to manage a large variety of complex issues and projects calmly and simultaneously
• Working knowledge of non-profit, philanthropic, and fundraising best practices. Strong operational skills, including talent and budget management
• Innate ability to communicate with different stakeholders, negotiate influence, and build rapport at all levels
• Proven ability to develop marketing activation and brand-building programs
• Excellent understanding of the media landscape – regionally, domestically, and internationally 
• Demonstrated passion for the competitive sports industry
• Demonstrated strength in collaborating across teams
• Strong customer service skills
• Capability to distill information clearly and to explain complex issues with precision and consistency
• Ability to think critically and make decisions independently; Be a resource to others in the resolution of complex problems/issues
• Strong presentation development and database use
• Appreciation for the Olympic & Paralympic Movement and the power of sport

Here are the tools, equipment, & conditions:

• Standard office equipment
• Office equipment in a multi-level building on a multi-building site
• Occasional domestic travel
• Non-traditional hours are sometimes required
• Regular attendance at work is an essential job function

Here's where you'll work:

• This home-based role can work remotely from anywhere in the United States.

Here's some more information you need to know:

• Hiring Pay Range: $102,086 to $129,649 per year.
• This full-time, exempt position is intended to work 40 hours per week.
• Bonus: This position will be eligible for the Annual Incentive Award Program, which has a 20% target. The USOPC may change or eliminate this program at any time at its sole discretion.
• Benefits: This position will be eligible for USOPC benefits. You can view a summary here.