Director, Paid Search

The Director, Paid Search serves as a senior strategic leader within the digital team. Working alongside the Paid Search Team lead, they provide thought leadership, elevate channel excellence, and support revenue growth. They play a key role in shaping paid search practices across the agency and ensure best-in-class delivery. They also lead and manage paid search strategy for a portfolio of high-value accounts.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Channel Excellence
  • Partner with the Paid Search Lead to guide paid search direction, refine best practices, and introduce new testing approaches based on industry and platform trends.
  • Champion the adoption of AI capabilities and emerging platform technologies, driving a structured test-and-learn approach to improve performance, uncover new opportunities, and keep our media strategies on the leading edge.
  • Serve as a senior agency voice on paid search, contributing to trainings, thought leadership, and ongoing process improvements.
  • Mentor all team members to strengthen their expertise and drive paid search excellence.
• Client Strategy & Campaign Performance
  • Elevates data-driven decision-making by interpreting complex performance metrics, translating them into clear strategic recommendations, and articulating how paid search ladders up to client business objectives.
  • Lead and manage paid search strategy for high-value clients, including account structure, targeting, keyword approach, and optimization priorities.
  • Partner with Digital Strategists on proposal development, RFPs, and strategic adjustments to ensure paid search strategies align with client goals.
  • Provide senior direction on AI Max for Search and Performance Max strategic frameworks.
• Internal Collaboration
  • Partners closely with strategy, media, and project teams to ensure a seamless, expertise-driven transition from onboarding to campaign launch, bringing paid search-specific leadership that upholds Carnegie’s standards of strategic excellence and client service.
  • Collaborate with the digital team to strengthen integrated strategies and advance paid search’s broader growth vision.

Qualifications:

• Strong analytical skills and deep understanding of paid search performance metrics.
• Ability to navigate complex client needs and deliver strategic, data-driven recommendations.
• Proven leadership and management experience.
• Excellent verbal and written communication in both client-facing and internal contexts.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a deadline-driven environment.
• Ability to adapt quickly to new technologies and industry trends.
• Effective time-management skills in a remote work setting.

Experience

• 6+ years managing paid search campaigns, primarily in Google Ads; lead generation experience preferred.
• Agency experience required, with proven success supporting high-value client accounts.
• Experience providing leadership within a digital or agency environment.
• Strong data analysis background with experience applying insights to improve campaign performance.
• Experience with Asana or similar project management tools and Google Workspace applications.
• Google Ads paid search certification preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree required; Marketing/Advertising concentration preferred.

You Should Join Us!

We’re a fast-growing and innovative company, set apart by our incredible people. We’re a supportive, fun-loving group with diverse interests and talents. In addition to getting to work with fantastic people and do work you love, here are some items you can list in your “pros” column:

• Private health/dental/vision
• 401(k) with company match
• Generous holiday and PTO package
• Flexible work environment (remote, in-office, and hybrid roles)
• Half-day summer Fridays
• Fun company events and laid-back culture
• Opportunities for advancement
• Industry exposure and professional development
• Growing company with a family feel
• Entrepreneurial approach and spirit

About Carnegie

For more than 30 years, Carnegie has been a leader and innovator in higher education marketing and enrollment strategy, offering groundbreaking services in the areas of Research, Strategy, Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Slate Optimization, Student Search, Website Development, and Creative that generate authentic connections.

Learn more about who we are, what we do, and what we care about.

 

No phone calls or unscheduled visits to the office, please. Carnegie is an equal-opportunity employer.