Strategy Lead Jobs in Chicago, IL

Company Description

Epsilon is the leader in outcome-based marketing. We enable marketing that's built on proof, not promises. Through Epsilon PeopleCloud, the marketing platform for personalizing consumer journeys with performance transparency, Epsilon helps marketers anticipate, activate and prove measurable business outcomes. Powered by CORE ID®, the most accurate and stable identity management platform representing 250+ million people, Epsilon's award-winning data and technology is rooted in privacy by design and underpinned by powerful AI. With more than 50 years of experience in personalization and performance working with the world's top brands, agencies and publishers, Epsilon is a trusted partner leading CRM, digital media, loyalty and email programs. Positioned at the core of Publicis Groupe, Epsilon is a global company with over 9,000 employees in over 40 offices around the world.

Overview

At Epsilon, we do more than collect and store data. We help some of the world's biggest brands discover real opportunities inside the data types, delimiters, and decimals. We are looking for a Paid Media Strategy Manager to join our Digital Consumer Experience Strategy team.

As part of one of Epsilon's market-leading teams, you will play a role in developing innovative, data-driven, multi-dimensional strategies and tactics to improve customer and business outcomes for Fortune 500 client engagements. You will need a deep understanding of the client's business and capabilities. This ensures the strategies you develop provide higher ROAS, incremental performance, and can be easily implemented within their ecosystem.

What You'll Achieve

• Be seen as a trusted strategic advisor to internal teams and clients alike. Offer marketing insights and build arguments. Draw on Epsilon marketing services, consulting expertise, data, and technology to solve key client challenges.
• Digital contact strategies and program planning: Develop integrated, customer-led contact strategies for personalizing at scale across Paid & Owned channels.
• Media advisor: Work with clients to determine the right mix of paid social, paid search, programmatic, display, video, and other paid digital channels to support promotional, acquisition, retention, and customer engagement strategies. Advise on paid media budget allocation, investment mix, platform selection, and channel roles to drive efficient, measurable business outcomes.
• Platform experience: Navigate and advise across major paid media platforms, including paid social platforms, search platforms, DSPs, retail media networks, video platforms, and supporting measurement tools.
• Prescriptive and thoughtful: Can audit paid and owned channels or campaigns to identify areas of growth and maturity.
• Customer and market insights: Use internal and external data, industry insights, 1st and 3rd party research and a variety of quantitative tools at your disposal to become intimate with and advocate for our client's end-customer.
• Help clients and internal teams understand emerging paid social, search, programmatic, video, retail media, measurement, and digital marketing trends. Apply guidelines and pursue innovations that improve performance across the paid media ecosystem.
• Performance analysis: Define campaign performance metrics and measurement plans across paid social, search, programmatic, video, display, and other paid digital programs. Manipulate, analyze, and visualize data to reveal trends in channel performance, customer behavior, and business outcomes, and identify key opportunities based on analysis.
• Business development: Support account growth and new business development.
• Client interface: Part of this role will involve presenting and selling ideas to our client in partnership with the account management team. High-quality presentation and idea articulation skills are required.
• Will be required to travel up to 30% out of the year.

Responsibilities

About You

• You are customer-obsessed, with a passion for crafting high-performing, measurable paid media experiences across paid social, search, programmatic, video, display, and emerging digital channels that align with audience needs, user intent, and business outcomes.
• You have a deep love for the paid media ecosystem, with a strong grasp of paid social, search engine marketing (SEM), programmatic advertising, video, display, and how these channels work together to amplify results across the customer journey.
• You stay ahead of the curve on paid social, SEM, programmatic, video, display, retail media, platform updates, bidding strategies, creative formats, audience targeting, and measurement approaches, and you know how to apply these insights to solve real-world marketing challenges.
• You're an expert at demonstrating return on ad spend (ROAS), incrementality, and brand lift, and you know how to translate performance data into compelling client narratives.
• You basically speak fluent paid media acronyms—from CPC and CTR to DSA, RSA, PMAX, CPM, CPA, ROAS, VCR, CPV, CTV, and LTV—you've got them all covered.
• You're a visionary problem solver who constantly finds new ways to optimize campaigns. You test creative, refine messaging, improve media efficiency, and unlock growth across paid social, search, programmatic, video, display, and emerging paid digital channels.
• You challenge the status quo—not to disrupt, but to innovate and elevate your clients' paid media programs.
• You naturally think like a marketer, always putting yourself in the customer's shoes to ensure ad experiences are relevant and valuable.
• You're digitally savvy and entrepreneurial at heart, with a strong grasp of the entire digital marketing funnel. While paid media is your specialty, you bring hands-on fluency across paid social, search, programmatic, video, display, and emerging channels, along with working knowledge of CRM, organic social, CRO, and audience research and insights—allowing you to connect the dots across channels.
• You understand that successful paid media starts with smart planning, and you know how to tap into tools like platform audience insights, keyword planners, Google Trends, competitive intelligence platforms, social listening, media planning tools, and audience research to build customer-centric strategies that convert.
• You thrive in a fast-paced environment, love juggling multiple campaigns, and genuinely enjoy solving complex paid media challenges across paid social, search, programmatic, video, display, and emerging digital channels.
• You bring a well-rounded understanding of paid media. You know how audience-led social strategies, intent-led search strategies, programmatic buying, video storytelling, display, and emerging media channels complement each other to improve reach, relevance, engagement, traffic, and conversion.
• You know how to demonstrate audience behavior, search intent, contextual signals, creative performance, and media engagement data holistically, using insights from paid social, search, programmatic, video, display, and owned-channel performance to inform smarter campaign strategies and content planning.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of experience in a paid media, digital media, or performance marketing role, preferably with a marketing agency.
• Certifications or demonstrated platform expertise across Meta Blueprint, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and relevant paid media, social, programmatic, or measurement platforms is a requirement.
• Strong knowledge of and experience with best-in-class digital strategies, standard methodologies, industry trends.
• Experience developing digital marketing programs (brand activations, product launches, lifecycle & contact strategies, creating test plans, journey mapping, acquisition programs, digital audits, competitive & SWOT analyses etc.).
• Experience developing and evaluating strategies across paid social, search, programmatic, display, video, mobile, and other digital channels.
• Understanding of customer relationship marketing concepts, strategic frameworks, essential indicators, and tactical approaches to driving customer acquisition and retention.
• Ability to extract actionable insights from multiple, large data sets, create impactful visualizations, and tell compelling stories through data.
• Ability to translate paid media platforms, technologies, and metrics into succinct, compelling, conversational language for a variety of audiences.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to produce high-quality decks and present with confidence to senior marketing leaders.
• Ability to manage multiple high-priority projects in a fast-paced setting.

Why you might stand out from other talent:

• Advanced certifications with any of the aforementioned subject matter if preferred.

Additional Information

When you join Epsilon, we'll create something EPIC together. We're a global leader in data and identity, with deep expertise in digital media, clean rooms, customer data platforms, loyalty and marketing services. Positioned at the center of Publicis Groupe, Epsilon helps brands deliver personalized experiences at scale and build lasting customer relationships by unlocking the full potential of data and identity. Epsilon operates in 30+ countries across EMEA, the Americas and APAC, with more than 8,000 employees.

Epsilon has five values that define our culture and guide us as we create value for our clients, our people and consumers. We seek candidates who align with our company values, demonstrate them and make them meaningful in their day-to-day work:

• Act with integrity. We are transparent and have the courage to do the right thing.
• Work together to win together. We believe collaboration is the catalyst that unlocks our full potential.
• Innovate with purpose. We shape the market with big ideas that drive big outcomes.
• Respect all voices. We embrace differences and foster a culture of connection and belonging.
• Empower with accountability. We trust each other to own and deliver on common goals.

Because You Matter

As an Epsilon employee, you deserve perks and benefits that put you, your family and your finances first. Our benefits encompass a wide range of offerings, including but not limited to:

• Time to recharge: Flexible time off (FTO), 14 paid holidays, paid sick time.
• Family well-being: Parental/new child leave, childcare & elder care assistance, adoption assistance.
• Extra perks: Comprehensive health coverage, 401(k), tuition assistance, commuter benefits, professional development, employee recognition, charitable donation matching, health coaching and counseling.

Epsilon benefits are subject to eligibility requirements and other terms.

Epsilon is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Epsilon's policy is not to discriminate against any applicant or employee based on actual or perceived race, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy), marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, mental or physical disability, religion, creed, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression (including transgender status), veteran status, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Epsilon also prohibits harassment of applicants and employees based on any of these protected categories. Epsilon will provide accommodations to applicants who need accommodations to complete the application process. Please reach out to LeaveofAbsence@epsilon.com to request an accommodation.

For San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Areas: Epsilon will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment in a manner consistent with the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance and San Francisco Police Code Sections 4901-4919, commonly referred to as the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Applicants with criminal histories are welcome to apply.

Compensation Range: USD $87,100.00 - USD $161,700.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 11/6/2026.