[Hiring] Associate Director, Strategy @Thrive Digital

Role Description

This is a build-and-grow moment. We're expanding our performance practice around ecommerce, and the work comes with a portfolio most marketers only get to admire from the outside. Think breakout DTC and omnichannel consumer brands, the ones already in your cart, your closet and your feed, whose growth story is still being written. You won't just be running campaigns for them. You'll be the strategic partner helping them figure out how paid media compounds into revenue, customer lifetime value and durable, profitable growth. That means owning the questions that actually move a business: how do we acquire new customers profitably, know which spend is truly incremental, and scale without giving up margin? The tactical craft matters (shopping feeds, creative testing, ROAS, CAC and MER performance), but here it's in service of something bigger: shaping how some of the most exciting consumer brands out there grow. If your idea of success starts and ends with in-platform ROAS, this likely isn't your fit. But if you think about ecommerce as a growth strategy, not just a channel, let's chat.

Joining the Performance department as Associate Director, Strategy, you’ll deliver strategic leadership to performance teams, leveraging industry trends to evolve Thrive’s services and client marketing strategies. You’ll partner closely with leadership to align team goals with company growth, while managing key relationships and ensuring the long-term success of high-complexity projects and prospects.

• Domain: Recognized as a leader in performance marketing both within Thrive and in the industry, you make expert contributions to the Performance department, ensuring long-term project success and enhancing the skills of those involved.
• Client: Championing client success as the hands-on strategic lead across large, multi-faceted accounts, digging into performance, solving problems directly, and refining processes across projects and teams to strengthen client partnerships and retention.
• People: Manage a team of senior performance marketers and act as an advocate at scale. Helping others elevate their performance marketing skills or add new skills to their toolkit for project growth and performance. You lead a results-driven culture that in turn leads to consistent and measurable growth.
• Company: Support senior leadership in the Performance department and collaborate with other supporting function leaders to develop, set and execute the roadmap for Thrive's short to long-term performance marketing product and services plans.

We’re committed to delivering an exceptional onboarding experience that will create a strong foundation for your launch in this role:

• In your first 30 days: Become familiar with Thrive’s tools, processes, and expectations for high-complexity accounts, while building relationships across Performance leadership, strategists, and key cross-functional partners.
• In your first 60 days: Begin actively contributing strategic input across high-complexity accounts, supporting key client moments alongside account leaders, and identifying early opportunities to strengthen delivery consistency, team workflow, or performance standards.
• In your first 90 days: Step into leading high-impact client moments for high-complexity accounts, demonstrate measurable impact through improved team execution and client outcomes.

Qualifications

• You’ve led and owned large-scale, multi-channel, full-funnel performance marketing programs with monthly media spend exceeding $1M USD, driving sustained performance across platforms (e.g., Meta, Search, YouTube, Programmatic, TikTok).
• You’ve led and developed multi-level teams of 15+, including managing managers, setting performance standards, and scaling team impact through others.
• You’ve designed and evolved performance reporting and dashboards (using tools like Looker, Google Sheets, Excel, Tableau…) that enable clear decision-making, executive communication, and accountability against business KPIs.
• You’ve led initiatives and process improvements adopted at the department or company level, raising performance standards and operational consistency.
• You’ve owned performance strategy across diverse business models, leading forecasting, pacing, and measurement while confidently advising senior and C-suite executive stakeholders.
• You’ve led complex client relationships with multiple senior executive stakeholders, navigating high-stakes situations and driving buy-in through clear, confident communication and strategic recommendations.

Benefits

• Competitive total compensation package reflecting role scope, experience, and impact.
• Comprehensive benefits program with remote-first, flexible work.
• Paid vacation and wellbeing time.
• Career development support and internal career coaches.
• Robust health, dental, and paramedical coverage.

Company Description

Thrive is a leading full-funnel digital marketing agency supporting growth for some of North America’s most ambitious companies. We evolve our services through disciplined learning, continuous improvement, and close partnership with our clients - regularly assessing what works, what doesn’t, and where to raise the bar.

Our mission is to help companies grow sustainably. To do that, we’ve built deep expertise across performance marketing, brand marketing, digital design, and data and measurement, managing more than $5 billion USD in advertising spend over the past decade.

• Our work spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise organizations, including Alo, Zoom, Slack, Uber, Asana, Masterclass, Snapchat, Change.org, and lululemon.
• Our culture values curiosity, accountability, and thoughtful problem-solving.
• We challenge our teams to grow and take ownership of their work while respecting boundaries and long-term sustainability.
• Thrive is a place where experimentation is encouraged, learning is continuous, and people are supported to do high-quality work they’re proud of - together.