As a strategic advisor to clients and internal teams, you will be responsible for defining media investment strategies that align with business objectives, customer journeys, and growth goals. You will serve as the lead strategist responsible for determining the optimal channel mix, budget allocation, audience targeting approach, testing frameworks, and performance optimization strategies across integrated activation programs. This role requires a deep understanding of both traditional and digital media ecosystems, strong vendor and publisher relationships, and a relentless curiosity for emerging trends, technologies, and opportunities shaping the future of media. While this role will oversee media buying and investment decisions, it is first and foremost a strategic planning and optimization role. 

Primary Responsibilities 

Strategic Media Planning & Investment Leadership 

• Develop comprehensive, data-informed media strategies aligned with client business objectives and marketing goals. 
• Define integrated channel strategies across digital and traditional media platforms. 
• Determine the optimal mix of paid channels based on audience behavior, customer journey stage, business objectives, and market opportunity. 
• Develop annual, campaign-level, and activation-specific media plans that maximize efficiency and effectiveness. 
• Establish investment frameworks, budget allocation models, and media recommendations that balance awareness, consideration, demand generation, and sales activation objectives. 
• Serve as CLUTCH’s internal and client-facing subject matter expert on media strategy and channel planning. 

All Channel Strategy & Ecosystem Leadership 

• Define the role, purpose, and strategic contribution of each channel within the broader customer journey and growth ecosystem. 
• Develop + lead integrated channel strategies – including social, paid, owned, earned, and shared media environments. 
• Establish channel-specific objectives, audience strategies, content frameworks, activation approaches, and success metrics. 
• Provide strategic recommendations across social platforms, search, programmatic, endemic media, television, radio, print, YouTube, CTV, newsletters, communities, and emerging channels. 
• Ensure channel investments align with business objectives, audience consumption behaviors, and customer decision-making processes. 
• Lead channel testing initiatives to identify new opportunities, improve performance, and optimize investment allocation. 
• Translate channel performance data into strategic recommendations that improve awareness, engagement, demand generation, and conversion outcomes. 
• Continuously evaluate changes in audience behavior, platform capabilities, AI-driven media experiences, and emerging distribution channels. 

Media Buying & Vendor Management 

• Lead media investment strategy and buying coordination across digital and traditional channels. 
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with publishers, media partners, technology platforms, and vendors. 
• Evaluate media opportunities, negotiate placements, and identify strategic partnerships that create value for clients. 
• Continuously assess new media offerings and opportunities to improve campaign effectiveness and efficiency. 
• Ensure media investments align with both strategic objectives and performance expectations. 

Strategic Channel Optimization & Performance Evaluation 

• Lead ongoing optimization efforts across campaigns, channels, and media investments. 
• Evaluate channel effectiveness beyond surface-level metrics by considering channel purpose, audience engagement, customer behavior, and contribution to broader business goals. 
• Develop testing frameworks and experimentation roadmaps to identify opportunities for continuous improvement. 
• Recommend adjustments to channel mix, investment levels, targeting strategies, and media tactics based on performance insights. 
• Work closely with analytics and reporting teams to translate data into actionable media recommendations. 

Client Relationship Leadership 

• Serve as a trusted advisor to clients on media strategy, channel investment decisions, and performance optimization opportunities. 
• Present recommendations, campaign performance, and strategic insights to client stakeholders. 
• Educate clients on emerging trends, evolving media landscapes, and new opportunities for growth. 
• Build confidence and trust through strategic thinking, clear communication, and consultative problem solving. 

Media Innovation & Industry Leadership 

• Stay at the forefront of media innovation, emerging platforms, evolving consumer behaviors, and advertising technologies. 
• Continuously evaluate shifts in media consumption and identify implications for client strategies. 
• Monitor developments across AI-powered advertising, conversational platforms, retail media networks, programmatic innovation, CTV, YouTube, social media, and emerging advertising ecosystems. 
• Bring new thinking, ideas, and opportunities to both clients and internal teams. 
• Champion a culture of curiosity, experimentation, and continuous learning. 

Audience Development & Media Monetization Strategy 

• Identify opportunities to build and monetize niche audience communities, content ecosystems, newsletters, sponsorship programs, and industry-focused media properties. 
• Develop strategies for audience growth, partner engagement, sponsorship activation, and revenue generation.
• Evaluate media platform opportunities that strengthen CLUTCH’s ability to connect clients with highly targeted audiences. 
• Help establish scalable operating models for future publishing and audience development initiatives. 

What This Role Is Not 

While we may ask you to support these functions, this role is not primarily responsible for: 

• Ad operations 
• Campaign trafficking 
• Pixel implementation 
• Campaign setup and deployment 
• Dashboard development 
• Day-to-day reporting execution 

The ideal candidate understands these functions, can collaborate effectively with the teams responsible for them, and is willing to jump in when needed, but their primary value comes from strategic planning, media leadership, optimization, and investment guidance. 

Qualifications 

• 5+ years of experience in media strategy, planning, buying, and optimization. 
• Demonstrated success developing integrated media strategies across both traditional and digital channels. 
• Deep understanding of paid search, social, programmatic, YouTube, CTV/OTT, endemic media, print, radio, and television. ß
• Strong vendor negotiation and relationship management experience. 
• Proven ability to translate business objectives into effective media investment strategies. 
• Experience presenting recommendations and performance insights to executive stakeholders. 
• Hands-on experience with a dedicated media planning platform (e.g., Bionic, Mediaocean, BluHorn) preferred; familiarity with Bionic a strong plus. 
• Strong analytical mindset combined with strategic business thinking. 

Success in This Role 

Success will be measured by your ability to: 

• Develop media strategies that drive measurable business outcomes. 
• Help clients make smarter media investment decisions. 
• Continuously improve channel effectiveness through strategic optimization. 
• Identify emerging opportunities before competitors do. 
• Strengthen CLUTCH’s reputation as a trusted growth partner and media advisor. 
• Retain client media investment and drive account growth by delivering demonstrated performance, strategic value, and proactive identification of expanded media opportunities. 
• Contribute to the development of scalable audience, publishing, and media monetization initiatives that create long-term value for both CLUTCH and its clients. 

Some people manage accounts. Other people become the person a client wants in the room when an important decision needs to be made.

We’re looking for the second kind.

The Director, Client Success is responsible for building relationships that go well beyond keeping projects on time and clients happy. You’ll understand our clients’ businesses, help shape their strategies, recognize opportunities for growth, and bring together the right people across CLUTCH to turn those opportunities into action.

You’ll be the voice of the client inside CLUTCH and the voice of CLUTCH with the client. That requires good judgment, curiosity, confidence, and the ability to tell people what they need to hear—not just what they want to hear.

You’ll also lead people. We want someone who enjoys helping talented teammates get better, has a keen ability to bring the right people into the room at the right time, can rally a group around a shared goal and knows that great client service is a team sport.

If you like the idea of growing clients, growing people and helping grow CLUTCH at the same time, we should probably talk. 

What we’ll expect from this role 

• Client Leadership: You’ll establish, strengthen and expand senior-level client relationships while ensuring we deliver the kind of experience and results that make clients want CLUTCH involved in what comes next. 

• Strategic Planning: You’ll facilitate annual planning and/or planning sprints with clients and CLUTCH department leads, review progress quarterly and make sure strategy, execution, budgets and timelines remain connected. 

• Business + Marketing Strategy: You’ll understand what our clients are trying to accomplish at a business level and help determine how marketing, sales, communications, comprehension and other CLUTCH capabilities can help them get there. 

• The Voice in Both Rooms: You’ll represent the client internally and CLUTCH externally. You’ll bring client and market insights into our strategy and business-development conversations and make sure both sides understand what matters and why. 

• Integrated Execution: You’ll partner with teams across CLUTCH to manage and implement client work, including budgets, resources, scopes of work and change requests. You don’t need to do everyone’s job, but you do need to know how all the pieces fit together. 

• Client Growth: You’ll identify organic growth opportunities within existing relationships and develop action plans with the leadership team. We want someone who can recognize where CLUTCH can create additional value—not someone who waits for the client to ask. 

• New Business: You’ll support CLUTCH new-business efforts within our focus industries and offerings, bringing your industry knowledge, strategic thinking and client perspective to the table. 

• Team Leadership: You’ll lead and develop team members through coaching, training, and regular feedback. Part of your success in this role will be measured by the success of the people around you. 

• Creative Problem Solving: You’ll develop solutions, identify opportunities and coordinate initiatives that improve client engagement and drive client success. Complicated problems are part of the deal. Ideally, you enjoy them.

The skills you’ll need

• Significant experience in agriculture and integrated ag systems, particularly ag retail. 
• Strong experience building and leading teams. 
• Deep experience managing client and/or customer relationships and developing marketing strategy. 
• Experience in managing a product portfolio and P&L  
• Experience managing and developing team members. 
• Experience in working directly with sales team and go-to-market strategies 
• Experience executing integrated marketing and communications plans. 
• Experience and knowledge of lead-generation practices. 
• Demonstrated budget-management and resource-planning experience. 
• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills. 
• An entrepreneurial mindset and an instinct for finding opportunity. 
• The ability to coach and develop talent, inspire change and bring teams together around a common goal. 
• A collaborative, integrated-team approach. 
• Ability to travel, typically less than 20%.

The experience you should already have  

• A bachelor’s degree in agriculture, communications, business or a related field. 
• Typically 10 years of combined experience in agency or corporate project management/leadership  
• We’re looking for someone who can earn a client’s trust, challenge their thinking when necessary, develop the people around them and spot the next opportunity before it becomes obvious. If that sounds like the kind of work you want to be doing, please head in our general direction. 

This is a good role for someone who’s ready to go beyond managing the work and really get to know a client’s business. Maybe you’ve worked on the agency side, the corporate side, or a little of both. You’ve partnered with sales teams, owned a product line, portfolio or meaningful piece of a business, and have some firsthand appreciation for what our clients are juggling every day. You’ll bring that perspective and empathy to the relationship, ask good questions, spot opportunities and help clients figure out where they want to go—and how CLUTCH can help them get there. 

That sounds useful to us. 

We’re looking for an Associate Director, Client Success who can build strong client relationships while bringing a strategic, growth-minded perspective to the work. You’ll focus on a core group of clients with significant potential and help us figure out how CLUTCH can make their businesses more successful. 

This role sits at an important intersection: part relationship builder, part strategist, part problem solver and part get-it-done person. You’ll need to understand where clients want to go, connect their business objectives to marketing and sales opportunities and bring together the right people across CLUTCH to make it happen. 

What we’ll expect from this role 

• Client Relationships: You’ll build, strengthen and expand relationships with clients and the full CLUTCH team. You should become someone clients trust to understand their business—not just their latest project. 

• Client Growth: You’ll focus on a core group of clients with strong growth potential and bring a combined marketing and sales mindset to the relationship. You’ll look beyond the current scope of work to identify where we can create more value. 

• Planning + Strategy: You’ll collaborate on planning sessions with clients and department leads, review progress quarterly and help turn larger business objectives into strategies and actions. 

• Business Minded Solutions: You’ll bring your unique blend of sales and marketing expertise to our clients, ensuring our proposed solutions go beyond traditional marcomm ideas and executions. 

• Retention + Expansion: You’ll take a consultative approach to understanding client objectives and needs, identify new project opportunities across the CLUTCH business model and help develop action plans to pursue them. 

• Creative Problem Solving: Clients don’t always show up with a perfectly packaged problem. You’ll develop creative solutions, identify opportunities and coordinate initiatives that increase engagement and drive client success. 

• Business + Market Analysis: You’ll assist with market and industry research and business analysis to ensure we are on top of market trends and dynamics. You should be interested in understanding what’s happening in a client’s world and what it means for their business. 

• Budget + Resource Management: You’ll create and manage budgets for designated campaigns and project clients and help ensure our resources are being used thoughtfully. 

• Presentations + Proposals: You’ll manage and create presentations, project proposals and scopes of work that clearly communicate what we recommend, why we recommend it and what it will take to get it done. 

• Cross-Functional Leadership: You’ll help bring teams together to deliver the creativity and business acumen our clients expect. You’ll work with internal teams, vendors and subcontractors to keep day-to-day execution moving. 

• The CLUTCH Experience: You’ll work with your Client Success teammates to make sure clients receive a consistent experience across the company. You’ll also support new-business and business-development initiatives when needed. 

The skills you’ll need

• Significant experience in agriculture and integrated ag systems, particularly ag retail. 
• Strong experience building and leading teams. 
• Deep experience managing client and/or customer relationships and developing marketing strategy. 
• Experience in managing a product portfolio and P&L  
• Experience managing and developing team members. 
• Experience in working directly with sales team and go-to-market strategies 
• Experience executing integrated marketing and communications plans. 
• Experience and knowledge of lead-generation practices. 
• Demonstrated budget-management and resource-planning experience. 
• Strong written, verbal and presentation skills. 
• An entrepreneurial mindset and an instinct for finding opportunity. 
• The ability to coach and develop talent, inspire change and bring teams together around a common goal. 
• A collaborative, integrated-team approach. 
• Ability to travel, typically less than 20%.

The experience you should already have  

• A bachelor’s degree in agriculture, communications, business or a related field. 
• Typically 5-7 years of combined experience in agency or corporate marketing. 

This is a good role for someone who wants to move beyond managing the work and start having a bigger hand in deciding where the work—and the client relationship—should go next.