Senior Paid Media Planner

Senior Paid Media Planner – 2026 Election Cycle
NYC, LA, SF, Sacramento and DC candidates considered
   
Fenton is the social change agency taking on the world’s toughest challenges in human rights, social and economic justice, environment, education, and public health. Primed with deep issue expertise and powered by the creativity and passion of 100 professionals working across the country, we create strategies for clients to help build a more just, equitable and sustainable world. A fast growing and award-winning agency, we lead the industry in diverse representation as 51% of our entire staff and 52% of our leadership team are people of color. We are women-led as 72% of our staff are women.

We are a culture steeped in social change and activism, with a collaborative work environment, excellent benefits and a strong sense of purpose and community across the agency. Fenton is a remote-forward agency where staff work primarily from home but also gather in person as needed in co-working spaces. Our staff are strategically located within a 35-mile radius of our strategic hubs of New York City, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area regions.

Fenton Advertising is hiring a cycle-dedicated Senior Media Planner to develop and steward integrated media plans with heavy emphasis across local and national  offline channels—and to coordinate digital plans through approved vendors and platforms. You’ll support a mix of government, public-interest, and advocacy clients, ensuring plans are compliant, efficient, and measurable through Election Day 2026.

The Media Planner will be responsible for the activation and implementation of cross-channel media plans including creative trafficking, media planning research, and general account support. Ideal candidates will have 3-5+ years of experience at an advertising agency, political campaign, or advocacy nonprofit in a paid media role that spans both media planning and execution. 

Planning 

• Extensive experience in building and supporting media plans across traditional and digital channels 
• Ability to translate client goals into measurable media strategies with clear KPIs
• Build audience-first media plans across broadcast/cable/CTV (via vendors), terrestrial & streaming audio (via vendors), and OOH (bulletins, transit, street furniture, place-based).
• Familiar with syndicated research tools (MRI, YouGov, Resonate, etc) to guide media recommendations
• Can translate media and audience insights into actionable media media mixes, budget allocations , geo targeting, reach/frequency goals

Activation & Implementation 

• Leads the execution and delivery of media plans, working across public sector and political clients utilizing both traditional and not-traditional media.
• Oversee coordination of all digital execution with external vendor partners (e.g., programmatic, CTV/audio vendors, social/search agencies)
• Manages RFPs, negotiate proposals, review plans and ensure KPIs are aligned across partners
• Runs point on TV, radio, OOH vendor relationships, including but not limited to avails, schedules, affidavits, and make-goods s
• Able to negotiate added-value up to and above 1:1, particularly for government clients. 
• Confirm all media runs as planned, with creative correctly trafficked and QA’d for accuracy and compliance

Campaign Management 

• Monitor pacing, creative clearance, preemption risk, and delivery
• Recommend real-time reallocations to optimize delivery by  market, audience and platform
• Oversee posting and stewardship; including make-good negotiations and shortfall resolution
• Collaborate with finance team on reconciliation and invoice review 
• Produce clear weekly dashboards and end-of-flight reports (reach/frequency, CPP/CPM, delivery vs. plan; for digital, compile vendor-reported KPIs and brand-lift where available).

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Creative/Accounts/Research to align briefs, flighting calendars, message rotations, and measurement plans.
• Present plans and results to clients and stakeholders; simplify complex media rationale for non-technical audiences.

New Business

• Contribute to RFP responses for a variety of clients, from local and state governments, to PACs and advocacy organizations.

What You’ll Bring

• 3–5+ years of media planning with significant offline experience; comfortable coordinating digital through outside vendors/partners.
• Experience on government/public-sector or civic campaigns (understanding disclaimers, audit trails, FOIA/public-record, 1:1 added value).
• Strong grasp of audience development, market selection, GRP math, and stewardship/posting best practices.
• Skilled at vendor management: comparing proposals, negotiating rates/added-value, and managing make-goods.
• Meticulous with trafficking inputs, calendars, and documentation; strong Excel/Sheets skills for schedules and posts.
• Clear communicator who thrives in campaign tempo and can translate insights into practical media decisions.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with Spanish-language or multi-lingual media.
• Familiarity with brand-lift or pre/post awareness studies and how to integrate findings into media planning.
• Work within government procurement and platform policies: disclaimers, political windows, proofs of placement, and ad archive requirements.
• Support MWBE/DVBE/local vendor utilization and documentation as required by government contracts.
• Local market knowledge in NY, CA, or key battleground DMAs.

Schedule & Workload

• Campaign-tempo role with periodic evening/weekend sprints around major moments (debates, primaries, legislative pushes, GOTV). We offer comp time and structured rotations to keep workloads sustainable.

Fenton Offers

• A competitive salary against industry standards – commitment to pay equity practices – published salary bands across all levels
• Salary: $85,000–$100,000 annualized base, commensurate with experience, or $35–$45/hr if hourly/contracted,
• Access to the Fenton Learning Lab, the agency’s proprietary professional development portal.
• Comprehensive healthcare plans
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• 401K with employer match
• Profit sharing plan
• Unlimited PTO for exempt staff and generous accrual policy for non-exempt staff
• 11 paid company holidays
• Discretionary company closing between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays
• Pre-tax commuter benefits via WageWorks
• Mobile Phone Reimbursement
• We have adopted a hybrid remote/in-office worksite model.  We require all employees to live within a 35-mile radius of any one of our four strategic hubs (New York, D.C., LA or SF).  You have the option to work remotely from your home and will travel to Company meetings/events as needed, or you can work from any one of our shared workspaces.
• Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S.  We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Fenton is an anti-racist and intersectional organization that prioritizes the needs of those who have been historically marginalized or oppressed. We do the work of creating positive social change as an act of repairing the harm done to those who have been and are currently disenfranchised across racial, gender, sexual orientation and preference, religious and other marginalized backgrounds. We are committed to doing work that is rooted in justice and equity and continuing to learn how to do this work better.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong commitment to the affirmative hiring of people of color, members of the LGBTQI+ community, people with disabilities and women. We strive to represent the diverse community reflected in our client work and believe that our firm’s continued success is driven by hiring and retaining high caliber staff from all backgrounds, experiences, identities, and orientations. We are committed to supporting our staff in growing their careers.

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