Director, Media Planning & Buying

About this role

If you’re passionate about becoming a Nationwide associate and believe you have the potential to be something great, let’s talk. At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

SEO and Search Leadership Role We are seeking a strategic, experienced search marketing leader to oversee Nationwide's SEO function while also leading our Paid Search and in-house Programmatic teams. This role requires deep expertise in SEO, strong cross-channel fluency, and the leadership presence to guide internal teams, agency partners, and senior stakeholders.   Core experience and expertise The ideal candidate brings deep, hands-on SEO experience and a strong understanding of how organic search supports broader marketing and business objectives. They should be able to set strategy, identify growth opportunities, translate insights into action, and lead SEO as a high-impact discipline across the organization. They should also bring experience helping organizations adapt to the rapidly changing search and content landscape shaped by AI, including evolving consumer behavior, search experiences, and content strategy implications.

Additional experience in both B2C and B2B environments is highly preferred, as this role will benefit from a leader who understands how search strategies differ across audiences, buying cycles, and business models.

Exposure to, or direct expertise in, paid search and programmatic media buying is also strongly preferred. This role will lead with credibility across performance media channels and understand how SEO, paid search, and programmatic work together to drive results.   What you'll do • Head up the SEO function • Lead the Paid Search team, including one associate • Lead the in-house Programmatic team, including three team members • Manage the external agency partner that serves as an embedded extension of the team and is closely integrated into the organization

Success in this role will require balancing strategic leadership with operational oversight, team development, agency management, and strong cross-functional partnership.

What we're looking for • Deep SEO expertise, including strategy development, execution, and performance optimization • Strong working knowledge of paid search and programmatic media, with the ability to lead across connected performance channels • Experience operating in complex, matrixed organizations and partnering effectively across teams • Strong people leadership skills, including the ability to coach, develop, and align both direct reports and agency partners • Excellent relationship-building and communication skills • Confidence presenting to senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders • Executive presence, sound judgment, and the ability to lead with credibility and authority

  This is a high-visibility leadership role for a candidate who combines deep search expertise with strong team leadership, agency management, and executive-level communication skills. The ideal person will be equally effective setting vision, building relationships, and driving performance across SEO, paid search, and programmatic media.

This hybrid position is based in Columbus, OH. Candidates located near a Nationwide campus will collaborate in office 2 days per week. Current Nationwide Remote Associates may be considered.

Job Description Summary Are you ready to put your marketing savvy, communications skills and data driven approach to work for one of the top brands in the insurance and financial services industry? If you want to influence a large marketing investment spend, drive business growth and profitable results using the best in class marketing technology, we want to hear from you!

As a Director of Media Planning & Buying, you'll lead Nationwide’s internal media buying team. You'll be responsible for the media strategy, activation and optimization of Nationwide’s advertising investment. We'll count on you to produce coordinated media plans, based on data, that deliver business impact for the enterprise. Job Description Key Responsibilities:  • Leads all aspects of scalable campaign execution operation and procedures. Leads team processes, guides the team on specific campaign actions, develops partner relationships and ensures key performance indicators are met.

• Works directly with tech partners, media publishers, advertising agencies and internal partners to design, build and optimize marketing media buys.

• Supports and elevates Nationwide’s online presence and engagement across digital platforms. Closely collaborate with internal partners, advertising agencies, tech companies, media publishers and data providers to drive high impact media campaigns.

• Represents media team internally working closely with other Marketing areas. 

• Leads the company’s external media agencies across coordinated planning, activation and analytics teams.

• Researches and builds partnerships with new media publishers, data partners, and technology companies that would improve the capabilities, efficiency and effectiveness of the enterprise Media team.

• Administers associate management, including performance management, salary planning and administration, training and development, workflow and organizational planning, hiring and placement and disciplinary actions. Continually scouts for strong talent; building a potential pipe line of talent.

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Reporting Relationships: Reports to Associate Vice President/Vice President; Manages a team of four or more marketing professionals and may be responsible for matrix reporting relationships and virtual teams.

Typical Skills and Experiences: 

Education: Undergraduate degree in a quantitative field, e.g., business, finance, communication, etc. preferred; Graduate degree in closely-related field preferred.

Experience: Typically, te

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