Senior Director - Search Engine Marketing and Digital Advertising

About the Role

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead TransPerfect's in-house SEM team as a strategic center of excellence.
• Define the internal agency model, including intake process, SLAs, workflow, and campaign reporting standards.
• Serve as senior strategist and internal thought leader on paid search and digital advertising best practices, platform trends, and measurement models.
• Lead quarterly performance reviews and SEM opportunity briefings across business units.
• Develop high-trust, high-transparency relationships with key executive stakeholders and vertical/divisional leaders.
• Manage end-to-end campaign lifecycle from intake and planning to launch, optimization, and reporting.
• Translate internal marketing briefs into paid search strategies with aligned messaging, targeting, and budget pacing.
• Manage bidding strategies, keyword planning, and targeting refinement to ensure ROI across campaigns.
• Oversee creation and testing of ad copy, variants, extensions, and new ad formats and experimentation.
• Monitor and optimize campaigns in real time, ensuring efficient spend and strong performance on KPIs such as ROAS, CTR, CPA, and conversions.
• Deliver clear, actionable reports and insights to internal stakeholders on a monthly and quarterly basis.
• Highlight key wins and major highlights in real-time.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align paid search efforts with broader campaign goals and messaging.
• Launch 'always-on' programs for core services or products that run independently of formal briefs.
• Conduct quarterly SEM opportunity reviews based on search trends, competitor activity, and historical data.
• Lead a 'test and learn' agenda, piloting new ad types, platforms, and strategies with measurable insights shared across the team.
• Identify content and keyword gaps to inform future campaign and SEO initiatives.
• Act as the strategic SEM partner to internal vertical and product marketing teams.
• Host internal SEM sessions to provide support, brainstorm ideas, and support quick-turn requests.
• Educate stakeholders on SEM capabilities and foster a culture of performance-driven marketing.

Requirements

• 8+ years in SEM or performance marketing roles, with at least 3 years managing paid search strategy at scale.
• Demonstrated experience building or running high-volume SEM campaigns for B2B and B2C brands.
• Experience building from zero, not just optimizing existing programs.
• Strong understanding of Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Google Analytics, and conversion tracking tools.
• Knowledge of paid channels including LinkedIn, Meta, etc.
• Extensive knowledge of top-of-funnel digital advertising strategies for brand awareness, audience expansion, and demand generation (e.g., YouTube, paid social).
• Ability to translate brand or campaign goals into effective upper-funnel media plans with clear KPIs and targeting strategies.
• Understanding of applying digital advertising strategies to support new market entry initiatives.
• Proven leadership experience in building teams with agency-style operations.
• Exceptional data literacy and analytical thinking, comfortable owning dashboards and reporting frameworks.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Hands-on, proactive, and organized, with the ability to lead while also executing tasks.
• Experience in localization, SaaS, professional services, managed services, consulting, or complex B2B global marketing environments.
• Familiarity with managing SEM campaigns in multilingual markets.
• Working knowledge of SEO, CRO, or paid social to support integrated performance campaigns.

Nice to Have

• Experience in localization, SaaS, professional services, managed services, consulting, or complex B2B global marketing environments.
• Familiarity with managing SEM campaigns in multilingual markets.
• Working knowledge of SEO, CRO, or paid social to support integrated performance campaigns.

Qualifications

• No specific formal educational qualifications specified in the description.

Benefits & Perks

• Opportunity to lead SEM transformation at a global scale.
• Autonomy and support to build from the ground up.
• Work across multiple business lines.
• Drive measurable impact while eliminating external agency reliance.
• Level up internal SEM capabilities.