Sr. Director of Planning

AMS is looking for a dynamic Sr. Director of Planning to lead our next era of growth and innovation. This media and marketing expert will inspire clients, shape new products, and represent AMS as a thought leader in the marketplace.

Location: Hybrid, New York City 

Why This Role Matters

As the Sr. Director of Planning, you’ll set the vision for how AMS designs audience-first media strategies that drive real business outcomes. You’ll be the trusted advisor clients rely on, the voice they want on stage at conferences, and the partner they call when they need answers to tomorrow’s questions today.

This is your opportunity to:

• Speak on panels, publish thought leadership, and raise AMS’s visibility as a leader in planning innovation.
• Partner with senior leadership to shape new planning tools, products, and proprietary frameworks.
• Lead a very high-performing team of planners, developing talent and setting new standards of excellence.
• Drive organic growth and win new business through bold strategies and a clear point of view.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Client Impact

• Serve as senior strategic lead across high-value client relationships, ensuring AMS solutions drive measurable ROI.
• Build enduring trust with clients by simplifying complexity, answering the “ask behind the ask,” and consistently delivering bold, insight-led recommendations.
• Act as a senior spokesperson for AMS—participating in panels, publishing thought leadership, and showcasing AMS’s differentiated planning POV.
• Partner with Sales and senior leadership to win new business, bringing credibility, insight, and innovation to pitches and prospect conversations.

Innovation & Product Development

• Identify emerging media opportunities and craft test-and-learn agendas that validate their impact for clients.
• Collaborate with Product, Research, and Analytics to shape new planning frameworks, proprietary tools, and forecasting models.
• Contribute to AMS’s intellectual property by developing ideas that can be productized and scaled across the organization.
• Advise clients and internal teams on “new-to-market” platforms, technologies, and planning approaches.

Team Development & Organizational Influence

• Lead, mentor, and inspire the Planning team to consistently raise the bar for output quality, creativity, and rigor.
• Model best-in-class planning discipline and codify frameworks that scale across geographies and client portfolios.
• Champion cross-functional collaboration with Media, Research, Analytics, and Sales to ensure integrated, outcome-driven solutions.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, intellectual generosity, and continuous learning—making AMS the place where the best planners want to work and grow.

What We’re Looking For

• Executive Presence & Influence:

o Commands credibility with clients, prospects, and peers. Synthesizes complexity into clarity, providing confident direction.

o Recognized industry presence through panels, publications, or thought leadership contributions (or strong readiness to step into this role).

• Trusted Innovator: Connects client challenges with market shifts to create new approaches, frameworks, and products.
• Mentorship & Culture Builder:

o Elevates others, encourages feedback culture, and builds trust within and beyond the Planning team.

o Known as both a thinker and a doer: you can generate breakthrough ideas and operationalize them with discipline

• Storytelling Excellence: Exceptional ability to transform data into compelling narratives that persuade at the highest levels.
• Media and Marketing Expertise:

o 12+ years of experience in media planning, strategy, or related fields, with proven leadership at the Director/VP/SVP level.

o Demonstrated success leading high-stakes client relationships and delivering strategies that drive measurable business outcomes.

o Deep fluency across the media ecosystem (TV, digital, programmatic, OOH, audio, emerging platforms).

o Technical fluency with BI/data visualization platforms (Power BI, Tableau, Domo), syndicated data (MRI, Nielsen, YouGov, Resonate), and media research tools.

Why Join Us

At AMS, strategy acumen is sharpened with every conversation, pitch, and client interaction. We tackle new challenges with curiosity and rarely rinse and repeat projects. By sitting on this team, you broaden and deepen your expertise amongst verticals, channels and emerging media and tech. You also broaden your exposure as you develop and present thought leadership to peers in the industry.

Travel

Up to 20% domestic and international travel for client meetings, industry conferences, and thought leadership engagements. Some night and weekend work required.

Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

The salary range for this role is $135,000 - $155,000. The successful candidate’s salary will depend on the actual ranges of current employees in the subject position, market considerations, budgetary considerations, geography, as well as the candidate’s skill set, level of experience, and qualifications. AMS offers a very competitive benefits package inclusive of medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, paid time off, community engagement opportunities, great colleagues, and great learning opportunities.