Director, MDS Media

JOB SUMMARY

The Director of MDS Media provides strategic and operational oversight of the digital media functions within the Marriott Digital Services (MDS) organization. The Director is responsible for all property-level digital media campaign client services and operations within the MDS custom media practice and PLUS support programs.  A member of the MDS leadership team, the Director is a key contributor to MDS digital activation program and product growth and overall enrollment success. MDS is a cost-recoverable in-house agency that delivers digital marketing solutions to Marriott hotels worldwide. This role is accountable for shaping the future of paid media strategy, driving innovation, and delivering measurable business impact across Marriott’s global portfolio. 

The Director, MDS Media: 

• Defines and leads the long-term vision for MDS Media, aligning with enterprise digital, brand, and commercial priorities  

• Builds and maintains a cohesive media team, focused on all phases of the marketing funnel – awareness, consideration, and purchase/conversion. 

• Oversees the development and execution of integrated paid media strategies—including search, social, display, and emerging channels—that drive hotel performance and visibility. 

• Leads the MDS Media Consultation, Operations, and PLUS program support teams with a focus on enhancing client service delivery, improving operational efficiency, promoting direct channel utilization, and optimizing performance. 

• Cultivates strong partnerships with Continent Marketing teams and the Global Marketing organization to ensure seamless alignment on media priorities, process improvements, and new channels and capabilities.   Maintains proactive engagement to stay ahead of planned developments, regional media needs, PLUS evolution and enterprise-wide initiatives.   

• Uses data driven insights and analytics to inform strategic decision making, piloting new channels, and maximizing ROI across digital channels. 

CANDIDATE PROFILE  

Education and Experience   

• 12+ years digital marketing experience 

• 8+ years in a supervisory capacity 

• Experience managing campaigns via industry media platforms (ie, Google Ads, DV360, SA360, Koddi) and alongside corporate media engines, such as the Transaction Based Media Program – TBMP. 

• Prior experience in a high paced, evolving environment, building and evolving teams and organization capabilities. 

• BS/BA degree from an accredited university or related experience in Business Administration, Hospitality, Marketing, Communications, Advertising, or related field of study preferred 

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES  

Managing Work, Projects, and Policies 
 

• Champion a client-centric approach, ensuring media strategies are tailored to hotel needs and drive measurable outcomes.  

• Monitor and improve client satisfaction through Net Promoter Score (NPS) and other feedback mechanisms. 

• Lead and grow high-performing Media Consultation and Operations teams.  

• Foster associate engagement, career development, and a culture of excellence and accountability. 

• Leverage advanced analytics and insights to inform strategic decisions, optimize media investments, and maximize KPIs across all channels. Establish frameworks for continuous improvement and ROI measurement. 

• Leads the MDS Media Consultation, Operations, and PLUS support teams driving associate engagement and satisfaction.   

• Makes and executes the necessary decisions to keep team moving forward toward achieving goals 

• Thinks creatively and practically to develop and implement paid media solutions at the hotel, market, and regional level  

• Works closely with internal MDS teams to drive client satisfaction for paid media products and services 

• Serves as a key point of escalation for the MDS Media discipline 

• Responsible for driving media enrollment, PLUS adoption, and revenue growth for MDS. 

• Oversees the implementation, ongoing optimization, and reporting for media campaigns globally. 

• Accountable for program/campaign deliverables and quality review of team/vendor work, timeliness, and execution. 

• Leads efforts to implement and/or improve processes, systems, and campaign management tools. 

• Ensures accurate billing and media account reconciliation, adhering to MI finance policies, and leveraging existing or new tools to keep media finances in order, in partnership with Business Support. 

• Continually aligns strategies with best practices to improve quality, effectiveness, and efficiency. 

• Creates new workflows, training guidelines and documentation (as needed) to improve program/campaign delivery. 

• Ensures media services are economically viable, efficient, repeatable, KPI-driven, and scalable. 

Demonstrating and Applying Discipline Knowledge  

• Stays up to date on industry best-practices and works to implement new ideas, techniques and tactics within the media landscape  

• Identifies digital trends and understand new technologies and align these with business objectives to create new and innovative services. 

• Ensures day-to-day media management operations meet objectives delivering against ROAS target and delivering against client expectations 

• Responsible for the development and execution of paid media tactics across multiple platforms for individual hotels.  

• Regularly reviews paid media workflow, systems, and processes to identify ways to improve efficiencies  

• Completes ad-hoc projects; contributes to research, planning and execution for individual hotel, cluster and regional initiatives.   

• Collect and provide feedback regularly on platform enhancements such as client-facing reporting dashboards, enrollment, UX improvements, and automated administrative functions. 

• Partner closely with Global and Continent teams to identify additional hotel level opportunities through more sophisticated buying capabilities and new publishing partners 

• Develops MDS guidelines and best practices within areas of expertise; shares learning cross-functionally.   

• Own and manage the repository of media process documentation  

• Develops specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish work for self and direct reports. 

• Determines team priorities, schedules, plans and necessary resources to ensure completion of any projects on schedule. 

• Analyzes information and evaluates results to choose the best solution and solve problems. 

• Thinks creatively and practically to develop, execute and implement new plans and/or programs. Generates and provides accurate and timely results in the form of reports, presentations, etc. 

• Supports achievement of performance goals, budget goals, team goals, etc. 

• Formulate and implement departmental policies and procedures to maximize team output. 

• Delegate responsibilities, monitor workload and performance, provide ongoing feedback, manage expectations and provide motivation to the entire team 

• Ability to work in a highly independent matter and influences client decisions and strategies with regard to Annual Business Plans.  

• Responds to, solves and makes decisions on business requests that have broader department impact and/or moderate risk.  Presents alternative solutions to business issues by leveraging the broader organization. 

Tools and Vendors 

• Oversees media platforms including but not limited to PLUS, DV360, SA360, Google Ads, Google Campaign Manager, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Pinterest, LinkedIn, Sprinklr. 

• Leverages Salesforce, PLUS, and other systems both internal and external to manage processes and workflow. 

• Works with vendor partners to support business objectives 

Measurement and Analytics 

• Analyzes campaign performance, provides strategic and tactical recommendations to increase performance. 

• Identifies media channels that are most effective at driving performance and scale across MDS. 

• Measures campaigns using appropriate key performance indicator (KPI) classifications based on media type – impressions, clicks, CPB, CTR, CPC, CPA, CPM, RFPs, Call to Book, conversions. 

Leading Team 

• Supervises a team of Sr. Managers, Managers, Senior Digital Analysts, Analysts, and vendor partners. 

• Makes sure associates understand performance expectations and business priorities. 

• Creates and nurtures an environment that emphasizes motivation, empowerment, teamwork, continuous improvement, and a passion for providing service. 

• Leads by example demonstrating self-confidence, professionalism, energy, and enthusiasm. 

• Establishes and maintains open, collaborative relationships with associates. 

Conducting Human Resources Activities  

• Establishes goals and communicates results with employees. 

• Establishes and maintains open, collaborative relationships with associates. 

• Interviews job candidates and makes hiring decisions. 

• Ensures onboarding for new team members is thorough and completed in a timely fashion.

Additional Responsibilities  

• Attends and participates in all relevant internal and external meetings. 

• Informs, updates, and provides information to managers and co-workers in a timely manner. 

• Presents ideas, expectations, and information in a concise, organized manner. 

• Uses problem solving methodology for decision making and follow up. 

• Maintains positive working relations with internal customers and department managers. 

• Manages time effectively and conducts activities in an organized manner. 

• Supports ongoing Digital Services thought leadership activities – webinars, training sessions, social posts, blog posts, presentations, etc.  

• Continual education and self-growth through reading industry blogs and social media, attending industry conferences, seminars, analyzing research briefs, etc. 

• Performs other reasonable duties, such as special projects, as assigned by manager and Digital Services leadership team.