Associate Director, Paid Search & AI LLM Ads

Darkroom is the leading next-generation growth marketing firm engineering the brands of tomorrow. Founded in 2017, we set out to redefine what a modern agency could be, by replacing the inertia of legacy advertising behemoths with a model built for speed, intelligence, and measurable impact.

At our core, Darkroom is a human services company powered by Matter, a universal AI commerce layer that integrates executive-level strategy with proprietary agentic technology. This fusion enables our teams to deliver outsized returns by enhancing creative output, operational efficiency, and revenue generation across every stage of the customer journey.

Our track record speaks for itself: billions in attributable revenue driven across e-commerce marketplaces, media networks, DTC ecosystems, and social commerce platforms. Every engagement feeds into our proprietary data infrastructure, enabling a continuous feedback loop that accelerates growth, improves margins, and compounds results across our client portfolio.

What began as a boutique design studio has evolved into one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc. 5000) and among the most effective performance media agencies of the 2020s (Varos). Our founders were recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for advancing the intersection of technology, marketing, and advertising, cementing Darkroom’s role as a defining player in the future of media innovation.

This role is based in New York, NY, and requires U.S. work authorization.

We are hiring for our Paid Media team, looking for a Associate Director, Paid Search & AI LLM Ads - a performance-driven marketer with a strong mastery of paid search advertising systems, the evolving AI search environment, and a deep understanding of the AI ecosystem and emerging ad platforms. This is not just a tactical role; it requires strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and high standards of execution across digital advertising platforms, particularly Google, YouTube, Bing, and emerging AI platforms like Kontext, Koah, Perplexity, Claude, and OpenAI (some of these platforms don’t have ad services yet). Though primarily focused on Google, the role will require expertise and campaign deployment on other paid search based platforms as well, and a willingness to try new platforms as AI search product evolve.

Perfect candidates will be obsessed with Paid Search Advertising, experts at search buying behavior, with a clear demonstrated history of selling products through paid search advertising, scaling ad accounts upwards of $1M USD per month, and having excellent client relationship management skills. You live and breath ads manager, you are curious about the emerging AI advertising ecosystem, and performance marketing at large. You want to be a part of the best team in the business at scaling brands through digital advertising.

You’ll report to the Managing Director of the department and play a key role in scaling paid media campaigns across a portfolio of high-growth consumer brands. You’ll be responsible for owning creative strategy, campaign builds, optimization, and reporting, while working closely with creative, creator, brand and analytics teams to ensure performance goals are met.

This is a fast-paced, high-accountability environment designed for marketers who are ambitious, curious, and ready to grow. You’ll gain hands-on experience in a broad range of platforms and verticals, while developing the skills needed to lead performance strategies end-to-end.

Darkroom is a career incubator for ambitious talent looking to operate at the intersection of business, design, and innovation.

• Plan, develop, and implement comprehensive paid media strategies exclusively focused on Paid Search to increase brand visibility and drive new user acquisition and leads via paid media campaigns.

• Conduct thorough brand and website audits to understand our clients’ key value propositions, core products, and brand aesthetics and identify opportunities to successfully market them and make them stand out in the marketplace.

• Obsession with the paid search advertising action, bid system, and market dynamics to best convert customers at the lowest possible cost for the brand.

• Keen to develop innovative paid search strategies that blend traditional search, YouTube, and emerging AI search.

• Conduct competitive research to ensure success in the ad space and new acquisition audience targeting.

• Manage between 6-10 Paid Media accounts (including but not limited to: Google, YouTube, Bing, and the emerging AI sSearch Platforms (Koah, Kontext) on behalf of Darkroom clients, with aggregate monthly spends ranging between $20,000 - $3M.

• Utilize Platform Ad Managers, third-party reporting tools, and AI to develop insights and action items intended to increase our clients’ revenues month-over-month and solve for attribution.

• Religious mastery of important KPIs like CPA, CAC, iROAS, nCAC, MER, aMER, CTR, and CPM.

• Understand industry-wide benchmarks throughout all steps in the e-commerce marketing funnel.

• Implement real-time, proactive, and reactionary ad-buying decisions across multiple platforms in response to up-or-down trends happening on ads platforms (you will be in ad platforms daily).

• Preemptively develop quarterly strategies for clientele based on perceived success metrics, ad spends, YoY performance metrics, and projections.

• Deep dive into competitor research, industry knowns, and brand identity to manage client expectations and continually brainstorm new marketing initiatives, creative assets, copy, and review after results.

• Understand full-funnel marketing strategies to ensure new customer acquisition is healthy within the broader e-commerce equation.

• Understand client needs for success and preemptively deliver projections and forecasts that latter into client quarterly strategy.

• Willingness and openness to learn and understand e-commerce P&Ls with a comfortability engaging with financial metrics.

• Mastery of the e-commerce marketing funnel —> offer to ad to landing page to conversion.

• 7+ years minimum of paid media advertising experience within Paid Search, Google in specific (building high converting funnels and driving quantifiable results).

• 5+ years minimum managing paid search advertising for growing clients in the consumer space spending over $400k+ minimum monthly aggregate spend.

• Expertise in developing, testing, and optimizing advertisement copy and short form video creative

• Expertise in creative consultation for successful Paid Social Ads that convert

• Background in data-derived decision-making and forecasting budgets/spend projections linked to perceived results

• Experience with all core e-commerce revenue drivers, reporting on metrics that actually matter (CPA, CAC, iROAS, aMER, CPM)

Darkroom is not a typical agency. We are looking for A players that want to build something great. There is no room in our organization for mediocrity and candidates that are not at the top of their game do not last. We move fast, think deeply, and expect every team member to bring insight and rigor to everything they touch. We hold a high bar for performance, creativity, and ownership — but we also support each other relentlessly. No egos, no red tape — just world-class talent building something remarkable.We believe in autonomy with accountability, truth over comfort, and outcomes over optics. If you want to build and win alongside some of the smartest people in the business, you’ll thrive here.

• Work-Life Balance: We recognize that time away from work is essential for growth and well-being. Our generous paid time off policy ensures you have the time you need to maintain a healthy work-life balance and perform at your best.

• Location, location, (or no) location: Remote-first culture with a strong community base. While many roles remain fully remote, employees hired to work from our New York or Lisbon HQs (opening early 2026) are expected to adopt a hybrid working model, including weekly in-office appearances. Hub locations also include the Bay Area, Philly, São Paulo, and Barcelona.

• Generous Quarterly Bonuses: Your productivity directly translates to your compensation. We offer a competitive quarterly bonus structure that is both substantial and customized to your role, ensuring your hard work is consistently and generously rewarded.

• Health & Wellness: Company-sponsored medical, dental, and vision benefits with, so you can stay as healthy as can be.

• Endless opportunities for growth: Our agency is founded on an interdisciplinary approach, giving Darkroomers insights into services far beyond your job description. Grow your skills and interests beyond your niche and stay at the forefront of the industry through total immersion in cross-functional collaboration.

• Parental Leave: flexible parental leave benefits to support new parents during this important transition, ensuring time to bond with their families while maintaining work-life balance.