Brainrider is a marketing and creative agency with teams in Menlo Park/San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City, London, and Toronto. We work with ambitious marketers, in-house creative teams, and internal agencies to do more, by filling capability and capacity gaps and enabling them to execute their marketing and creative at scale.
We believe collaboration is at its best when we feel at home, so we work as a team — plain and simple. Whether we’re brainstorming better marketing ideas for our clients, or pushing the gas to meet a tight deadline, it all happens with adaptability, optimism, and teamwork.
Are you our next team member?
The Role
Job Title: Performance Marketing Specialist
Length: Thru end of year, with possibility of extension
Location: Remote, US
Pay Range: $85K-105K
Brainrider is looking for a detail-obsessed Performance Marketing Specialist to own the strategy, quality, and performance of our paid acquisition efforts across search, video, social, and emerging digital channels. This is an execution-heavy role for someone who thrives in the weeds — scrutinizing campaign setups, catching what others miss, and holding agency partners to the highest standard of performance and accuracy.
The ideal candidate comes from an agency background where they've managed multi-channel performance campaigns across a diverse client portfolio, giving them the platform expertise and operational rigor to know exactly what "good" looks like — and the conviction to flag when it doesn't. You'll work closely with our agency partner(s) to ensure flawless execution across paid search, programmatic, and non-traditional media channels, making this a role for someone who combines deep SEM expertise with a QA-first mindset and proactive communication style.
What you'll do
Agency Management & Quality Assurance (Primary Focus)
- Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for agency partner(s) managing paid search, video, social, and programmatic campaigns — setting expectations, defining priorities, holding them accountable to SLAs and optimization cadences, and proactively surfacing gaps or underperformance rather than waiting to be asked
- Own rigorous QA of all agency output — campaign builds, keyword lists, bid strategies, audience targeting, ad copy, tracking/tagging, and budget pacing — before anything goes live
- Review creative assets against platform specs and safe zones before launch — you're the person who catches that the logo is getting clipped on mobile, the headline is truncating at 28 characters instead of 30, or the CTA button is overlapping body text in the ad preview. If it's not pixel-perfect, it doesn't go live
- Enforce strict naming conventions across campaigns, ad groups, creatives, and UTMs — you're the reason the account is navigable, reportable, and audit-ready six months from now
- Maintain a "tight ship" operating cadence — campaign taxonomy is clean, naming is consistent, folders are organized, documentation is current, and nothing launches without a final preflight check
Paid Search and Paid Social Strategy & Oversight (Core Expertise)
- Own the paid search strategy across Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max), Microsoft Ads, and other SEM platforms — defining keyword architecture, match type strategy, bid frameworks, and budget allocation
- Own paid social strategy across Meta, Reddit, X, TikTok, and more.
- Drive the experimentation roadmap — define what gets tested (ad copy, bidding strategies, audience segmentation, landing pages), hold the agency to rigorous test design, and ensure learnings are documented and actioned
- Manage and optimize significant monthly budgets with a focus on efficiency metrics (CPA, ROAS, LTV/CAC, payback periods) while maintaining aggressive growth targets
Reporting, Communication & Stakeholder Management
- Build and maintain reporting dashboards and performance frameworks that enable fast, informed decision-making
- Deliver proactive status updates, performance insights, and risk flags to cross-functional stakeholders
- Translate complex campaign data into clear, actionable narratives for leadership, product marketing, and growth partners
Non-Traditional Media Buying & Programmatic (Secondary Focus — 15%)
- Oversee agency execution of programmatic campaigns across DSPs (e.g., The Trade Desk, DV360) including audience targeting, contextual placements, and retargeting
- Source, negotiate, and manage direct media buys across newsletters, industry publications, trade journals, and niche/specialty developer-focused sites
- Identify and test emerging channels — evaluate ROI potential of new placements, sponsorships, and partnership opportunities outside core social/search platforms
What you'll bring
- 5–8 years of performance marketing experience with deep expertise in SEM/paid search (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, SA360) — you know these platforms inside and out
- Agency background strongly preferred — you've managed multiple accounts/clients simultaneously and understand the pace, rigor, and accountability that agency life demands. You know what great agency work looks like because you've done it yourself
- Meticulous attention to detail that borders on compulsive — you catch the creative safe zone violation in ad preview, the naming convention break in row 847 of the bulk sheet, the UTM parameter that doesn't match the taxonomy doc. You don't just spot errors; you're personally offended by them
- Proven ability to manage and QA agency partners — you've held external teams accountable, given direct and specific feedback, and maintained high standards without micromanaging
- Track record managing substantial paid media budgets ($+/month) with clear performance outcomes and efficient spend allocation
- Proactive communicator — you default to over-communicating, surfacing issues early, and keeping stakeholders informed without being asked. You bring solutions, not just flags
- Strong analytical skills (Google Analytics, Looker, Tableau, or similar) — comfortable with data, attribution modeling, and translating performance data into actionable optimization strategies
- Experience with A/B and multivariate testing methodologies across creative, landing pages, audiences, and bidding strategies
Bonus
- Experience marketing to developer or technical audiences (developers, engineers, data scientists) — you understand how they move through paid funnels differently than consumer audiences
- Knowledge of MMPs and mobile attribution (Singular, AppsFlyer, Adjust) for app-based campaigns
Additional Information
We offer competitive salaries, paid vacation, work from home (WFH) support and set-up assistance, and a wide variety of other great perks!
The fine print:
- Please include current resume and cover letter, as we would like to learn more about you and your experience
- Candidates selected for next steps will be contacted
- You can learn more about working with us at Brainrider Careers
Brainrider is a place where everyone can do their best work and be themselves. We work as a team, plain and simple. We respect and value the unique characteristics, skills, and experiences of everyone, and support and champion each other to be the best we can be — for ourselves, our team, and our clients. We recognize that a diverse and inclusive workplace leads to better ideas, better solutions, and better results. And we’re here for that — and for you. We #ridetogether.
Relocation and sponsorship are not provided.
United States