Media Supervisor

Location: St. Louis or Chicago | Hybrid

At HLK, we believe media isn’t just about impressions and clicks, it’s about driving meaningful business impact.

We’re looking for a Media Supervisor who thrives in ownership, leads with curiosity, and knows how to turn strategy into performance. This role is designed for someone who wants real accountability, real leadership, and real influence.

Who We Are

HLK is an independent, full-service agency built on smart thinking and strong relationships. We bring strategy, media, creative, data, and CX together in ways that move brands forward.

We operate in paid media pods; small, focused teams built around client needs. Pods give our teams autonomy, clarity, and ownership. As a Media Supervisor, you’ll lead one.

The Role: Lead the Pod. Own the Performance.

The Media Supervisor serves as the client business lead for media planning, buying, and reporting. This role is responsible for agile go-to-market execution, continuous stewardship and optimization, and campaign insight development to always improve performance and return. As the Pod lead, this role is positioned to lead the media strategy and day-to-day decisions associated with achieving client objectives through data-driven means. You’ll report to the Media Director but operate with autonomy and authority within your pod.

You are:

• The strategic driver
• The performance owner
• The decision-maker
• The leader your team relies on

What You’ll Do

Own Strategy & Performance

• Translate Consumer Experience strategy and client objectives into cross-channel paid media plans.
• Make day-to-day decisions around budgets, pacing, optimizations, and channel shifts.
• Connect business goals to measurable KPIs.
• Identify risks early and pivot quickly.
• Keep a pulse on competitive pressure and cultural nuances to build your strategy with a consumer-first mindset.
• Lead performance conversations with clarity and confidence.
• Create vendor connections to bring first-to-market and first-to-brand innovation to our clients.

Lead Clients with Confidence

• Serve as the primary media contact for assigned accounts.
• Present performance results, insights, and forward-looking recommendations.
• Act as a strategic partner, not just a reporting voice.
• Ensure clients understand how media supports broader marketing and business goals.

Develop & Elevate Your Team

• Lead a Pod of Media Planners, Buyers, and Associates.
• Set clear expectations, provide coaching and training when needed, and always lead by example.
• Create media strategy and execute with agility while upholding the brand vision for client presence and meeting articulated media goals.
• Foster accountability and continuous improvement.
• Help your team grow, technically and strategically.

Strengthen Operational Excellence

• Partner with Operations and Data Intelligence to ensure flawless setup, tracking, reporting, and billing.
• Uphold documentation standards and governance processes.
• Improve workflows to remove bottlenecks and increase efficiency.

What Makes You a Fit

You’re someone who:

• Thinks strategically but loves digging into performance data.
• Can zoom out to business impact and zoom in to tactical optimizations.
• Is comfortable making decisions and owning them.
• Leads with curiosity and thoughtful communication.
Builds trust quickly with clients and teammates.

You likely have:

• 7+ years in paid media planning and performance strategy.
• Experience mentoring or leading junior team members.
• Cross-channel expertise (Search, Social, Programmatic, Video, etc.).
• Experience analyzing and interpreting performance data.
• Strong analytical instincts and storytelling ability.
• Preference given to candidates with B2B experience.

Why HLK

At HLK, you’ll find:

• Ownership without micromanagement
• Collaboration without ego
• Ambition without burnout culture
• Curiosity as a core value
Leadership that develops leaders

We believe strong strategy and strong culture go hand in hand. Pods are built to give you room to lead, not just execute. If you’re ready to move from managing campaigns to driving performance and building teams, we’d love to talk.