Director, Paid Media

MKTQ125R59

Databricks is seeking a Director, Paid Media to lead our global media planning function and define how paid media supports brand awareness, demand generation, and pipeline growth across the full funnel. 

You will lead a team of global media planners to develop audience-first, account-focused strategies that engage both technical practitioners and executive decision-makers across priority accounts. This highly cross-functional role partners closely with Corporate Brand, Product Marketing, Integrated Campaigns, Field Marketing, Analytics, and external agencies to deliver cohesive, data-driven media strategies at scale.

The impact you will have:

• Guide the development of cross-channel media strategies that deliver measurable year-over-year increases in brand awareness, target account engagement, and pipeline contribution across integrated campaigns and priority product areas.
• Build and scale a high-performing global media strategy organization by hiring and developing top talent, increasing talent density, scalability, and strategic output over time.
• Create an environment of continuous learning with clear expectations, coaching, and growth opportunities, resulting in improved team performance, stronger bench strength, and readiness to support evolving business priorities.
• Establish and scale global media planning frameworks, processes, and best practices that improve consistency and efficiency across regions and campaigns, reducing planning cycle times and increasing adoption of standard methodologies.
• Align media investment strategy and budget allocation to business goals so that a greater share of spend is directed toward the highest-impact audiences, channels, and programs, improving return on media investment and pipeline efficiency.
• Ensure media strategies are grounded in strong audience insights and aligned to key practitioner and executive personas, increasing reach, penetration, and engagement within priority accounts.
• Implement consistent global measurement frameworks and executive-ready reporting in partnership with Analytics, improving visibility into media’s contribution to pipeline and revenue and enabling faster optimization cycles.
• Model and reinforce Databricks’ culture principles while staying ahead of evolving media trends and best practices through a structured test-and-learn agenda, resulting in a collaborative, high-performance team and continuous improvements in overall media effectiveness.

What we look for:

• 10+ years of experience in media strategy, digital marketing, or integrated marketing in a B2B environment within SaaS or enterprise technology.
• Proven experience leading global media planning efforts across multiple channels and funnel stages, with demonstrated impact on pipeline, engagement, or revenue metrics.
• Demonstrated experience hiring, developing, and managing teams of individual contributors, including early and mid-career talent, with a track record of building high-performing teams.
• Strong understanding of full-funnel marketing measurement, including brand, demand, pipeline, and revenue metrics.
• Ability to set clear objectives, prioritize effectively, and empower teams to deliver results with autonomy.
• Strong collaboration and influencing skills, with experience driving alignment across matrixed organizations.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to translate complex data into clear strategic recommendations that drive business decisions.
• Familiarity with modern media platforms, AdTech, and measurement tools.