Performance Marketing + Consulting Lead (Client-Facing): Paid Media (Meta, Google, TikTok) & C-Suite Advisory | New York City (On-site) | Up to $250K + Equity

The role in one line

Performance marketing + client-facing consulting, in one seat. A hands-on performance marketer who also owns the client relationship: you run and fix AI-driven ad accounts for fast-growing consumer brands, then walk their CEOs, CMOs and CFOs through what happened and what to do next.

The opportunity

A seed-funded AI startup in New York’s Financial District is building the AI-native way for brands to grow revenue through paid advertising. Its agents plan, run and optimise campaigns across Meta, Google, TikTok and other channels, replacing much of what agencies and manual media buying do today. The founders held senior roles at one of the world’s largest ad platforms, the team is four people, and the product is live with paying consumer brands.

The founders are still running every customer relationship themselves. You are the first hire brought in to take that over. It is early, it is high impact, and the company is not yet proven at scale, so the person in this seat will shape a lot of what it becomes.

Priority 1: Performance marketing (the foundation)

This is an operator role before it is anything else. Strategy matters, but you will spend real time inside ad accounts.

• Analyse ad performance and run account audits across client campaigns: spend efficiency, creative, audiences, bidding, structure, tracking.
• Make changes directly in client ad accounts when the situation calls for a human hand: restructures, overrides, fast fixes while the automation catches up.
• Work across channels. Meta is central, Google is one platform among several, and the bar is multi-channel paid acquisition, not expertise in a single tool.
• Turn complex performance data into clear narratives that a founder or CFO can act on in a ten-minute read.
• Translate what the AI agents did and why, and feed each client’s business context (margins, inventory, launches, seasonality) back into the system.

The depth required is genuine hands-on experience running paid media, ideally at a fast-growing consumer or DTC brand or an adtech startup. Your name was on the account and the results.

Priority 2: Client-facing advisory (what makes this role different)

Plenty of strong media buyers never sit across from a CFO. This seat needs someone who can.

• Own customer accounts end to end: weekly calls, performance reviews, the decks and collateral behind them, and the day-to-day questions from brands that have trusted you with their budget.
• Present to CEOs, CMOs and CFOs at high-growth consumer brands, and hold the room with each of them.
• Be a trusted advisor on ad strategy, not a service desk. When a client’s instinct is wrong, you say so and show the data.
• Communicate with real polish and intensity: structured thinking, tight storylines, crisp slides, fast follow-up. A consulting background is the clearest signal of this, but it is the skill that matters, not the logo.

Priority 3: Build the function

• Design the deployment process from scratch: onboarding, account cadence, reporting, escalation.
• Write the playbooks the next hires will run on.
• Start as an individual contributor with full ownership of the customer book, with a real path to hiring and leading the team.

Who we are looking for

Applications that miss the first two points will not progress, however strong the rest of the CV is.

Must have:

1. Hands-on digital performance marketing. You have personally planned, run and optimised paid campaigns across Meta, Google and other channels, ideally at a fast-growing consumer, DTC or adtech startup, and made the calls on CAC, ROAS and contribution margin with real budget.
2. Ad-performance analysis you do yourself: open an account, audit it, find the waste and the upside, explain it in a few slides. Spreadsheet fluency assumed; SQL or Python a bonus.
3. Client-facing consulting experience: you have advised senior stakeholders and owned the relationship, in management consulting, a strategy or growth advisory practice, or a role where you presented to the C-suite.
4. Curiosity about AI that shows up in your work, with something you have built or set up to show for it.
5. US citizen or Green Card holder, able to work on-site in Manhattan five days a week.

Nice to have:

• MBB (McKinsey, Bain or BCG) or another top-tier strategy firm before moving into performance marketing. A real plus, but not required.
• A STEM or quantitative degree.
• TikTok, Pinterest, Applovin or retail media alongside Meta and Google.
• Measurement, attribution or incrementality work beyond platform-reported numbers.
• Three to fifteen years of experience in total.

Not a fit:

• Pure brand marketing, creative or PR without hands-on paid acquisition.
• Consultants who have never run an ad account themselves.
• Account managers who relayed requests while someone else was in the account.
• General finance or private equity backgrounds.
• B2B SaaS demand generation only, with no consumer paid media.

Pay, benefits and logistics

• Base salary: $180,000 to $250,000 depending on experience, plus meaningful early-stage equity.
• Benefits: 401(k) match; full medical, dental and vision.
• Relocation: support available for candidates moving to New York.
• Location: Financial District, New York City, five days a week in the office.
• Eligibility: US citizens and Green Card holders only. No visa sponsorship.
• Internal title: Founding Deployment Strategist (Ads). Full-time, reporting to the co-founder and CEO.

Interview process

1. Short screen with Big Wave Digital.
2. Conversation with one of the co-founders.
3. One-hour technical deep dive with the other co-founder: ad accounts, metrics and decisions you have made.
4. Paid on-site work trial of one to two days in the New York office.
5. Offer.

About Big Wave Digital USA

Big Wave Digital has been placing technology, AI and growth talent since 2010, and our US desk now partners with venture-backed founders in San Francisco, New York City and Boston. We keep the number of searches small on purpose, so each one gets real attention: every application is read by a person, every shortlisted candidate gets a proper conversation before meeting a founder, and we will tell you straight if the fit is not there. Founders come back to us because the people we put forward are the ones they end up hiring. This search is exclusive to us.

How to apply

Apply here, or send your resume to [email protected] with the platforms you have run and the monthly spend you owned, where you did it hands-on, your most senior client-facing experience, one thing you have built with AI tools, and your US work status. Full brief: https://bigwavedigital.com/jobs/performance-marketing-consulting-lead-client-facing-new-york-city/