Director of Media Strategy & Activation

About the role

The will own total media investment-performance and brand under a single leader, integrating performance marketing with brand investments into one cohesive thesis. This hire will architect a unified media operating model that aligns portfolio strategy with evolving business priorities across the customer lifecycle. They will lead the end-to-end media portfolio, balancing brand reach initiatives with performance-driven channels to maximize business impact. The role demands fluency in both agency dynamics and in-house execution to build a high-performing, hybrid media engine. By collaborating with Product Growth, Sales, and Marketing Data Science, this leader will connect media strategy to measurable revenue and retention outcomes. The Director will establish governance frameworks that ensure speed, quality, and rigor across all media investments. This position sits at the intersection of creativity, data, and technology, shaping how Dropbox engages its global audience across emerging and established channels.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Architect the end-to-end media strategy for Dropbox, uniting brand storytelling with performance-driven channel investments under one integrated framework.
• Own full budget accountability for Dropbox's media portfolio, including paid search, paid social, programmatic, display, video, mobile, and affiliate, while managing pacing and in-quarter reallocation.
• Define and deploy the media operating model, determining the optimal blend of in-house expertise, agency partnerships, and specialist support to maximize efficiency and impact.
• Partner with the Brand organization to translate positioning and creative direction into precise media strategies that amplify reach, frequency, and message consistency.
• Lead experimentation and data-driven optimization across all channels, using insights to refine audience targeting, creative variants, and channel mix in real time.
• Develop a point of view on AI and agentic workflows in media operations, applying them to creative production velocity, audience modeling, budget allocation, and reporting automation.
• Build and manage agency relationships while strengthening internal media capabilities, ensuring alignment on goals, transparency, and performance accountability.
• Establish rigorous governance over budget, pacing, and performance, navigating fluid priorities in a high-growth environment without compromising accuracy or outcomes.
• Collaborate with Product Growth, Sales, and Marketing Data Science to tie media activities to pipeline, conversion, and retention metrics.
• Evaluate and scale emerging media channels and technologies, ensuring Dropbox remains at the forefront of media innovation and efficiency.
• Define and monitor core media KPIs, using dashboards and insights to guide strategic shifts and continuous improvement.
• Lead cross-functional workshops and planning sessions to align media roadmap with product launches, campaigns, and growth objectives.
• Oversee creative testing frameworks, ensuring media-informed feedback loops accelerate the production of high-performing assets.
• Ensure all media investments comply with brand standards, legal requirements, and platform policies across all markets and channels.
• Act as the primary media strategist for executive stakeholders, presenting clear recommendations, tradeoffs, and performance narratives.

Requirements

• Must have held both agency and in-house media roles, demonstrating deep expertise in building media capabilities and leading technology-driven initiatives.
• Proven experience navigating fast-growth, fluid-priority environments while maintaining strict governance over budget, pacing, and performance.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate brand and performance objectives into a single, coherent media strategy.
• Extensive comfort with experimentation, data analysis, and optimization across paid, owned, and earned media channels.
• Fluency in modern media tools, automation platforms, and AI applications required to define and execute the operating model at scale.
• Strong judgment in making tradeoffs between reach, frequency, efficiency, and growth based on data and business context.
• Exceptional collaboration skills to work cross-functionally with Product, Sales, Finance, and Data Science teams.
• Comfort leading distributed teams and managing agency partnerships in a remote-first, select-U.S.-locations model.
• High standards for accuracy, transparency, and rigor in reporting, forecasting, and decision-making.
• Commitment to ethical media practices and compliance with platform policies and regulatory standards.

Nice to have

• Preferred items are not specified for this role.

About the company

Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and personal cloud software. Founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox has over 700 million registered users.