Senior Principal, Accounts - Paid Media

Salary: $110,000-$120,000
Location: Washington, D.C. or remote

Middle Seat is a full-service media and fundraising firm that supports progressive causes and candidates. We work with a variety of clients, including AOC, Wes Moore, MoveOn, Powered by People, and Women’s March, as well as other progressive campaigns, nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and causes that are on the front lines of important fights.

Our firm is values-driven, and we are intentional about working with clients who share our left-of-center values. We prioritize a healthy work-life balance and consistent employee feedback and communication. Prospective applicants are welcome to learn more about our company culture.

This role is not part of the bargaining unit.

Why Middle Seat:

• Competitive salaries and great benefits
• We only work for progressive organizations, candidates, and causes
• We’re a proudly unionized team — part of the Campaign Workers Guild
• Get in on the ground floor of a growing operation

About the Role:

The Senior Principal, Accounts — Paid Media is a senior leader on Middle Seat’s Advertising Team, responsible for owning and growing our persuasion client portfolio across digital paid media and television.

Senior Principals manage some of Middle Seat’s largest persuasion programs for candidates, political committees, and organizations. This role requires at least 3 years of experience running political advertising and persuasion programs, including digital paid media and collaboration with television teams.

This role blends strategy, sales, client leadership, and revenue ownership. You will be responsible for winning and retaining clients, guiding persuasion strategy, coordinating with Middle Seat’s TV department on buys and campaigns, and ensuring our digital and television programs work together to drive electoral and issue-based wins.

Requirements

Client Account & Persuasion Leadership

• Lead persuasion clients, owning their digital paid media and television strategy in partnership with Middle Seat’s TV department.
• Serve as the senior strategic lead for your accounts, guiding budget allocation, targeting, creative direction, and media mix.
• Coordinate closely with Middle Seat’s TV team to ensure:
• Digital and television buys are aligned
• Messaging is consistent across platforms
• Flighting and targeting reinforce persuasion goals
• Embed yourself in the work of your clients (Slack, calls, listservs, etc.) to proactively guide persuasion strategy rather than simply respond to requests.
• Be available to advise clients as a general campaign consultant beyond paid media, including communications strategy, budgeting, and broader campaign decision making in your role as a media consultant.

Budgeting & Sales

• Track revenue and expenses, working with accounting and sales to balance staff costs, retainers, ad fees, and TV commissions.
• Identify when accounts should scale, expand into TV, or add new persuasion products such as CTV, testing, or creative.
• Lead or co-lead pitches for new persuasion clients, including candidates, IEs, and advocacy organizations.
• Ability to independently lead sales pitches and business development conversations, either solo or in partnership with other team members including the TV department and firm partners; an existing network to source new opportunities is a plus but not required. 

Campaign Strategy & Execution

• Develop a clear creative vision for persuasion campaigns, including writing and shaping scripts informed by polling, messaging research, and direct conversations with campaign teams, and translating that into both bold, creative-forward concepts.
• Manage the production process end to end by working closely with external production teams to coordinate shoots, oversee editing, and manage client feedback and revisions, ensuring a polished final video that meets strategic and campaign goals.  
• Lead the planning and execution of digital persuasion campaigns platforms such as but not limited to Meta, YouTube, CTV, DSPs, and various direct to publisher contracts.
• Set high-level strategy, including:
• Budgets and channel mix
• Messaging frameworks
• Targeting and testing plans
• Analyze and report campaign results to clients, translating performance into strategic recommendations.
• Own project management and timeline planning for persuasion programs, including scheduling client calls, setting scripting and production timelines, managing budgets against primary and election dates, and ensuring campaigns are launched on time and on plan.

Management & Team Leadership

• Train junior staff to plan and execute paid media buys
• Make recommendations for ads team management as a whole and assist with hiring for the entire ads team. Take part in weekly ads management meetings and discuss the growth of the ads team. 
• Take part in the broader management of Middle Seat, including the sales process, team-wide issues, and communication of those efforts to staff. 

• Encourage strong cross-team collaboration. Serve as a leader in developing strategy and new messaging ideas, collaborating with the email, creative, social, and web development teams to bolster our client’s advertising programs.
• Help develop and implement ads team processes and training. 
• Other responsibilities as requested.

Qualifications

• 3+ years running political or advocacy advertising programs (more preferred)
• Proven success as a senior strategist and/or manager
• Experience running persuasion-focused digital campaigns
• Expertise in Facebook Business Manager, Google, and DSPs (Trade Desk, DV360, etc.)
• Strong copywriting and strategic communication skills
• Comfort managing multiple high-stakes client relationships
• Agency or consulting experience
• Demonstrated commitment to progressive politics

Strongly Preferred but Not Required

• Experience coordinating with or working alongside television advertising

Benefits

• 100% premium coverage for health, dental and vision
• Zero deductible health plan
• Wellness benefits, which include free memberships to One Medical, Health Advocate, and Talkspace
• Profit-sharing plan: share in the growth and success of Middle Seat
• Mobile phone or internet reimbursement up to $75 per month
• 6% employer match on your 401k retirement account
• 20 paid vacation days off, plus 2 floating holidays
• Unlimited sick leave
• Commuter benefits for public transportation
• Coworking/Office Space Stipend for Remote Employees 
• 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents
• $100 monthly student loan reimbursement
• $350 monthly mental health benefit
• $1,000 annual professional development reimbursement

This is a full-time, permanent role, and it can be based in DC or remotely within the US. 

We are committed to building a diverse and passionate team. We encourage creative-minded individuals with a strong technical aptitude to apply for this position. Women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals are encouraged to apply.

Our firm is values-driven. We are intentional with the decidedly left-of-center clients we work with — and we strive to make our work environment and benefits reflect that, including salary transparency, healthy work-life balance, and consistent employee feedback and communication. We’re happy to talk more about our company culture with prospective applicants.