Media & Sponsorships Business Director
About the position
Expedia Group is a global travel company that connects travelers, partners, and advertisers through its consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business. The company aims to help people discover, book, and experience travel with ease, confidence, and joy. The Media & Sponsorships team creates and delivers tailored marketing strategies for Expedia Group’s brands, focusing on establishing strong connections and cohesive experiences for travelers and partners. They leverage functional expertise and creative excellence to build trust and loyalty through innovative marketing approaches and technology. This role is for a dynamic Brand Media and Sponsorship Business Director to serve as the Dedicated Global Brand Media Lead. This individual contributor role will act as the strategic bridge and trusted advisor between the Integrated Marketing and Creative team and the Global Media and Sponsorship team. The role is responsible for orchestrating the end-to-end brand media and sponsorship narrative, ensuring that global strategies are fiscally responsible and deliver against core business objectives across all markets. The Media and Sponsorship Business Director reports directly to the VP, Global Media and Sponsorship and is accountable for setting the strategic media and sponsorship approach for one of Expedia Group's leading consumer brands (Expedia, Hotels.com or Vrbo). This includes leading the distribution and communication of briefs (internal and external) and ensuring all outputs deliver against the agreed integrated marketing plan, business and financial objectives. As the core brand champion, the Director builds alignment with interdependent stakeholders, governs process, and provides direction to empower the Media and Sponsorships Strategy and Planning Teams to design holistic strategies and plans that deliver agreed business outcomes.
Responsibilities
- Act as the primary strategic interface for the Integrated Marketing & Creative organization (and Brand General Manager’s, where required), serving as the dedicated global lead for all brand media and sponsorship initiatives.
- Collaborate cross-functionally to design, implement, and govern the interaction process between Integrated Marketing, Brands and execution teams, ensuring consistency, compliance, and agility.
- Lead high-visibility brand and partner projects, driving alignment across internal stakeholders and external agencies to ensure effective delivery.
- Champion innovative ideas and approaches to evolve internal communication frameworks, guiding hybrid in-house digital teams and external agencies towards optimal media strategy, integrated media plans, data-driven learning agendas and mobilizing insights & optimization outputs to drive efficiency and pre agreed brand measurement framework KPIs.
- Own the distribution and communication of all brand media and sponsorship briefs (internal and external), ensuring clarity of vision and objectives.
- Manage the development and delivery of key outputs, including strategic approaches, rationale documentation, holistic media plans, and post-campaign reports.
- Apply analytical rigor and a scientific mindset to produce evidence-based proposals, rationale, and learning agendas to drive impact.
- Work with Planning, Agency, and Execution Leads to coordinate responses to briefs, ensuring all outputs align with the agreed strategic business goals and integrated marketing team deliverables.
- Collaborate with Integrated Marketing & Creative teams to ensure media, sponsorship, and creative strategies are aligned, defining asset requirements and delivery timelines.
- Be accountable for brand-specific media and sponsorship finance decisions and P&L management, including ensuring financial rigor, transparency, and managing the allocation of capital across markets, channels, and geographies based on measurement outputs, corporate guidance and Brand GM requests.
- Drive brand business targets and lead comprehensive reporting activities, including Monthly and Quarterly Business Reviews (MBRs/QBRs) and other key performance forums.
- Synthesize market-specific schematics and reports into global views, analyzing learnings to provide actionable insights that inform future planning and capital allocation.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field; or equivalent related professional experience
- 12+ years experience in client management and strategic media and sponsorship planning, gained in‑house at a global brand and/or in a senior leadership role at a media/creative agency or relevant technology platform
- Brings a forward-looking perspective on AI, from setting foundations to employing technology to enhance integrated marketing, media, and sponsorship workflows
- Proven experience leading complex, multi‑market brand media strategies across channels (digital, offline, and sponsorships) and translating them into integrated, executable plans
- Strong financial acumen, with a track record of managing large, complex media budgets and P&Ls, ensuring financial rigor, transparency, and compliance
- Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex data and plans into clear, concise narratives and executive‑ready insights
Nice-to-haves
- A highly consultative approach with a strong track record of influencing and aligning senior stakeholders in matrixed, global organizations
- Demonstrated operational excellence, with the ability to prioritize multiple complex projects, govern process, and drive work to high‑quality completion at pace
- Analytical mindset with comfort applying data, measurement frameworks, and learning agendas to inform strategy, optimization, and investment decisions
- Proactive problem‑solver who identifies issues and opportunities, takes ownership, and drives toward solutions while escalating appropriately when needed
Benefits
- medical, dental, and vision coverage
- paid time off
- an Employee Assistance Program
- wellness and travel reimbursement
- travel discounts
- International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership