Senior Director, Media Analytics, Commercial Strategy & Acceleration

Overview

The Commercial Strategy & Acceleration (CSX) team empowers Instacart’s commercial organizations with domain expertise to drive innovation, cohesive strategy, and agile execution at scale—catalyzing our partners’ success across retailers, brands, and agencies.

We are seeking a Senior Director of Media Analytics to lead a high-impact organization of approximately 30 analytics professionals focused on Instacart Ads. You will set the vision, strategy, and operating model for how measurement, experimentation, and insights drive advertiser outcomes and unlock incremental investment. In close partnership with Brand Partnerships, Ads R&D, Product, Data Science, and our CPG customers—as well as key industry bodies—you will deliver rigorous, trusted analytics that guide decisions for some of the world’s largest brands.

This role is ideal for a hands-on leader who thrives in a fast-paced, constantly evolving environment and enjoys working cross-functionally to solve complex problems at scale. New York is preferred, with flexibility for qualified candidates across the U.S.; periodic travel to New York City, client offices, and industry events is expected.

About the Job

• Own the end-to-end media analytics strategy and roadmap for Instacart Ads, establishing trusted measurement standards that quantify incrementality, optimize performance, and inform advertiser investment decisions.
• Lead, develop, and scale a ~30-person team (including managers and senior ICs) across client analytics, measurement science, experimentation, and commercialization; attract top talent and foster an inclusive, high-performing culture.
• Build and standardize frameworks for causal inference, geo and audience experiments, MMM, attribution, creative effectiveness, and audience insights; partner with Ads R&D and Data Science to productionize models and reporting at scale.
• Collaborate with Brand Partnerships and Sales to deliver compelling, client-ready narratives that translate complex analytics into clear business impact, driving increased advertiser investment.
• Establish data governance, quality, and privacy-safe measurement practices; represent Instacart with industry bodies to advance retail media standards and third-party interoperability.
• Define and manage OKRs, operating cadences, resourcing, and prioritization across a portfolio of analytics initiatives, focusing the team on the highest-impact work.
• Lead third‑party measurement partnerships (e.g., MMM providers, clean rooms) and integrate them with Instacart’s first‑party capabilities to deliver holistic, actionable insights.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in media analytics, marketing science, or ad measurement within digital advertising or retail media.
• 7+ years leading analytics teams of 15+ (including managers of managers), with a track record of hiring, developing, and retaining diverse, high-performing talent.
• Expertise in incrementality testing and causal inference, experimental design, MMM, and attribution, with programs deployed at enterprise scale.
• Advanced SQL and proficiency in Python or R; demonstrated ability to review methodologies, validate models, and uphold analytic rigor.
• Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field (e.g., Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering) and proven experience influencing C‑suite stakeholders at large advertisers (e.g., CPGs) to drive investment decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Graduate degree (MS, MBA, or PhD) in statistics, econometrics, data science, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Experience at a retail media network, major ad platform, or enterprise CPG/agency leading large-scale analytics and measurement programs.
• Hands-on experience with privacy-safe measurement and clean rooms (e.g., AWS Clean Rooms, Snowflake, Databricks, LiveRamp Safe Haven) and identity solutions.
• Proven success evaluating and integrating third-party MMM/attribution providers (e.g., Analytic Partners, Nielsen, Neustar) and reconciling with first-party signals.
• Engagement with industry bodies (e.g., IAB, ARF, MMA) and recognized thought leadership through standards work, publications, or conference speaking.