SEM Budget Operations Specialist, Paid Search Activation

• Manage end-to-end budget pacing across paid search campaigns on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to ensure spend aligns with forecasts, purchase order constraints, and approved allocations.
• Own the full invoicing process across all paid search platforms and vendors, covering invoice validation, discrepancy resolution, and payment coordination to maintain financial accuracy.
• Lead monthly and quarterly reconciliation cycles, ensuring alignment between platform spend data, vendor invoices, and internal financial records.
• Develop and maintain forecasting models for spend, cost per acquisition, and return on investment across brands, product lines, and channels to support quarterly and annual planning.
• Coordinate purchase order tracking, accruals, and month-end close activities in partnership with Finance, ensuring all processes meet audit standards and procurement controls.
• Build and maintain dashboards and reporting frameworks that give stakeholders clear visibility into budget health, pacing performance, and financial outcomes.
• Identify and implement opportunities to streamline budgeting, invoicing, and reconciliation workflows through automation and tooling, improving the efficiency and scalability of financial operations.
• Act as the primary point of contact between Marketing and Operations for all paid search budget governance, ensuring consistent communication and alignment across teams.
• Required qualifications & skills
• 2-5 years of experience in budget operations, financial management, or media operations within a digital marketing or advertising environment.
• Demonstrated ability to own end-to-end invoicing and reconciliation processes, including invoice validation, discrepancy resolution, accruals, and coordination with Finance and external vendors.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets, with hands-on experience building and maintaining financial models for pacing, forecasting, and reconciliation.
• Practical experience with advertising platform billing systems, including Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or SA360, combined with familiarity with procurement processes, purchase order management, and month-end close.
• Track record of managing large-scale budgets within complex, cross-functional organisations while maintaining a high standard of accuracy and financial control.
• Clear understanding of financial controls, audit requirements, and governance frameworks, with experience operating within a regulated environment.
• Ability to translate financial data into clear, actionable insights that inform budget allocation and business decision-making across multiple stakeholders.
• Beneficial skills & qualifications
• A Master's degree in a relevant field such as Finance, Business, or Marketing.
• Experience working within a matrixed organisation where budget decisions span multiple business lines and require cross-functional alignment.
• Familiarity with workflow automation or tooling that supports financial operations, reconciliation, or reporting at scale.
• Marketing ------------------------------------------------------
• Advertising, Branding and Media ------------------------------------------------------
• Full time ------------------------------------------------------
• New York New York United States ------------------------------------------------------

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