Sr. Retail Media Director

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California with more than 3,000 employees worldwide, the Rakuten International businesses include market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community.

Rakuten Advertising delivers performance-driven, brand-driven, and people-driven ad solutions that help the world’s top brands connect with unique, highly engaged audiences – from first impression to final sale. Backed by industry-leading technology, global media properties, and the largest, high-quality partner network, Rakuten Advertising taps into decades of data and experience to develop the strategies and ad experiences that will drive engagement, sales, loyalty, and beyond. A leader in the industry since its beginnings, Rakuten Advertising is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc. (4755: TOKYO), one of the world’s leading internet service companies. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices throughout EMEA, APAC, LATAM, and North America. Learn more at RakutenAdvertising.com.



Job Description:

Position may be hired in most US states, either in-office hybrid or remote.

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California with more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the Rakuten International business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community.

Rakuten Advertising provides advertising technology and consumer insights to the world’s leading brands and retailers. Working with agencies and brands around the world, Rakuten Advertising unites technology, client strategy and consumer insights to deliver advertising experiences that drive increased brand awareness and
marketing performance. With access to Rakuten’s diverse media properties and audiences, combined with an award-winning performance network and proprietary consumer research, Rakuten Advertising creates the right conditions to reach new customers and sustain long-lasting loyalty.

Job Summary:

Rakuten Advertising is seeking a subject matter expert (SME) to lead our strategic expansion into retail media partnerships (e.g., Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) through Impact.com’s Seller product. As this is a new role and offering, you will be the primary architect of our service offering for brands selling on third-party retailers, leveraging Impact.com’s partnership technology. This is a high-impact, dual-purpose role: you will act as a strategic consultant to our existing client base and our account teams supporting them, and a SME for our Sales team, helping them win new business by demonstrating how we bridge the gap between retail marketplaces and affiliate marketing. As we grow our Retail Media business          within Rakuten Advertising, this role will be expected to forecast and deliver against revenue growth targets and, when appropriate, hire and develop a team to support this.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Develop and Own Service Strategy:

• Develop and scale a standardized service framework for managing programs across various retail ecosystems (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.).
• Work closely with impact.com’s product teams to stay ahead of new retailer integrations, providing feedback from Rakuten Advertising’s perspective to influence their roadmap.
• Build close working relationship with the Impact.com team, to become their partner of choice for providing Retail Media Strategy to their client base
• Identify the unique technical requirements for each retailer's attribution models and ensure our internal workflows are optimized to manage them.

2. Revenue, Resourcing and Team Management:

• Be responsible for growing and forecasting revenue through Retail Media
• Lead the development and growth of a dedicated Retail Media team within Rakuten Advertising, in line with revenue and direct margin goals

2. Client Consulting & Optimization:

• Consult with high-growth brands to navigate the complexities of retail media and affiliate marketing, ensuring they maximize their ROI across multiple retailer storefronts.
• Drive innovation in how we measure "Total Retail Impact," moving beyond simple CPA models to include brand-lift and retail-specific incentives (e.g., Brand Referral Bonuses).
• Train and mentor account management teams on the nuances of retail-specific partnerships to ensure high-quality service delivery at scale.

3. Sales Enablement & Strategic Pitching:

• Serve as the lead SME for new business pitches, articulating the value of "Off-Platform" traffic to "On-Retailer" conversion.
• Partner with the Client Services and Sales teams to conduct discovery, define the scope of partnership solutions, and build compelling business cases for prospective clients.
• Create "Proof of Concept" models showing how retailers leverage partner traffic to drive incremental lift and organic search visibility.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience: 8+ years in E-commerce, Retail Media, or Affiliate Marketing; experience in an agency environment is highly preferred.
• Sales Acumen: Demonstrated success in pre-sales, pitching to senior stakeholders, and translating technical solutions into business value.
• Platform Proficiency: Advanced knowledge of impact.com or similar partnership lifecycle management platforms.
• Data Literacy: Ability to interpret complex multi-retailer data sets and provide strategic recommendations.

Desirable Skills:

• Deep understanding of Retail Media Networks (RMNs) and how they interact with the broader affiliate landscape.
• Experience in "Omnichannel" strategy—connecting the dots between a brand’s DTC site and their retail marketplace presence.
• Strong network within the retail/marketplace partnership ecosystem.

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Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws.

As part of our Rakuten interview process, we encourage applicants to use their own words, rather than AI-generated content. Tell us your story in a way that's personal and authentic.

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.

USD $103,680.00 - $193,428.00 annually