Director, Paid Search (all genders)- maternity leave cover

About the role: What's in the Box As the Director, Paid Search (maternity leave cover) , you will be responsible for moving HelloFresh Group's paid search stack into the next autonomous era. You will lead our largest multi-MM$ performance digital channel across our global portfolio, with strategic focus on three platforms: Google, Bing, and OpenAI . You will lead a team of Search experts and architect a future-proof search infrastructure whilst scaling cost-effective customer acquisition campaigns across these channels. Reporting to the Senior Director, Performance Marketing, you will develop and execute strategic plans, use analytics to inform decisions, and drive execution to optimize marketing budgets against company profitability goals. This is a high-impact role with the opportunity to work with teams across the organisation, from Pricing & Discounts, MarTech and Analytics. From the start, we would like you to focus on transforming our search stack to be competitive for years to come, identifying and driving strategic investments across Google, Bing, and OpenAI, working with our in-house experts and dedicated technical/account management teams to formulate Joint Business/technical Plans and build the infrastructure that will drive HelloFresh's paid search future. What you’ll do: The Recipe • Lead the global paid search team and develop them into a true 'centre of excellence' for Search internationally, including expertise in next-generation platform capabilities • Transform and architect the search stack: Design and build a modern, scalable, future-proof paid search infrastructure across Google, Bing, and OpenAI that positions HelloFresh for sustained competitive advantage • Conduct comprehensive audits to bring our Search account setup to industry 'best in class' standards across all three platforms, identifying gaps and modernisation opportunities • Own the paid search strategy strategy, set and drive the strategic direction across search channels, supporting the move into the next autonomous era • Manage global budget allocation: Set and dynamically reallocate budget across markets, brands, and channels to hit volume growth and CPA/CAC targets, forecasting and reporting with rigour. • Lead senior agency and platform relationships: Act as the strategic lead and escalation point for external agencies and platform partners (including Google, DSPs, and mobile platforms), setting the agenda on plans, investment, and innovation. • Work closely with Marketing Analytics to execute tests across search portfolios to measure incrementality and marginal efficiency and consequently optimise in-house systems and algorithms to profitably scale our Search marketing programmes • Act as a close partner to MarTech teams to bring the search staack into the next stage of automation What you’ll bring: The Ingredients • A Bachelor's degree with a strong academic record and/or proven relevant experience in a performance marketing or highly commercial role within D2C or subscription-based businesses • 8+ years experience in Google Advertising ecosystem, either from an agency or client-side role • Forward-thinking about how platform evolution and automation are reshaping paid search strategy, you understand both traditional optimisation and next-gen platform capabilities, and you see transformation as both challenge and opportunity • Early experience or exposure to OpenAI's Search offering or emerging AI-driven search platforms • 5+ years experience in team management and leadership roles • Proven experience building and embedding incrementality-based measurement frameworks (e.g. geo-testing, regression, multi-touch attribution) and partnering with Analytics on marketing mix modelling (MMM) and advanced measurement. • Expert know