Budget Operations Specialist, Paid Search

Do you love blending financial precision with operational rigor to manage media investments at scale? At Tonic3, we’re searching for a Budget Operations Specialist, Paid Search to join our team and be part of an integrated in-house agency, where Tonic3 specialists collaborate with client partners to deliver exceptional work. This is a chance to make a real impact—your work will establish budget governance, streamline invoicing and reconciliation workflows, and provide financial visibility across enterprise-level paid search campaigns for our client.

As a financial operations subject matter expert, you’ll translate media plans into accurate financial tracking—owning end-to-end budget pacing, purchase order management, and month-end close processes across paid search accounts.

Position Overview: The Budget Operations Specialist, Paid Search owns budget governance, invoicing, reconciliation, and financial operations for the Paid Search team. Working closely with Strategy, Ad Operations, Finance, Procurement, and external platform vendors, you will ensure paid search investments are accurately tracked, reconciled, and managed against approved budgets, forecasts, and purchase orders while maintaining robust financial controls.

Location: New York, NY (Hybrid: 3 days per week in the office, 2 days remote).

Salary: $80,000 - $95,000 per year.

What You'll Do:

• Budget Pacing & Forecasting: Manage budget pacing across multiple Paid Search campaigns and lines of business to ensure spend aligns with forecasts, approved budgets, and purchase orders. Build and maintain spend models to support quarterly and annual planning.

• Invoicing & PO Management: Own the end-to-end invoicing process across Paid Search platforms and vendors, including invoice validation, discrepancy resolution, PO management, and payment coordination.

• Reconciliation & Month-End Close: Lead monthly and quarterly reconciliation cycles, ensuring alignment between platform spend data, vendor invoices, and internal financial records while coordinating accruals and close activities with Finance and Procurement.

• Reporting & Dashboards: Build and maintain reporting frameworks and dashboards that provide stakeholders with clear visibility into budget health, pacing, budget shifts, and incremental investment initiatives.

• Process Automation & Efficiency: Identify and implement opportunities to streamline budgeting, invoicing, and reconciliation workflows through tooling and automation to improve efficiency and scalability.

• Financial Controls & Audit Compliance: Ensure all financial operations comply with audit standards, procurement controls, and governance frameworks within a regulated enterprise environment.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Serve as the primary point of contact for Paid Search budget governance, fostering transparent communication across Marketing, Finance, Operations, and external partners.

Who You Are:

• 2–4 years of experience in budget operations, financial management, or media operations within a digital marketing or advertising environment.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent university degree required.

• Financial Ops & Reconciliation Mastery: Demonstrated ability to own end-to-end invoicing, invoice validation, discrepancy resolution, accruals, and monthly/quarterly reconciliation with Finance and vendors.

• Advanced Spreadsheet Skills: Advanced proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets, with hands-on experience building and maintaining complex financial models for budget pacing, forecasting, and reconciliation.

• Ad Platform Billing & Procurement Knowledge: Practical experience with advertising platform billing systems (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, SA360) and familiarity with procurement processes, purchase orders, and billing workflows.

• Regulated Industry Experience: Experience operating within a regulated environment with a solid understanding of financial controls, audit requirements, and governance frameworks.

• Detail-Oriented & Collaborative: Proven track record of managing large-scale media budgets across complex, cross-functional organizations with a high standard of accuracy and attention to detail.

Feeling a little unsure if you ticked all the boxes? No worries, my friend! Your unique skills and experiences are truly valuable. If this opportunity excites you, we encourage you to take the leap and apply. We’re rooting for you!

Why Join Us?

• ⚕️ Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage

• 💰 401(k)

• 🏝 Generous Paid Time Off — Vacation, Sick Days & Holidays

• 🤲 16 Hours of Volunteer Time Off (VTO) to Give Back to Your Community

• 💻 All the Equipment You Need to Do Your Best Work

• 🧠 Ongoing Learning & Development with a Dedicated Training Budget