Tier 1.5 Strategy Consultant + Digital Ads | New York City | Up to $250K + Founding Equity

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." Doc Brown, Back to the Future

Trained at a top strategy firm, then moved into digital ads? This founding role in New York wants both, and you don't need McKinsey, BCG or Bain to get it.

THE COMPANY

Our client is a well-funded, seed-stage, AI-first startup in Manhattan. Its AI agents run performance marketing for consumer brands end to end, across Google, Meta, Amazon, TikTok and more. The founders are ex-Google: one launched an ads product inside Google and grew it to more than $500M in revenue a year, the other put production AI live at Google Research. High-growth consumer brands are already paying customers.

They now need their first customer-facing strategist: someone who can run a CMO meeting like a consulting engagement manager and audit an ad account like a performance marketer.

TIER 1.5 FIRMS WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM

• Oliver Wyman

• L.E.K. Consulting

• Kearney

• Roland Berger

• Strategy& (PwC)

• Monitor Deloitte

• EY-Parthenon

• Simon-Kucher (especially pricing, growth and commercial work)

• ZS Associates (especially marketing analytics and commercial strategy)

• Prophet (especially brand, marketing and growth strategy)

McKinsey, BCG and Bain alumni are of course welcome too.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

• A portfolio of consumer brand accounts, as their trusted adviser on paid media

• The C-suite conversation: presenting performance to CMOs, CEOs and CFOs and turning complex ad data into clear decisions

• The diagnosis: opening the Google, Meta and Amazon accounts, finding the wasted spend and sizing the upside

• The translation between the AI and the customer: what the agents are doing, why, and what the product should do next

• The deployment function itself, built from zero, with a clear path to hiring and leading the team

WHO THIS IS FOR

• Top-tier strategy consulting at one of the firms above (or MBB), where you learned to structure problems, build the numbers and win over senior executives

• Digital ads experience after consulting: performance marketing, paid media or growth work, ideally at a high-growth consumer brand, an e-commerce business, an adtech company or the ads side of a major platform

• Fluent in the numbers: ROAS, CPA, CAC, LTV and incrementality are everyday language

• Hands-on in Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager or Amazon Ads (a big plus)

• A builder with AI: you tinker with Claude Code, Codex, agents or automated workflows because you want to

• A STEM degree and/or a top school

THE PACKAGE

• Up to $250K base

• Founding equity as one of the first hires

• 401(k), medical, dental and vision

• 5 days a week on-site in the Financial District, Manhattan. Relocation to New York is welcome

• US work authorization required; visa transfers considered for exceptional candidates

WHY THIS ROLE

• A genuine founding seat at an AI-first company

• Learn from founders who built a $500M+ a year ads product inside Google

• Paying customers, serious funding and a product that's already working

• Your consulting toolkit and your ads experience, finally in one role

Tier 1.5 consulting plus digital ads is a rare combination. If you have it, apply now. If you know someone who does, send this their way.