SEM Budget Operations Specialist, Paid Search Activation

Citi is looking for a Paid Search Budget Operations Specialist to take full ownership of budget governance, invoicing, and financial operations across paid search programs within the U.S. Consumer Cards Paid Media team - one of the largest card marketing operations in the United States. Sitting within the Paid Search Activation team, this role is central to ensuring every dollar of paid search investment is accurately tracked, reconciled, and optimised to support agile, data-informed decisions across campaigns and business lines. You will collaborate closely with Strategy, Ad Operations, Finance, and external vendors to deliver financial accuracy and operational control in a fast-paced, highly regulated environment.

Responsibilities

• 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.

What we offer

Joining Citi's U.S. Consumer Cards Paid Media team means working at the centre of one of the most significant digital marketing operations in financial services, where your financial expertise directly shapes how investment is deployed across millions of customer touchpoints. This is a role with real ownership, clear impact, and the opportunity to grow within a high-performing, collaborative team focused on innovation and results.

• A hybrid working arrangement with 3 days in the office and 2 days working remotely, giving you flexibility alongside meaningful in-person collaboration.
• Ownership of a critical financial operations function within a large-scale, high-visibility paid media programme, with direct influence on how budgets are governed and optimised.
• Access to learning and development opportunities that support your growth in financial operations, digital marketing, and cross-functional stakeholder management.
• The opportunity to work alongside Strategy, Ad Operations, Finance, and vendor teams, building broad expertise and strong professional relationships across the business.
• A performance-driven environment where your analytical rigour and process improvements have a measurable impact on campaign efficiency and financial outcomes.
• Competitive financial wellbeing benefits as part of Citi's broader employee offering, supporting your long-term financial security.

Apply now to bring your financial operations expertise to a role where precision, collaboration, and impact go hand in hand at one of the world's leading financial institutions.

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In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

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Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents - AI Notice and Right

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Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.

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