Building an In-House Retail Media Network Team
Retail media is now bigger than linear and connected TV combined. Almost all of the new growth is flowing to two retailers, which means everyone else needs a real team to capture any of what's left.
Retail media is now bigger than linear and connected TV combined. Almost all of the new growth is flowing to two retailers, which means everyone else needs a real team to capture any of what's left.
Retail media stopped being a side hustle for retailers a while ago. US retail media ad spend is set to reach $71.09 billion in 2026, up roughly 18 percent year over year, and globally the channel is projected to cross $196.7 billion this year, overtaking linear and connected TV combined for the first time. That's not a niche ad product anymore. It's a genuine profit center, and for a growing number of retailers, one of the fastest-growing lines on the P&L.
Here's the part that should worry every retailer without a real network of their own: roughly 89 percent of the incremental US retail media dollars added in 2026 are flowing to just two players, Amazon and Walmart. The rest of the market is fighting over what's left, and the retailers actually capturing meaningful share of that remainder are, without exception, the ones that built a real internal team rather than bolting a sponsored-placement widget onto their site and calling it a network.
Two forces are pushing retail media from "interesting side revenue" to "board-level priority" at the same time. First, the growth math is genuinely compelling for retailers willing to invest, in-store retail media specifically is still under 1 percent of total retail media spend despite the majority of retail sales happening in physical stores, which eMarketer flatly describes as "underdeveloped" and exactly why retailers from Walmart to Best Buy are investing in screens, smart carts, and digital shelf labels right now. Second, the market is proving this is a real career path, not a side project: Ace Hardware's Molly Hjelm took RedVest Media from zero to fully operational, with on-site, off-site, in-store, and retailer-facing capabilities and accredited measurement, in roughly six months. Hy-Vee promoted its head of retail media, Kathryn Mazza, to SVP and CMO earlier this year, putting her in charge of both the marketing organization and the network she built.
If you're a brand or vendor navigating retail media spend as an advertiser rather than building a network as a retailer, that's a different hiring problem with a different team, and our sister site has a dedicated breakdown of how to hire retail media specialists, managers, and directors on the brand side. This piece is specifically about the retailer's own team: the people who build and sell the network itself.
A functioning retail media network needs four core capabilities, though the earliest hires often cover more than one at once.
| Role | What They Own | Typical Reports To |
|---|---|---|
| Head or VP of Retail Media | Overall network strategy, the P&L, and executive buy-in across merchandising, marketing, and finance | CMO, CRO, or CEO |
| Ad Sales / Brand Partnerships Manager | Selling inventory directly to vendor and brand partners, negotiating media deals and annual commitments | Head of Retail Media |
| Campaign Operations Manager | Trafficking, executing, and optimizing live campaigns across on-site, off-site, and in-store inventory | Head of Retail Media |
| Data & Measurement Lead | Closed-loop attribution and incrementality reporting that proves the spend actually worked | Head of Retail Media or the analytics organization |
Retailers that skip the measurement role are the ones whose brand ad dollars quietly disappear after the first campaign. Media sales gets partners in the door. Measurement is what gets them to renew.
Who a retailer hires first tends to shape the network's entire trajectory, and three distinct profiles show up in most searches for this founding role.
The media sales veteran. Deep fluency in selling advertising inventory, negotiating with brand partners, and structuring the kind of annual media commitments that make a network's revenue predictable. The gap tends to run toward the retailer's own operational reality: understanding merchandising priorities and category dynamics well enough to sell inventory without creating friction with the merchant teams whose real estate is being monetized.
The ad-tech or platform-side hire. Strong on the technical architecture, measurement infrastructure, and platform selection that make a network operationally credible from day one. The risk is commercial: technical credibility doesn't automatically translate into the sales relationships and revenue targets a network ultimately has to hit.
The internal marketing or merchandising leader. Deep institutional knowledge of the retailer's own data, categories, and vendor relationships, which shortens the ramp time considerably. The gap is usually media-specific expertise: understanding how retail media inventory actually gets priced, packaged, and sold is a different skill than running the retailer's own marketing campaigns.
There's no universally correct answer. A retailer with strong existing vendor relationships and thin ad-tech infrastructure needs a different first hire than one with strong internal data capabilities and no media sales muscle at all.
Compensation for retail media network roles tends to run higher than comparable marketing titles, reflecting how directly the function ties to revenue rather than brand awareness.
| Role | Typical Base | Typical Variable |
|---|---|---|
| Head or VP of Retail Media (P&L ownership) | $180,000 to $260,000 | 20 to 40 percent, often tied to network revenue |
| Ad Sales / Brand Partnerships Manager | $110,000 to $160,000 | 20 to 35 percent, commission-influenced |
| Campaign Operations Manager | $90,000 to $130,000 | 10 to 20 percent |
| Data & Measurement Lead | $120,000 to $170,000 | 10 to 20 percent |
The variable component for the top role often matters more than the base. A Head of Retail Media compensated purely on a flat salary has less incentive alignment with the network's actual commercial performance than one with meaningful upside tied to the revenue they're directly accountable for generating.
Not every retailer needs a fully built internal team on day one. Agencies and managed-service providers can run a retail media network on a retailer's behalf while the internal capability gets built out, and several of the largest agency holding companies now run dedicated retail media practices specifically for this purpose. That path makes sense for retailers still validating demand before committing to permanent headcount. It's a bridge, though, not a substitute: the retailers pulling ahead in a market where 89 percent of new spend flows to two companies are, without exception, the ones with a real internal team that owns the strategy, the partner relationships, and the data, not just the execution.
None of this requires building the full team at once. It requires being intentional about which capability gets built first, media sales, measurement, or technical infrastructure, based on where the retailer's actual gap sits, rather than defaulting to whichever hire seems easiest to justify to finance this quarter.
A functioning network needs four core roles, though a single early hire often covers more than one. A Head or VP of Retail Media owns overall strategy and the network's P&L. An Ad Sales or Brand Partnerships Manager sells inventory directly to vendor and brand partners. A Campaign Operations Manager traffics and executes live campaigns. A Data and Measurement Lead builds the closed-loop attribution and incrementality reporting that convinces brand partners the spend is actually working. Retailers that skip the measurement role tend to struggle to retain brand ad dollars past the first campaign.
Running ads on Amazon or Walmart Connect is something a brand does as an advertiser buying inventory from someone else's network. Building an in-house retail media network is the opposite: the retailer is the one selling inventory, on its own site, app, and increasingly in-store screens, to vendor and brand partners who want access to its shopper data. It's closer to media sales than performance marketing, which is why it needs a different team than the retail media buying roles a brand's marketing team might already have.
Most commonly a CMO, Chief Revenue Officer, or directly to the CEO, reflecting that a mature retail media network functions as a genuine revenue line, not a marketing cost center. Where the Head of Retail Media reports says a lot about how seriously the organization is treating the function: buried under marketing operations tends to signal a side project, while a direct line to revenue leadership signals the network is expected to perform like the business it actually is.
It varies by retailer size and ambition, but recent examples show it can move faster than most companies assume. Ace Hardware's retail media network, RedVest Media, went from zero to fully operational, with on-site, off-site, in-store, and retailer-facing capabilities and accredited measurement, in approximately six months under a dedicated Head of Retail Media. That pace is achievable with focused leadership and executive support, not a multi-year transformation program.
Given how directly this function ties to revenue, compensation tends to run higher than comparable marketing titles. A Head or VP of Retail Media with real P&L ownership typically commands a base in the $180,000 to $260,000 range plus meaningful bonus tied to network revenue. Ad Sales and Campaign Operations roles underneath that typically run $90,000 to $160,000 depending on seniority and scope.