---
title: 'Principal Client Partner at Samba'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-client-partner-samba-new-york-city-565kn49m9712'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-12'
---

# Principal Client Partner at Samba

- **Company:** Samba
- **Location:** New York City, NY
- **Compensation:** $220k–$300k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/sambatv/c3365607-3f39-46ea-b9d8-7e569a6e2d26

## Job description

Samba is a media intelligence company. We know what the world is watching, reading, and thinking about — in real time, at scale, across every screen. Our data exists with the consent of over a billion people, organized into the most complete picture of consumer attention ever built. The biggest brands in the world use that picture to make smarter decisions. We think it’s the most interesting data asset on the planet, because it’s the most culturally relevant.

## What You'll Do

- Own and exceed a revenue target across a portfolio of strategic brand advertisers, with full accountability for pipeline, forecasting and close.
- Sell Samba's suite of measurement, audience targeting and attribution solutions to leading brand advertisers, growing adoption across their brands, categories and markets.
- Sell Samba's suite of research tools across planning and measurement, becoming the partner clients reach for when they set a strategy and when they prove its outcome.
- Own the entire relationship with the advertiser — from the CMO and senior marketing leadership to the brand, media, insight, analytics and procurement teams — demonstrating a thorough understanding of each account's organization, needs and revenue potential.
- Navigate multi-stakeholder sales cycles across marketing, media, insight and procurement, and lead complex commercial negotiations through to signature.
- Partner effectively with your clients' agencies of record — briefing them, enabling them, keeping activation moving — while retaining the client relationship and the commercial conversation.
- Lead business reviews and annual planning sessions with your clients, translating performance into the next commitment.
- Prospect, qualify, close and scale revenue-generating relationships with advertisers within your territory or vertical.
- Serve as a subject-matter expert and thought leader within your assigned verticals.
- Collaborate with Programmatic Consulting, account management and Measurement Science to deliver proposals that exceed advertiser marketing objectives and expectations.
- Meet or exceed quarterly sales quotas against the territory and account list, maintaining strong pipeline and Salesforce discipline with accurate forecasting.
- Channel client feedback into Product and Measurement Science roadmap discussions.
- Help develop local marketing initiatives and participate in industry events, becoming a regional knowledge leader in your market or vertical.
- Own the relationship from the CMO and senior marketing leadership through to the brand, media, insight and procurement teams.
- Lead business reviews and annual planning sessions with your clients, translating performance into the next commitment.
- Mentor, and over time potentially manage, an Account Executive as the team scales — leading as a player-coach without stepping away from your own number.

## Who You Are

- Proven sales success with a minimum of 7+ years total experience in advertising, digital media, adtech or data/analytics sales, selling directly to brands (TV experience is a plus).
- Demonstrated ability to perform against quota and excel in a highly competitive market.
- Highly motivated and professionally mature, with outstanding communication skills and demonstrated knowledge of the online advertising landscape.
- Strong, current relationships with senior marketing and media decision-makers at brand advertisers.
- Deep knowledge of client-side planning processes — how advertisers set strategy, build budgets, run annual reviews and make data and measurement decisions — and of the privacy regulations that shape them.
- Comfortable working with and through your clients' agencies without ceding ownership of the client relationship.
- Demonstrated strategic, consultative and analytical sales approach with a focus on building partnerships with clients.
- Strong understanding of the digital advertising ecosystem — display, video, mobile, CTV and programmatic — and fluency in cross-screen measurement, targeting and attribution.
- Proven track record navigating complex, multi-stakeholder negotiations through to close.
- Proficiency in Salesforce and a disciplined approach to pipeline and forecast management.
- Currently requiring 4 days a week on-site in office.
- Willingness to travel to outside markets, and to entertain clients during evenings and occasionally weekends.
- Bachelor's Degree (or equivalent experience).
- Strong references with partners, customers and colleagues.
- Existing, current relationships with senior marketing decision makers favored.
- Demonstrated ability to leverage AI to streamline workflows, including interpreting model-generated recommendations, stress-testing assumptions, and translating insights into client-facing strategy.
- Familiarity with how AI and ML are reshaping audience measurement, targeting and attribution in the TV and streaming advertising landscape is a strong plus.
- Desire to learn how to use AI-powered tools for sales productivity — CRM intelligence, proposal generation, audience insights and campaign optimization workflows.

Samba is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.  We strive to empower connection with one another, reflect the communities we serve, and tackle meaningful projects that make a real impact.

Samba may collect personal information directly from you, as a job applicant, Samba may also receive personal information from third parties, for example, in connection with a background, employment or reference check, in accordance with the applicable law. For further details, please see Samba's Applicant Privacy Policy. For residents of the EU , Samba Inc. is the data controller.

## About Samba

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Samba (formerly Samba TV) is a media intelligence company that uses AI and first-party deterministic data from 1.5 billion people to power cross-screen TV and digital advertising measurement, targeting, and analytics for the world's largest brands, publishers, and platforms.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2008
- **Founders**: Ashwin Navin (Co-founder & CEO), Alvir Navin (Co-founder & COO)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Media Intelligence / Advertising Technology / Data & Analytics
- **Target Customers**: B2B — primarily Enterprise (global brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms like Disney, Havas Media, and "the vast majority of top global brands")
- **Mission Statement**: Unite TV, digital, and behavioral data through AI to power faster, more accurate media decisions.

## Products & Services
- **Samba Analytics**: Independent cross-screen measurement using first-party data for deduplicated reach, frequency, and performance outcomes. Allows optimization of campaigns while they are still in-flight.
- **Samba Audiences**: Exclusive audience segments and Private Marketplaces (PMPs) built from Samba's deterministic cross-screen signals for effective targeting.
- **Samba Knowledge Graph**: AI-powered mapping of interests, behaviors, and purchase intent, linking content to 1.5 billion real people, devices, and households.
- **Samba ID**: A universal identity solution linking content to real people and devices across screens.
- **Samba AI**: Contextually analyzes and indexes all media content, including brand logo detection on TV.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Total Funding**: $75.7M USD across 9 rounds
    - Last known round: Series B ($30M, June 2017, led by Union Grove Venture Partners and Disney Accelerator)
    - Other notable rounds: Series A ($7M, February 2012, led by August Capital)
- **Key Metric**: Owns first-party TV and web data for 1.5 billion people globally.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: August Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Disney Accelerator. Strategic clients include Disney, Havas Media, and "every platform and publisher you need."
- **Growth Signals**: Acquired Semasio in 2024, becoming the only provider owning both TV and web first-party data. Rebranded from "Samba TV" to "Samba" in 2026. Global workforce of 251 employees (+20.1% YoY growth). Operations span 6 countries with 13 offices.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-Party Data Moat**: Nearly two decades of proprietary, deterministic data from smart TVs (24 brands, 48M devices) and web (1.5B people), creating a unique and un-copyable dataset.
- **Full-Funnel Integration**: The only provider to combine TV and web first-party data (after acquiring Semasio), offering planning, measurement, and activation in one platform.
- **AI-Powered Knowledge Graph**: Goes beyond traditional media measurement by mapping interests, behaviors, and purchase intent, enabling contextual analysis without relying on third-party cookies.

## Strategic Focus
- **Platform Expansion**: Evolving from a TV data provider into a comprehensive "media intelligence" company (rebranded in 2026).
- **Cross-Screen Unification**: Connecting TV and digital data to provide a complete view of audience behavior across all screens.
- **AI & Contextual Intelligence**: Deepening investment in AI for content analysis, brand detection, and predictive audience targeting.
- **Global Scale**: Operating across six continents and expanding direct partnerships with major platforms and publishers.

## Why Work Here
- **Founder-Led Culture**: Described as having "startup intensity and enterprise impact," with a "culture that values ownership over hierarchy and outcomes over optics."
- **Global & Distributed**: Teams span San Francisco (HQ), New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Warsaw, Taipei, and Amsterdam. Officed with a global, collaborative ethos.
- **Engineering & Data-First**: Ships products that "touch billions of signals daily." A strong emphasis on data science, engineering, and product roles.
- **Compensation & Benefits**: Competitive base salary, equity participation, performance bonuses, generous parental leave, flexible PTO, annual learning budgets, home office stipend, and best-in-class hardware.
- **Culture Values** (from company career page): Determined & Resilient, Self-Aware, Naturally Curious, Low Ego, Results Oriented.
- **Employee Rating**: 3.9/5.0 on LinkedIn (172 reviews), with Work-Life Balance at 3.9, Compensation at 3.8, and Culture at 3.8.

## Sources
1. [samba.com](https://samba.com/about-samba) — About Samba / Company History
2. [samba.com](https://samba.com/careers) — Careers Page / Culture & Benefits
3. [samba.com](https://samba.com/) — Home Page / Product & Platform Overview
4. [linkedin.com/company/sambatv](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sambatv) — LinkedIn Profile (Company Details, Size, Financials)
5. [jobs.lever.co/sambatv](https://jobs.lever.co/sambatv) — Lever Careers Page (Open Roles)

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