The Director, Ad Operations is both a leader and an operator — managing the Ad Ops team while also staying close to the day-to-day work. Reporting to the VP of Ad Operations, this role ensures campaigns run flawlessly, processes are efficient, and the team has the tools and support they need. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, balances hands-on execution with structured management, and takes pride in building operational excellence at scale.
Key Responsibilities
- Team Leadership & Management
- Manage and mentor a team of Ad Ops professionals, setting priorities and providing coaching on best practices.
- Act as a player-coach — stepping into trafficking, QA, and reporting tasks as needed.
- Monitor team workloads, redistribute tasks as needed, and ensure coverage across campaigns.
- Campaign Execution & Delivery
- Own the trafficking, QA, and monitoring of high-value campaigns across CTV, VOD, and digital platforms.
- Ensure campaign setups are accurate and aligned with IOs, PG deal terms, and technical specs.
- Troubleshoot pacing, delivery, and tech issues directly in ad servers and SSP/DSP platforms.
- Operational Excellence & Process
- Document and enforce repeatable processes to reduce errors and improve efficiency.
- Implement QA checklists and campaign health monitoring practices.
- Recommend workflow improvements and tools that support scale without sacrificing accuracy.
- Analytics, Reporting & Billing
- Supervise the team’s reporting outputs, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and consistency.
- Conduct campaign performance reviews and escalate key insights to VP and cross-functional teams.
- Partner with Finance to ensure smooth billing reconciliation.
- Internal Collaboration
- Work with Sales and Programmatic Ops where necessary to ensure deal setup and readiness for new campaigns that potentially cross multiple workstreams.
- Partner with Publisher Ops to confirm inventory pathways and targeting documentation are correctly configured.
- Coordinate with Product and Engineering to identify automation opportunities that reduce manual lift.
Qualifications
- 3–5 years of people management with proven success leading small to mid-sized teams.
- Proficiency in ad serving and programmatic platforms (SpringServe, FreeWheel, Publica, Beeswax, Basis, and/or other SSPs/DSPs).
- Assertive with strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to jump in and solve campaign delivery issues.
- Highly detail-oriented, organized, and comfortable managing multiple priorities.
- Strong communicator who can translate operational details into actionable insights.