Associate Director of Programmatic Trading - Method Recruiting

Our client, a digital advertising agency, is looking for an Associate Director of Programmatic Trading.

The Associate Director of Programmatic Trading leads the strategic vision and process of the agency's in-house programmatic department. As the head of the agency's programmatic offering, this candidate is responsible for the overall success of our programmatic activations and innovation. The ideal candidate has extensive hands-on experience working in The Trade Desk. This position will work closely with Account Directors in supporting their team of programmatic specialists in pitching, hiring & onboarding, process development, media plan & strategy development, and ongoing trainings. The ideal candidate for this role has a deep technical understanding of the programmatic landscape and various DSPs, and excels at internal & client communication, attention to detail, process development, and presenting programmatic strategy for client buy-in. 

 

Areas of Responsibilities: 

Media / Vendor 

• Leverage and maintain strong relationships with partners, remain up to date on platforms and their offerings.  
• Acts as the main point of contact for The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, DV360 and various measurement, creative, and SSP partners.  

Agency Support 

• Will be embedded on client work during initial onboarding to familiarize with team structure, roles and responsibilities, and process. Flexibility and appreciation that Associate Director may continue to get deployed to immediate client needs on an as needed basis.  
• This role requires a team player with strong interpersonal communication who’s comfortable cultivating relationships with the agency, media partners, and clients.   
• Supports and guides the programmatic subject matter experts on the media planning process including research, developing a media plan, building a media plan presentation outlining logic and rational behind all media decisions, campaign setup, launch, and optimization.  
• Oversees agency process to ensure execution, optimization, and best practices are followed across teams. Identifies & develops new workflow processes as needed to ensure maximum team efficiency.  
• Participates in new business pitch presentations. 
• Support account teams by providing general troubleshooting support, both strategic and technical. Assist Account Directors in crafting employee quarterly goals.      

Channel Leadership 

• Responsible for channel revenue growth. 
• Manage key departmental project initiatives that have a strategic and organizational-wide impact, which includes piloting new test programs and rolling out successful pilot programs to the broader programmatic team.  

Hiring, Onboarding & Ongoing Training 

• Lead technical interviews with Trader and Strategist candidates.  
• Host quarterly programmatic roundtable meetings with the agency, developing presentation slides and guiding the conversation across all account teams.  
• Support staff onboarding by developing onboarding schedules, educating new staff on best practices and processes, creating & updating onboarding materials as needed, and identifying areas of opportunity to further train new hires.  
• Organize regular training meetings to communicate new platform betas/products and facilitate new best practices among programmatic SMEs.  

Thought Leadership 

• Desire to innovate on behalf of the agency for the improvement of programmatic activations, continuous track record of implementing new ideas.  
• Identify & develop new reporting standards for clients to enhance storytelling around success of programmatic media.  
• Identify gaps in process or strategic vision, lead the charge on developing a solution then circulating and enacting change within the agency.  

Qualifications
Essential Skills and Abilities: 

• Consistent track record for pitching programmatic campaigns, growing revenue, and building strong relationships with key decision makers. 
• Strong ability to motivate, mentor, and train a team of subject matter experts. 
• Outstanding time management skills. 
• Detail-oriented and have excellent self-sufficient problem-solving skills. 

Desired Background and Skills:  

• Minimum 5+ years of digital marketing experience in programmatic media (display, video, audio, DOOH, native).  
• 3 years of client-facing digital media planning experience at an advertising agency, specializing in programmatic.   
• 2 years of people management experience or equivalent professional training.  
• Highly experienced in media planning, execution, and optimization best practices on display, native, video, audio, and DOOH across open exchange, private marketplace, and programmatic guarantee.   
• Strong knowledge of how to develop programmatic media strategy no matter the vertical or the media goal. 
• Strong knowledge with managing branding, consideration, and acquisition campaigns. Full understanding of metrics used to evaluate these types of campaigns.  
• Vast network of media partner relationships across all aforementioned channels. Experience identifying partners, comparing offerings, creating deal IDs & negotiating rates.  
• Extensive hands-on experience working within self-serve programmatic DSPs, including The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, and Display & Video 360. Familiar with targeting, measurement capabilities and trafficking requirements for each.  
• The Trade Desk Edge Academy certified.  
• Experience in Campaign Manager 360, including trafficking, ad tag and Floodlight tag implementation requirements, and reporting.  
• Experience with verification and viewability platforms. 
• Experience recommending attribution models and lookback windows, familiar with nuances of attribution between media platforms and how programmatic media influences other media, as well as Google Analytics 4.  
• Proficient in Excel and PowerPoint. Can develop PowerPoint presentations independently via use of storytelling.  
• Excellent presentation skills with both colleagues and clients. Experience presenting on bi-weekly performance calls, QBRs and pitches.  
• Ambition and drive to produce great results for clients.