Director Programmatic & Yield

At Group Black, our Operations team operates in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. The entire team is responsible for accelerating Group Black’s transformation into a high-growth business. Our Media Planning team members are relationship managers that get excited about growing the business, building creative proposals, and driving customer satisfaction.

The Role:

The Ad Operations team’s primary goal is to support and grow Group Black advertising revenue in partnership with our Sales teams. The department works closely with teams throughout the organization (including Sales, Product, Marketing, and Finance), providing ad operations expertise to drive consistent and scalable campaign execution. The entire team strives for best-in-class operational excellence and takes pride in their craft.

We are building Group Black Operations from the ground up with the unique opportunity to help shape the foundation for our team. As Director Programmatic & Yield, you will play a key role in maintaining the overall health of Group Black’s media business. You will be deeply involved in various key initiatives related to inventory, monetization and branded content of Group Black Partners. This role will be a part of the Advertising and Operations team, reporting to the VP of Advertising Operations.

Your Day-To-Day: 

• Partner with Sales, Customer Success and Brand Strategy teams to ensure alignment between client goals and internal business guidelines
• Develop programmatic performance models
• Optimize media trading for maximum agency and client ROI
• Comfortably work hands-on-keyboard within a variety of SSPs, DSPs, ad servers, DMPs, private marketplaces, and content control partnerships
• Collaborate with the planning team to maximize client and agency ROI
• Serve as a trusted advisor to media planning, creative, analytics, and digital teams to provide confidence in strategy execution
• Monitor inventory and fill rate, identifying potential for both high and low sellouts and recommending ways to optimize
• Leverage data to inform decision-making on both a recurring and ad hoc basis

What you can expect: 

• Opportunity to make a meaningful impact in a fast-growing start-up company
• Fun company events and celebrations with a focus on inclusion and collaboration across all levels of the organization

What you bring to the team: 

• Proven experience in developing and deploying operational processes for both internal and client teams in paid media
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Mathematics, Statistics, Science, Economics, or a related field
• Minimum of 5 years of publisher experience working within platforms such as (but not limited to): Ad servers (GAM, SmartAdServer), DSPs (Magnite, TTD, DV360, MediaMath), Analytics Platforms (GA/Adobe Analytics), Brand Safety (DoubleVerify/IAS/Moat) and DMPs
• Strong analytical and technical mindset, strong hands-on experience in tracking tag placement, campaign configuration and ad trafficking, trafficking procedures, and technical ad spec QC
• Deep understanding of the Digital Media landscape and overall best practices. Areas include Programmatic, Display, Native, Video, OTT/CTV audio/video
• Must have experience with headerbidding, prebid and ad waterfall management
• Ability to effectively communicate with internal stakeholders
• Growth mindset to try new things, learn, and ask for needed support
• Track record of successfully managing client campaigns to achieve KPIs
• Detail oriented and an ability to maintain a high level of productivity balancing multiple work streams
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel (e.g., pivot tables, VLOOKUPs, Power Query)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Confident presentation skills

You may also have: 

• Ability to multi-task and prioritize in a fast-paced environment
• Comfort with ambiguity and a self-starter with an aptitude for process improvement
• Capable of turning data into compelling stories and delivering actionable insights to leadership
• Experience with Business Intelligence tools (e.g., Looker, Tableau, PowerBI), a plus
• Comfort engaging with senior-level executives on strategic initiatives
• You have experience in a growing startup environment, a plus
• Passion for finding, testing, and integrating new ad-tech and campaign enhancement opportunities to improve performance results
• Ability to work under pressure with attention to detail
• Ability to learn new tools and skills quickly