Manager, Ad Operations

The World Surf League is seeking a technical Manager, Ad Operations to lead traffic, delivery and programmatic sales/yield for its digital platforms - including worldsurfleague.com, the WSL iOS and Android mobile apps, and the WSL OTT apps (Apple TV, Samsung TV, Roku). This is an exciting opportunity to own Ad Ops & Yield for a global League with a unique, digital-first approach to live sports. It offers value exposure to WSL’s sales and engineering teams, agency partners, programmatic and digital vendors, and live ops crew. This role reports directly into our SVP, Revenue Operations & Merchandise. The role sits in our WSL in El Segundo, CA- however we are open to a remote employee should the right candidate be located outside of Los Angeles. 

Responsibilities include (but not limited to):

Digital Ad Traffic

• End to end ad traffic including line item setup and QA in Google Ad Manager (GAM) for both livestreams and on-demand content
• Night and weekends sometimes required
• Both display and video traffic included 
• Experience with line item QA and troubleshooting; owns the QA process
• Screenshot generation

Programmatic Sales Operations

• Working directly with programmatic demand partners and building regular meeting cadence with all partners to optimize technical performance
• Yield analysis & ongoing price floor optimization 
• Optimizing ad requests to maximize fill 
• Proactively look for new opportunities to scale demand and performance in the programmatic space 
• Opportunity to pursue PG or PMP sales if desired 

Ad Product Development & Improvement

Working closely with the WSL product team and engineers, continuously improve the WSL ad product; focus areas to include: 

• First party data product buildout using new CDP 
• Evaluating and optimizing ad UX across the site and apps
• Improving targeting capability across the site and apps
• Recommending & implementing yield improvement solutions like ad block recovery, etc. 
• Recommending & implementing new / improved ad units across the site and apps 

Qualifications: 

• Ideally 3+ years of experience with a major digital publisher 
• Deep experience with Google Ad Manager 
• Working knowledge of HTML
• Experience with debugging tools (e.g. Charles)
• Experience working with a variety of creative types including video, display, rich display, HTML5, etc.  
• Experience working with development and engineering teams 
• Livestreaming experience and live ops experience a major plus
• Yield management analysis & experience a major plus 
• Experience with header bidding in both video and display 
• Programmatic sales experience / PMP or PG deal management a major plus 

Personal Attributes:

• Above all, integrity and honesty
• Entrepreneurial; willingness to work independently with the best business practices in mind
• An exceptional work ethic
• Exceptional attention to detail 
• Masterful organizational skills
• An enthusiasm for coaching, teaching and the development of people
• Optimism and energy for the brand and its future
• An open and collaborative nature
• A high degree of self-awareness of one’s own personal style, strengths and weaknesses and motivational triggers.
• Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.
• Action Oriented—enjoys working hard and looks for challenges; able to act and react as necessary, even if limited information is available. 

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: equal opportunity employer M/F/D/V

Salary Range: $85,000.00- $100,000.00 based on relevant experience