Associate Director, Ad Operations & Programmatic Strategy

WebMD•Durham, NC

58d•$115,000 - $125,000

About The Position

WebMD Ignite, a division of WebMD and Internet Brands, is the growth partner for healthcare organizations. We guide people to better health at all stages of their journey, from discovery to recovery. Our combination of leading brands in the industry—including WebMD, Medscape, Krames, PulsePoint, Vitals, The Wellness Network, Mercury Healthcare, and Healthwise—offers comprehensive solutions that engage individuals with timely, relevant messaging that optimizes experiences and outcomes, driving loyalty and lifetime value for our clients. Learn more at WebMDIgnite.com. The Associate Director, Ad Operations & Programmatic serves as the operational and strategic leader for a team of three programmatic traders managing approximately 150 active line items across two distinct sales models. This is a hands-on leadership role: you are expected to be a working manager who steps into the trading seat as needed, while simultaneously developing your team’s capabilities, driving process excellence, and serving as the primary point of escalation for high-priority clients. This role is also responsible for driving the team’s digital transformation by integrating AI-enabled workflows and automation to elevate our strategic output. You will oversee the full lifecycle of both impression-based CPM package campaigns and spend-based managed budget campaigns, ensuring flawless execution, pacing accuracy, and consistent delivery against client goals. The role demands equal fluency in people leadership, platform operations, and strategic client thinking.

Requirements

8-10 years of experience in ad operations, programmatic media, or digital media trading, with at least 2 years in a lead or supervisory capacity.
Hands-on proficiency with major DSP platforms (e.g., DV360, The Trade Desk, Xandr/Microsoft, Amazon DSP) and ad servers (e.g., Campaign Manager 360, FreeWheel, GAM). PulsePoint DSP experience preferred.
Demonstrated experience applying AI or automation to media workflows, with a strong bias toward process redesign and coaching teams into AI-enabled ways of working.
Demonstrated experience managing both CPM/impression-based and budget/spend-based campaign structures.
Strong understanding of programmatic ecosystem fundamentals: auction mechanics, deal IDs, PMPs, audience targeting, brand safety, and viewability.
Proven ability to manage and train teams to manage multiple concurrent campaigns at scale (100+ line items) with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.
Experience developing or refining ad ops workflows, SOPs, or playbooks.
Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical operations into clear reporting and recommendations for non-technical stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Healthcare vertical experience; familiarity with HIPAA considerations in digital advertising.
Experience managing programmatic operations within a media agency or healthcare marketing environment.
3 years of experience trafficking, building, and launching campaigns within PulsePoint DSP / LIFE.
Proficiency in reporting and analytics tools (Looker, Tableau, Google Data Studio, or equivalent).
Familiarity with offshore team management and workflow coordination.
Experience supporting sales teams on programmatic strategy and proposal development.

Responsibilities

Directly manage, mentor, and develop three programmatic traders, setting clear performance expectations and fostering a culture of accountability and growth.
Serve as a working manager and backup trader; actively stepping in to manage line items, troubleshoot delivery issues, or support high-priority campaigns during peak periods or team absences.
Conduct regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and skills-gap assessments; create individualized development plans for each team member.
Lead daily and weekly team stand-ups to review pacing, flag issues, and prioritize workload across the full ~200 line item portfolio.
Coordinate effectively across onshore and offshore resources to ensure continuity of campaign operations.
Own the programmatic team’s automation roadmap. Proactively identify, evaluate, and integrate AI-driven tools, automation, and methodologies to streamline day-to-day operations and programmatic strategy.
Lead the team’s transition to AI-enabled workflows. Coach and upskill programmatic traders to adopt "AI-solution-forward" ways of working, ensuring the team is proficient in using AI for forecasting, reporting, and strategic insights.
Audit and re-engineer manual, recurring processes (e.g., campaign setup, tagging, trafficking) around automation and AI agents to reduce manual effort and increase throughput.
Build and assist in the development of AI-enabled measurement, optimization, and reporting capabilities. Shift the team’s focus from execution-heavy tasks toward higher-value strategic output and AOR-style services.
Oversee trafficking, QA, and optimization of bundled CPM package campaigns that follow standardized targeting templates and package definitions.
Establish and maintain clear naming conventions, package taxonomies, and trafficking SOPs that enable consistent, scalable execution across the team.
Monitor delivery pacing and performance, proactively identifying underperforming line items and directing optimization actions.
Partner with the sales team to ensure package definitions are operationally feasible and clearly communicated at the point of sale.
Provide strategic oversight of spend-based campaigns, with particular attention to Baptist Health South Florida, which represents approximately 16% of spend and 22% lines under management in this revenue tier.
Ensure accurate budget allocation, pacing, and spend reconciliation across all spend-based line items; own escalation and resolution of budget discrepancy issues.
Act as senior operational point-of-contact for the primary client account, collaborating with account management on performance reporting, optimization strategy, and upsell opportunities.
Develop and maintain pacing dashboards or reporting frameworks that give leadership real-time visibility into spend-based campaign health.
Design, document, and implement standardized operating procedures for campaign trafficking, QA, optimization, and reporting across both sales models.
Identify workflow inefficiencies and recommend tooling, automation, or process changes to increase team throughput, reduce error rates and utilize cross-functional team players.
Build and maintain a playbook of best practices for line-item setup, targeting configuration, bid strategy, and troubleshooting.
Establish clear escalation paths and SLA expectations for internal stakeholders and clients.
Function as the programmatic SME for the team, staying current on platform updates (DSP/SSP), industry trends, and emerging ad tech capabilities.
Develop and deliver training curricula for traders covering platform proficiency, optimization methodology, and both sales model frameworks.
Support sales and strategy teams on programmatic proposals, media plans, and new client onboarding by providing operational feasibility input and strategic recommendations.
Contribute to internal thought leadership on programmatic best practices, audience strategies, and campaign innovation.