Director, Programmatic Ad Sales

Hearst•New York, NY

3d•$165,000 - $169,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Hearst News is Hearst’s unified programmatic team across Hearst Newspapers and Television, bringing premium local news, lifestyle, sports, entertainment, and video supply across Web, App, and CTV together in a single omnichannel marketplace. As Director, Programmatic Ad Sales, you will help define and execute the commercial strategy for this growing business, translating the scale and quality of our owned-and-operated inventory into meaningful outcomes for agencies, brands, and trading desks. This is a senior sales leadership role for a modern programmatic seller who can move fluidly between strategy and execution. You will build trusted relationships with senior agency and brand stakeholders, create demand for Hearst News’ differentiated supply, develop direct and curated opportunities, and help clients understand how our premium content, first-party signals, addressability, contextual intelligence, and cross-screen reach can work together in a cohesive activation. You will also lead and develop a sales team, with a focus on coaching, operational excellence, accountability, and building lasting customer trust. Reporting to the SVP, Programmatic Strategy, you will collaborate across Sales, Strategy & Operations, Technical Ad Management, Analytics, Product, Data, and Marketing. You will bring a strong point of view to the market, create clarity for internal partners, and translate customer insight into scalable commercial opportunities. This is an opportunity to help shape the next phase of Hearst News’ growth and define how advertisers access premium, omnichannel supply at scale.

Requirements

Significant experience in programmatic advertising, digital media, publisher sales, ad technology, or a related commercial role, ideally 5+ years in a selling role.
A strong understanding of programmatic buying and selling, including PMPs, curated supply, direct deals, audience activation, and the agency decision-making process.
A proven record of building senior agency and advertiser relationships and converting those relationships into durable revenue.
The ability to sell both the strategic story and the operational details, from market positioning and packaging through deal setup, delivery, and optimization.
Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and organizational skills, with a bias toward action and follow-through.
A collaborative leadership style and the ability to create momentum across teams in a changing, cross-divisional environment.

Nice To Haves

A deeper understanding of CTV inventory is also a plus.

Responsibilities

Own and execute a growth strategy across national agencies, brands, holding-company trading desks, and programmatic buying teams.
Develop new business and expand existing relationships through programmatic direct, private marketplace (PMP), preferred, programmatic guaranteed, and curated deal opportunities.
Position Hearst News as one premium, omnichannel marketplace spanning local and national audiences across Web, App, and CTV.
Build a disciplined pipeline with clear account priorities, business hypotheses, revenue potential, and next steps.
Build trusted relationships with agency investment teams, programmatic leads, data and activation teams, and senior brand stakeholders.
Lead consultative conversations that connect client objectives to Hearst News' inventory, audience, data, and measurement capabilities.
Create compelling solutions that combine display, video, and CTV supply with addressable audiences, contextual signals, suitability controls, and first-party data where appropriate.
Represent customer needs internally and ensure that opportunities move from discovery to proposal, activation, optimization, and renewal with strong ownership throughout.
Stay current on the programmatic ecosystem, including DSP and SSP dynamics, identity, privacy, CTV, data collaboration, supply-path efficiency, measurement, and evolving buyer expectations.
Translate Hearst News' capabilities into clear, differentiated narratives for sellers and buyers, including our premium O&O supply, audience scale, addressability, contextual and suitability solutions, and cross-divisional packages.
Partner with Strategy & Operations, Technical Ad Management, Analytics, Product, and Data to align pricing, packaging, inventory allocation, deal execution, and performance insights.
Bring the voice of the customer into product development and help identify the next opportunities to improve our commercial proposition.
Collaborate across Hearst News and broader Hearst teams to create larger, more integrated opportunities for advertisers.
Work closely with technical and operational partners to troubleshoot issues, improve the buyer experience, and protect campaign performance.
Coach and develop junior sellers, establish strong sales operating habits, and contribute to a culture of accountability, curiosity, and shared ownership.