Director, Programmatic

Digital Matter•New York, NY

About The Position

As a Director, Programmatic you will lead the strategy, operating model, and financial performance of the organization’s programmatic media investment portfolio. This role is responsible for translating business objectives into disciplined media allocation decisions, ensuring that every dollar of programmatic spend is underwritten, measured, optimized, and governed with institutional rigor. The successful candidate will oversee bidding strategy, inventory quality, supply-path optimization, measurement frameworks, risk controls, and team performance across major programmatic platforms and partners.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in programmatic media, digital investment, or performance marketing, including leadership experience within a trading desk, in-house programmatic function, or media investment organization
Proven track record building and scaling programmatic capabilities within a fast-growing, client-facing environment
Deep hands-on expertise across major DSPs, including DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, and retail media ecosystems
Strong understanding of the broader programmatic supply chain, including SSPs, exchanges, identity frameworks, curated marketplaces, and supply-path optimization
Demonstrated ability to develop, optimize, or operationalize bidding strategies, custom algorithms, log-level optimization, and AI-driven decisioning frameworks
Experience leveraging data, automation, and AI platforms to improve media performance, operational efficiency, and portfolio-level outcomes
Strong analytical and measurement capabilities, including incrementality testing, attribution, MMM, and interpreting model outputs to drive business decisions
Financial and commercial acumen, including experience managing media budgets, analyzing unit economics, evaluating ROI, and owning portfolio performance outcomes
Comfortable working cross-functionally with data science, engineering, analytics, finance, strategy, and client leadership teams
Experience building processes, operating models, and governance structures within high-growth or evolving organizations
Proficiency in SQL and familiarity with Python, R, clean rooms, or advanced analytics environments preferred

Nice To Haves

Background in quantitative finance, trading, retail media, curated marketplaces, or internal media technology/platform development is a strong plus

Responsibilities

Serve as the programmatic lead, helping define the team’s mandate, operating model, and standards of excellence
Build, hire, and develop a high-performing team across programmatic trading, ad operations, analytics, and client strategy
Establish scalable processes, documentation, workflows, and decision rights to support a growing portfolio of retail clients
Set the cultural and operational foundation for a disciplined, accountable, and analytically rigorous media investment team
Lead programmatic strategy across a robust portfolio of retail clients, aligning media investment decisions to each client’s commercial objectives
Develop client-specific investment theses across display, video, CTV, audio, DOOH, and emerging channels
Establish allocation frameworks that balance performance, growth, efficiency, and risk across multiple client portfolios
Identify opportunities to expand client relationships through stronger performance, improved measurement, and new media investment opportunities
Own the design and optimization of bidding strategies across DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, and other relevant platforms
Partner with product, data science, and engineering teams to help shape the AI trading platform roadmap, ensuring it reflects trader workflows, client needs, and real-world market dynamics
Build supply-path optimization frameworks, including curated marketplaces, direct publisher access, fee transparency, and inventory governance
Define standards for campaign execution, pacing, optimization, brand safety, viewability, invalid traffic prevention, and MFA exclusion
Ensure consistent execution quality across clients while tailoring strategies to category dynamics, margin profiles, and business goals
Partner with analytics, data science, and finance teams to build measurement frameworks across incrementality testing, attribution, MMM, and business outcome reporting
Establish portfolio-level governance, including budget guardrails, concentration thresholds, performance benchmarks, and escalation protocols
Deliver executive-ready reporting on client performance, variance drivers, investment rationale, and forward-looking recommendations
Create a repeatable operating system for assessing what is working, what is underperforming, and where capital should be reallocated across the portfolio