Lead Product Manager

Paramount•West Hollywood, CA

1d•$139,000 - $175,000•Onsite

About The Position

We’ve got the brands, we’ve got the stars, we’ve got the power to achieve our mission to entertain the planet – now all we’re missing is… YOU! Becoming a part of Paramount means joining a team of passionate people who not only recognize the power of content but also enjoy a touch of fun and uniqueness. Together, we co-create moments that matter – both for our audiences and our employees – and aim to leave a positive mark on culture. In This Role You’ll Be a member of the Ad Delivery team which oversees critical Ad and In-Stream Insertion functionality, including requesting/receiving ads from ad servers, transcoding creatives, internal reporting metrics, and troubleshooting and analysis tools. Members of this team should have extensive knowledge of SSAI systems, VMAP/VAST behavior, and playback quality assurance. This role will interface with various external partners (content and distribution), as well as internal teams (Engineering, Ad Operations, Project Management, Content Systems, and various stakeholders). As a member of the Ad Delivery team, you’ll serve an important role in ensuring seamless end-to-end insertion of advertising and other user-facing elements into our hundreds of available streams. To achieve this, you will be expected to create and manage a roadmap covering your areas of system and feature ownership. This roadmap will be executed under general supervision by the Vice President overseeing Ad Delivery. This role is a full-time, in-office position in Los Angeles. General product management expectations, including roadmap creation and execution, requirements gathering and grooming (with assistance from stakeholders), planning release schedule to quickly achieve MVP value (with assistance from PMO), analysis of impact of features in production vs expectations, and other product-related tasks. Own SSAI across both FAST and VOD as the primary ad serving system, not just a component of delivery Define how ads move from decision response to playback, ensuring selected ads consistently render without gaps or failures Partner with engineering on HLS and DASH manifest manipulation, ad stitching, and cue point precision Take full ownership of VAST and VMAP execution, including wrapper resolution, timeout handling, pre-validation of creatives, and ad request construction Define ad break and pod behavior, including sequencing, completion, and fallback when ads are missing or invalid Ownership of Ads transcoding process to continually improve efficiency and reduce errors, with an eye on cost savings through storage enhancements. Define and own beaconing and measurement expectations across quartiles, ad breaks, and completion Build observability into the system so we can clearly diagnose render failures across partners, devices, and creatives Focus on real system outcomes like render rate, error reduction, timing accuracy, and ad break completion Oversee existing Operational Tools and plan improvements and future tools. Future features, such as developing an Ads SDK, A/B testing framework, and other in-stream insertion capabilities

Requirements

5+ years of experience owning a product feature roadmap
3+ years working specifically with an ad delivery system, including interacting with user-facing apps and ad-decision systems.
Extensive knowledge of SSAI, ad request structures, E2E request/response processes, VMAP/VAST, and general ad server functionality
Some proficiency with ad beacons, structure, and firing methodologies
Some proficiency with advertising-focused reporting (i.e. render rates, fill rates, errors)
Bachelor’s degree
Adept at tailoring communications depending on the circumstance, whether the audience is technical, non-technical, or executive.
Intellectual curiosity and passion for identifying key problems that are faced by the business, by the market and by current technologies.
Track record of results when working collaboratively and being dependent on others.

Responsibilities

Roadmap creation and execution
Requirements gathering and grooming (with assistance from stakeholders)
Planning release schedule to quickly achieve MVP value (with assistance from PMO)
Analysis of impact of features in production vs expectations
Own SSAI across both FAST and VOD as the primary ad serving system, not just a component of delivery
Define how ads move from decision response to playback, ensuring selected ads consistently render without gaps or failures
Partner with engineering on HLS and DASH manifest manipulation, ad stitching, and cue point precision
Take full ownership of VAST and VMAP execution, including wrapper resolution, timeout handling, pre-validation of creatives, and ad request construction
Define ad break and pod behavior, including sequencing, completion, and fallback when ads are missing or invalid
Ownership of Ads transcoding process to continually improve efficiency and reduce errors, with an eye on cost savings through storage enhancements.
Define and own beaconing and measurement expectations across quartiles, ad breaks, and completion
Build observability into the system so we can clearly diagnose render failures across partners, devices, and creatives
Focus on real system outcomes like render rate, error reduction, timing accuracy, and ad break completion
Oversee existing Operational Tools and plan improvements and future tools.
Future features, such as developing an Ads SDK, A/B testing framework, and other in-stream insertion capabilities