Lead Programmatic Trader – Americas

Ask Locala • New York, NY

15h • Remote

About The Position

Locala is the world’s leading commerce media platform, leveraging consumer insights and location data to increase brand awareness, drive consumers to store, and deliver smarter business outcomes. Our proprietary technology enables local advertising and insights at scale, all while meeting the highest user privacy standards in the industry.
The Trading Lead is responsible for driving campaign execution excellence, performance optimization, and margin efficiency across all channels.
This role acts as the central authority on trading strategy, deal structuring, and campaign performance, partnering closely with Pre-Sales, Customer Success, and Operations to ensure campaigns are executed effectively and deliver against client expectations.
While the role maintains visibility into inventory and supply, its primary focus is on how we buy, optimize, and scale media efficiently and profitably.

Requirements

• 6-10 years in programmatic advertising
• 2+ years in a senior or architect-style role managing large, Tier 1 accounts
• Strong experience with DSPs such as DV360, The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, or Xandr
• Solid understanding of campaign trafficking, ad operations, optimization, and troubleshooting
• Solid understanding of third party measuring tools (IAS, Doubleverify)

Nice To Haves

• Strong knowledge of publisher landscape
• Experience managing Tier 1 or complex, multi-market campaigns
• Strong understanding of inventory, supply dynamics, and buying strategies
• Ability to collaborate with external partners (DSPs, SSPs, publishers) to resolve issues and improve performance
• Experience balancing performance with cost efficiency or margin considerations

Responsibilities

• Define and standardize trading best practices across all channels: Display / Mobile, CTV, DOOH, Audio / OLV
• Guide campaign setup strategy, budget allocation, and optimization frameworks
• Ensure consistency in naming conventions, campaign structures, and targeting logic
• Lead execution quality control to reduce setup errors and improve campaign readiness and launch timelines
• Partner with teams to ensure alignment between strategy and execution
• Monitor and analyze delivery & pacing, CPMs / CPCs, win rates, and conversion / visitation metrics
• Define and implement optimization frameworks and testing strategies (A/B, formats, audiences)
• Identify underperforming campaigns and optimization opportunities
• Provide clear recommendations to trading teams
• Lead post-campaign analysis to inform future strategy
• Ensure campaigns are executed in a way that protects and improves margin
• Partner with Pre-Sales on deal structuring and media mix optimization
• Monitor cost vs. sell price and margin performance by campaign / channel
• Identify inefficiencies in buying strategy and opportunities to improve margin through optimization
• Support teams in adjusting inventory mix and improving cost efficiency
• Flag risks early, including underperforming or low-margin campaigns
• Own Deal ID strategy and implementation: Define deal structures, select appropriate inventory, align with campaign objectives
• Oversee PMP / PG / Open Exchange strategies
• Troubleshoot no-bid issues, underpacing, and access / targeting conflicts
• Work directly with SSPs / DSP partners to resolve delivery issues and optimize deal performance
• Monitor deal-level performance, win rates, and delivery
• Build and maintain trading performance dashboards (DV360, Fusio, etc.)
• Analyze publisher performance, channel performance, and spend allocation trends
• Provide weekly / monthly trading insights
• Identify performance trends and optimization opportunities
• Support PCA / Tier 1 client insights
• Partner with Pre-Sales for feasibility and media strategy alignment
• Partner with Customer Success for performance insights and client needs
• Partner with Operations for process and execution improvements
• Act as the go-to resource for trading-related questions
• Support complex / Tier 1 campaigns
• Maintain visibility into key supply partners (SSPs, publishers) and inventory performance trends
• Collaborate with supply partners to unlock better rates or access when needed
• Support inventory selection for campaigns
• Provide input on premium vs. scalable inventory
• Share inventory insights with internal teams

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance - 100% paid for the employee-only, 80% for dependents
• 401k with Company Match
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Vacation, Sick Time & Holidays
• Training & development
• Remote-first work environment

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees