Principal Media Operations Manager

Horizon Media•New York, NY

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Horizon Media is seeking a Manager, Principal Buying Operations & Process Transformation to strengthen the processes, systems, controls, reporting, and training that support Media Exchange (MX), Horizon’s proprietary principal media buying model. The role partners across Media Investment, Operations, Billing, Accounts Payable, Client Finance, Technology, Application Support, and external platforms to turn business needs into practical workflows and system solutions. It identifies opportunities to improve operational efficiency, support business readiness, and drive continuous process improvements across the MX ecosystem. The position maps and standardizes workflows from deal ideation and client eligibility through trade execution, billing, reconciliation, and close. It identifies bottlenecks, control gaps, and manual handoffs; develops scalable procedures; maintains safeguards for principal pricing, vendor costs, and commercial margin data; and maintains operating documentation. It also investigates billing variances, clearance discrepancies, and vendor payment issues; aligns buy structures and system handoffs with MX processes and NetSuite workflows; supports governance, audit readiness, and contract compliance; and identifies improvements to financial processes, reporting accuracy, and transparency. The Manager gathers and documents business, operational, system, and reporting requirements; translates issues into business requirements, user stories, process rules, acceptance criteria, and test scenarios; and partners with Technology, Application Support, and vendors to assess solutions, automation, and platform capabilities. The role coordinates testing, defect triage, retesting, readiness sign-off, deployment, production validation, pilots, and post-launch stabilization. It also investigates production issues and turns recurring problems into sustainable process, data, reporting, or system improvements. The Manager develops training and support materials and partners with stakeholders on change management for process improvements, system enhancements, and business transformation initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Communications, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
8–10 years of experience in business operations, media operations, agency finance, business analysis, process improvement, systems implementation, application support partnership, or business transformation.
Strong process mapping, requirements documentation, workflow design, issue triage, root-cause analysis, and control-gap identification skills.
Working knowledge of media investment operations, agency billing cycles, vendor accounts payable, reconciliation, and reporting workflows.
Experience with Mediaocean/Prisma, FreeWheel/SBMS, DSPs, and/or ERP systems such as NetSuite.
Experience creating SOPs, job aids, training materials, user communications, and onboarding support.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including meeting facilitation and the ability to translate technical concepts for business stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience with principal buying, trade/barter models, or inventory arbitrage workflows.
Hands-on involvement with NetSuite implementations, integrations, reporting remediation, or media platform migrations.
Lean, Six Sigma, Agile/Scrum, CBAP, or PMI-PBA certification.
Application support partnership experience.

Responsibilities

Map and standardize Media Exchange workflows from deal ideation and client eligibility through trade execution, billing, reconciliation, and close.
Identify bottlenecks, control gaps, and manual handoffs, and design scalable procedures to replace offline workarounds.
Maintain safeguards for principal pricing, vendor costs, and commercial margin data across systems and reporting environments.
Maintain SOPs, process flows, exception matrices, decision logs, and operating documentation.
Analyze recurring billing variances, clearance discrepancies, and vendor payment issues to identify root causes and drive process improvements.
Ensure buy structures, estimate setup, and system handoffs align with MX processes and NetSuite workflows.
Partner with Client Finance, Billing, and Operations to investigate exceptions, document requirements, and improve workflows.
Support governance, audit readiness, and contract compliance controls.
Identify opportunities to improve financial process efficiency, reporting accuracy, and operational transparency.
Gather and document business, operational, system, and reporting requirements from Investment, Finance, Billing, and leadership.
Translate pain points into business requirements, user stories, process rules, acceptance criteria, and test scenarios.
Partner with Technology, Application Support, and vendors to evaluate solution options, automation opportunities, and existing platform capabilities.
Coordinate UAT, defect triage, retesting, business-readiness sign-off, deployment, production validation, pilots, and post-go-live stabilization.
Investigate production issues, defects, reporting discrepancies, data variances, reconciliation exceptions, and workflow failures with Application Support, Technology, and vendors.
Translate recurring issues into sustainable process, data, reporting, or system improvements, and maintain requirements traceability, change request logs, and decision registers.
Develop training materials, job aids, user communications, and supporting documentation to promote operational readiness and adoption.
Partner with stakeholders on change management for process improvements, system enhancements, and business transformation initiatives.