The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.
Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.
The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.
Who you are
The Director, Commercial Deals & Pricing is the hands-on operational leader who partners directly with Sales and Business Development to structure, evaluate, and move individual deals through to approval. You are fluent in pricing, deal terms, commercial incentive structures, and margin math, and you're the person a seller calls when a deal needs to evolve from transactional discounting to a strategic value exchange partnership.
You'll work closely with Sales/BD, Finance, and commercial leadership to make sure deals are well-structured, properly documented, and move through approval efficiently, without compromising on margin or deal quality. The ideal candidate has strong deal finance instincts, experience working on enterprise-level accounts, and is equally comfortable partnering on complex, custom deals and driving teams to standardized models.
What you'll do
Deal-by-deal commercial support
- Serve as the primary strategic partner for Sales/BD on individual deal structuring, including pricing, packaging, discounting, credits, and non-standard terms.
- Review and stress-test deal economics (rate, spend commitments, margin impact) before deals move to approval.
- Advise sellers in real time on how to structure a deal using deal model templates and account data.
- Operate within existing commercial guardrails where possible, identify when a deal needs escalation or an exception, and drive alignment on a resolution.
Deal desk operations & approvals
- Own day-to-day operation of the deal approval process: intake, triage, documentation review, and routing deals to the right approver based on the delegation of authority framework.
- Prepare individual deals for executive review, including your clear, data-driven recommendations.
- Track deals through the pipeline to resolution, following up with Sales, Finance, and approvers to keep things moving and unblock stalled deals.
- Maintain accurate, up-to-date records of deal terms, approvals, and exceptions in Salesforce and supporting tools.
Cross-functional coordination
- Work closely with Finance/Deal Finance to validate margin and spend assumptions on individual deals.
- Partner with Legal as needed on non-standard terms within specific deals.
- Escalate deals that fall outside existing guardrails to commercial leadership with a clear recommendation and supporting analysis.
- Act as a feedback channel from the field back to commercial leadership, surfacing recurring deal patterns, friction points, or gaps in existing guidance.
Quality, consistency & tooling
- Ensure every deal that reaches approval has complete, standardized documentation.
- Use and help refine existing deal templates, calculators, and reporting tools. Development new frameworks where needed.
- Identify recurring issues or bottlenecks in the deal review process and suggest practical fixes.
What you bring to the table
- 8+ years of experience in deal desk, commercial operations, deal finance, or a related function, ideally in SaaS or ad tech.
- Strong, hands-on experience structuring and reviewing individual commercial deals, including pricing, discounting, incentive structures, and non-standard terms.
- Comfort working at deal volume, managing multiple live deals at once with strong attention to detail and turnaround time.
- Solid financial acumen. You understand margin math, spend commitments, and rate structures, and can explain the details clearly to sellers and approvers.
- Experience working directly with Sales/BD in a deal-support capacity; able to push back constructively on deal terms while maintaining a good working relationship.
- Working knowledge of Salesforce and standard deal/commercial tooling.
- Clear, direct communication skills. You are comfortable summarizing deal recommendations for approvers, including senior leadership.
#LI-JS1
The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.
[LA JOBS ONLY] The Trade Desk will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Ordinance No. 184652.
[SF JOBS ONLY] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
In accordance with various US state laws, the range provided is the Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, and location. All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance. The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as variable compensation-based incentives and commissions. Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well-being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full-time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year. Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package. Click here to learn more.
Note: Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Please reach out to us at accommodations@thetradedesk.com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.
When you contact us, please include your preferred contact details and specify the nature of your accommodation request or questions. Any information you share will be handled confidentially and will not impact our hiring decisions.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of experience in deal desk, commercial operations, deal finance, or a related function
- Experience in SaaS or ad tech
- Hands-on experience structuring and reviewing individual commercial deals including pricing, discounting, incentives, and non-standard terms
- Solid financial acumen (margin math, spend commitments, rate structures)
- Experience working directly with Sales/Business Development in a deal-support capacity
- Ability to manage multiple live deals with strong attention to detail and turnaround time
- Working knowledge of Salesforce and standard deal/commercial tooling
- Clear, direct communication skills; able to summarize recommendations for approvers and senior leadership
- Experience operating deal approval processes, preparing deals for executive review, and maintaining accurate deal records
The Trade Desk Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about The Trade Desk and has not been reviewed or approved by The Trade Desk.
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Affordable Benefits — Healthcare premiums are often paid in full for employees and dependents, reducing out-of-pocket costs. Coverage includes medical, dental, and vision alongside mental health and wellness support.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Packages commonly include new-hire stock grants, a generous Employee Stock Purchase Plan, and equity refreshers tied to performance. Feedback suggests equity meaningfully boosts total compensation alongside base pay and bonuses.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, paid holidays, paid sick time, and sabbaticals are available. Paid parental leave and extensive family-planning support broaden time-off and caregiving coverage.
The Trade Desk Insights
What We Do
The Trade Desk is changing the way global brands and their agencies advertise to audiences around the world. Our mission is to transform media for the benefit of humankind. Our media-buying platform helps brands deliver a more insightful and relevant ad experience for consumers — and sets a new standard for reach, accuracy, and transparency.
Why Work With Us
With up to 11 million queries per second and SLAs in the milliseconds, we’re tackling data and software challenges at massive scale. While we’re growing fast, investing in our value based company culture remains one of our top priorities. If you’re talented, driven, and hungry to bring something entirely new and wildly ambitious, let's talk.
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