Director, Programmatic

Reposted Yesterday
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Toronto, ON, CAN
In-Office
90K-140K Annually
Senior level
AdTech • Marketing Tech
The Role
Lead and manage a programmatic trading team (3–8 reports), own clients' programmatic strategy and execution, ensure campaigns meet KPIs, create QA and workflow processes, train direct reports, develop platform/vendor relationships, analyze performance, and produce presentations and best practices to support account and agency-level programmatic initiatives.
Summary Generated by Built In

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth. 

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.


About WPP Media 

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit wpp.com.

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth. For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

  • Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
  • Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
  • Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.

Director, Programmatic

Overview:

As Programmatic has evolved, it has moved from being considered one of those specialty services towards a fundamental aspect of our digital activation strategy. While our programmatic teams are a part of a broader programmatic community dedicated to shaping best practices, our individual trading teams work directly with their agency counterparts to create and execute campaigns that support our clients overall marketing objectives.

About the Role:

You will be responsible for overseeing the overall health and success of the clients respective campaigns. Within this role you’ll be responsible for the ownership of your clients’ programmatic media strategy and oversee its implementation and day-to-day execution. The primary responsibilities of the role include the management of the programmatic team and engaging with respective digital agency counterparts, clients, and external partners. You will also be expected to be the team’s strongest programmatic trader and should be a source of expertise and point of escalation for all aspects of the execution of a programmatic campaign including implementation, optimization and inventory, and audience strategy. Typically, you will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day workload, training and career development of between 3-8 reports.

Your Impact:

  • Collaborate with planning teams to develop a programmatic strategy that ensures the clients marketing objectives are met with appropriate programmatic tactics
  • Oversee the management of campaigns to ensure they consistently meet or exceed client KPIs and lending support to day-to-day trading as needed
  • Act as the team’s central point of trading expertise and escalation to address problems as they arise for the account
  • Create and enforce workflow processes to ensure deliverables are completed accurately and on time
  • Hold members of the team accountable to flawless execution of campaign implementation and develop the QA processes that allow them to do so
  • Own and improve the working relationships with members of the broader digital account teams including planning, investment, operations, and analytics
  • Develop relationships with platform, inventory, and data providers to maximize their value specific to account needs
  • Keep key stakeholders including clients and account teams updated on campaign and account level performance via regular and ad-hoc reporting and status meetings
  • Conduct regular and ad hoc analysis to identify opportunities to improve performance within and across campaigns
  • Ongoing training and support of the career growth of direct reports
  • Keep Senior Leadership informed of the overall status of the trading team to ensure any challenges are appropriately resolved and/or escalated
  • Develop best practices that improve the quality or efficiency of work within an account or broader agency programmatic team
  • Develop POVs, Presentations or other shareable collateral that improves the overall level of programmatic education across programmatic and digital teams
  • Support the Programmatic Agency lead as needed for larger presentations, projects, or pitches

Your Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Analytics, Marketing, Communications, Advertising; OR equivalent professional work experience
  • 6+ Years of relevant career experience, with 3+ years’ experience trading programmatic campaigns at an agency, brand, DSP or Ad Network strongly preferred.
  • DV360 and Prisma experience strongly preferred.
  • Other Programmatic functions, Paid Search, Paid Social, Ad Operations, Digital Analytics or Digital Planning or client-side roles supporting a direct response or ecommerce brand may also be considered for high qualified candidates.
  • Past management experience is required
  • Familiarity with key programmatic and digital platforms
  • Understanding and familiarity of key industry concepts and trends
  • Advanced Excel User (Pivot Tables, Joining Data Sets, Complex Formulas, etc.)
  • Experience with other database, visualization tools or coding languages is a plus
  • Excellent verbal and written skills
  • Exceptional organizational skills and detail-oriented mindset
  • Strong presentation skills and comfort presenting to senior stakeholders
  • Strong analytical abilities and quantitative skills
  • Ability to prioritize tasks effectively
  • Natural curiosity and desire to continuously learn

Life at WPP Media & Benefits 

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days. 

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process. 

WPP Media is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with WPP Media, please send an e-mail to WPP Media Leave Administration at [email protected] or call (212) 297-8507 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. 

Please read our Privacy Notice (https://www.wppmedia.com/pages/privacy-policy) for more information on how we process the information you provide.

While we appreciate all applications received, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. 


The base salary for this position at the time of this posting may range between the values at the bottom of this posting. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications.

-
$90,000$140,000 CAD

Please read our Privacy Notice for more information on how we process the information you provide. 

Skills Required

  • Bachelor's Degree in Business, Analytics, Marketing, Communications, Advertising or equivalent professional experience
  • 6+ years of relevant career experience
  • 3+ years trading programmatic campaigns at an agency, brand, DSP or Ad Network
  • DV360 experience
  • Prisma experience
  • Past management experience (managing 3-8 direct reports)
  • Familiarity with key programmatic and digital platforms
  • Advanced Excel skills (Pivot Tables, joining data sets, complex formulas)
  • Experience with database, visualization tools, or coding languages
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Strong presentation skills and comfort presenting to senior stakeholders
  • Strong analytical abilities and quantitative skills
  • Exceptional organizational skills and detail-oriented mindset
  • Ability to prioritize tasks effectively
  • Understanding and familiarity with key industry concepts and trends

WPP Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about WPP and has not been reviewed or approved by WPP.

  • Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits Wellbeing support includes a global Employee Assistance Programme and company-wide initiatives, with modern multi‑agency campuses and on‑site amenities positioned as part of the experience. This indicates a holistic focus across mental, physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.
  • Retirement Support Retirement offerings commonly include a US 401(k) with employer matching, though specifics can differ by operating company. This provides a recognizable savings framework that many candidates expect in large employers.
  • Parental & Family Support Family benefits can be above average in parts of the network, such as VML’s paid parental leave for adoptive and foster parents. These signals suggest meaningful support for certain family‑forming needs.

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The Company
HQ: London
90,589 Employees

What We Do

WPP is a creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities.

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