The Head of Trading owns the performance, standards, and people leadership of the European trading team, ensuring campaigns are executed to the highest standard across markets while acting as the internal authority on programmatic and platform best practice. The role blends hands-on trading (60% of time), team management, resource allocation, and cross-functional partnership with Client Services and other departments to drive results for Tier 1 clients.
Core DutiesTeam & delivery leadership
Oversee the day-to-day delivery of the European trading team, providing priorities, guidance, and mentorship to ensure delivery and performance targets are met
Own team development end-to-end: hiring, coaching, performance management, and career-pathing for traders
Allocate trading resources according to business priorities and workload across countries
Responsible for the outputs of the trading department across all business units (countries)
Trading & platform execution
Execute campaign setup across platforms, monitor performance, and optimize strategies (~60% of time)
Establish and deploy best practices across campaign setup, QA/troubleshooting, and reporting, acting as the internal authority on programmatic buying
Drive structured testing and experimentation across DSPs and partner platforms, evaluating results rigorously to inform trading strategy
Contribute to improving the internal monitoring and reporting suite
Partnerships & stakeholder management
Manage the relationship with external partners supplementing the team when business requires it
Collaborate with the Head of CS/Account Managers to develop media trading strategies aligned with the campaign goals and objectives of Tier 1 clients
Collaborate cross-functionally with creative, account management, and product teams to align strategy and execution
Feed trading insights and advertiser feedback back into product and platform roadmap discussions
Market awareness
Stay current on industry trends, advertising technologies, platform updates, and new tools to keep the agency competitive
At least 8 years of professional experience on a trading desk (agency or sales house)
3+ years of successful experience as a team leader/manager in programmatic digital advertising
International experience is a plus
Track record of establishing and scaling trading best practices, playbooks, and QA processes across multiple markets
Hands-on experience with the main DSPs available in the market (DV360,TTD...)
Solid understanding of the mobile ecosystem (mandatory)
Understanding of the digital out-of-home (DOOH) ecosystem; hands-on experience is a plus
Familiarity with a leading brand safety, fraud prevention, or attention measurement platform
Strong quantitative and analytical skills, comfortable working with large datasets; coding/scripting experience is a plus
Strong relationship-building and negotiation skills, both internally and with external partners
Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional, matrixed environment
English and French proficiency (mandatory)
Skills Required
- At least 8 years of professional experience on a trading desk in an agency or sales house
- At least 3 years of successful experience as a team leader or manager in programmatic digital advertising
- Experience establishing and scaling trading best practices, playbooks, and QA processes across multiple markets
- Hands-on experience with DV360, Xandr, and The Trade Desk
- Solid understanding of the mobile ecosystem
- Understanding of the digital out-of-home ecosystem
- Familiarity with a leading brand safety, fraud prevention, or attention measurement platform
- Strong quantitative and analytical skills, including comfort working with large datasets
- English proficiency
- French proficiency
- International experience
- Hands-on digital out-of-home experience
- Coding or scripting experience
- Strong relationship-building and negotiation skills
- Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional, matrixed environment
What We Do
Locala is a global advertising technology company whose omnichannel platform helps marketers reach local consumers. It uses granular insights and artificial intelligence to support campaign planning, activation, and measurement, personalizing campaigns to local audiences. The company works with leading brands across 40 countries and focuses on helping marketers deliver impact market by market. Its services support brands seeking to plan and evaluate advertising across diverse local markets.
