TEGNA Inc. helps people thrive in their local communities by providing the trusted local news and services that matter most. With 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets, TEGNA reaches more than 100 million people monthly across the web, mobile apps, streaming, and linear television. Together, we are building a sustainable future for local news.
TEGNA, a leading local media company, is looking for a technical Product Manager to manage the bidding and forecasting systems within our ad tech platform. These systems answer two questions on every request: What should we bid on this impression? What can we deliver against this plan? Your goal will be to make those two answers agree, so what we forecast is what we deliver.
Our bidder covers national scale and executes locally for our clients, with stations in 64 markets and delivery well beyond them, which puts these systems underneath every campaign we plan and execute. We emphasize how bidding and forecasting tie together over depth in any single channel, focusing on whether the number we quote is the number we deliver.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Bidding Roadmap: Define where we invest in bidding capability next, and whether we build or buy.
- Forecasting Roadmap: Define what planning and sales can promise a client before a campaign runs.
- Thought Leadership: Set the standard for how we evaluate auction and pricing decisions, and advise planning and sales on what the platform supports.
Core Product Ownership
These are some of the areas that you can expect to work in, but not exclusive
- Bid Logic: Own bid logic, bid shading, and pacing across CTV, video, display, and audio.
- Tie-Out: Keep bid behavior and forecast output consistent, so a quoted number and a delivered number describe the same campaign.
- Avails and Forecasting: Own avails, reach, and frequency forecasting for standard and custom targeting, and publish accuracy against delivered actuals.
- Planning and Execution Experience: Give planners and traders a number they can commit to, and the tools to see when it moves.
- Applied AI: Own the models behind bid optimization, dynamic floor pricing, and forecast generation, and the experiments that prove a change worked in live traffic.
Tactical Execution
- Agile Delivery: Write technical requirements the bidder engineering team can build from.
- Diagnostics: Trace a delivery shortfall across forecast, bid, and supply, and tell planning and sales what happened.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner daily with Engineering, Ad Operations, Planning, Sales, Publisher Partnerships, and Program Management.
Required Experience and Skills
Technical Expertise
- Auction mechanics. First and second price dynamics, bid shading, and pacing.
- OpenRTB and supply path economics, including what a bid request costs to process.
- Forecasting methods, and the reasons a forecast diverges from delivery.
- SQL and log analysis, enough to answer a delivery question without opening a ticket.
- Inventory quality and sell-side yield strategy are a plus.
Professional Experience
- 5+ years of product management, with at least 3 at a DSP, SSP, exchange, or bidder.
- Hands-on technical work in at least one of CTV, video, or display. Audio is a plus.
- Shipped a change to a bidding or forecasting model, designed the test that proved it worked, and can state win rate or accuracy before and after.
- Diagnosed a delivery shortfall to root cause across forecast, bid, and supply.
- Shipped a product surface with a model behind it, and can explain how they tested it.
Soft Skills
- Goes to the data before asking someone for a pull.
- Explains auction economics to a seller without losing the mechanics.
- Defends a forecast when the number is smaller than sales wanted.
- Builds a prototype before writing a spec.
TEGNA offers comprehensive benefits designed to safeguard the physical, mental and financial health of our employees and their families. TEGNA offers two medical plan options for full and part-time employees through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, as well as access to dental and eye care coverage; fertility, surrogacy and adoption assistance; disability and life insurance.
Our 401(k) program offers full, part-time and temporary employees the opportunity to contribute 1% - 80% of their pay on a pre-tax basis to TEGNA’s 401(k). Contributions made up to the first 4% of pay are eligible for a 100% match from the company and are 100% vested from day one.
Regardless of participation in TEGNA medical plans, ALL employees and their eligible family members receive nine free virtual doctor’s appointments with a physician through Teladoc, and 12 free annual therapy sessions with a licensed clinician through Spring Health.
TEGNA offers a generous Paid Time Off (PTO) benefit as well as nine paid holidays per year.
* Some jobs are covered by a collective bargaining agreement and thus some or all of the benefits described herein may not apply. For example, some newsroom bargaining unit employees receive health and retirement benefits under plans administered by the union.
EEO statement:
TEGNA Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, hiring and developing individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences to add to our collaborative culture. We value and consider applications from all qualified candidates without regard to actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, disability, medical condition, enrollment in college or vocational school, political affiliation, military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. TEGNA will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable law. If you are in need of an accommodation in order to submit your application, please email [email protected]
Recruiting Fraud Alert:
To all candidates: your personal information and online safety are important to us. Only TEGNA Recruiters or Hiring Managers will reach out to you regarding consideration of your application or background. Communications with TEGNA employees will either come from a TEGNA email address with a domain of tegna.com or one of our affiliate station domains.
Recruiters or Hiring Managers will never request payments, ask for financial account information or sensitive information such as social security numbers.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of product management experience
- At least 3 years of experience at a DSP, SSP, exchange, or bidder
- Expertise in auction mechanics, including first- and second-price dynamics, bid shading, and pacing
- Knowledge of OpenRTB and supply path economics
- Knowledge of forecasting methods and causes of forecast-to-delivery divergence
- SQL and log analysis skills sufficient to investigate delivery questions independently
- Hands-on technical work in CTV, video, or display
- Experience shipping changes to bidding or forecasting models and designing tests to measure results
- Experience diagnosing delivery shortfalls across forecast, bid, and supply
- Experience shipping a product surface backed by a model and explaining its testing approach
- Experience with audio
- Experience with inventory quality and sell-side yield strategy
TEGNA Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about TEGNA and has not been reviewed or approved by TEGNA.
-
Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision options are complemented by company-supported mental health care and telemedicine, with HSA-eligible plans available. Resources such as Spring Health and Teladoc extend accessible care to employees and families.
-
Retirement Support — A 401(k) with dollar‑for‑dollar match on the first 4% and immediate vesting is offered broadly, including to part‑time and temporary staff. This structure provides straightforward access to retirement savings from day one.
-
Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave covers at least six weeks for all parents and 12 weeks at full pay for birth mothers. Adoption and surrogacy reimbursement and fertility benefits support multiple paths to family building.
TEGNA Insights
What We Do
As one of the most geographically diverse broadcasters in the U.S., TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA) is an innovative media company that serves the greater good of our communities. Across platforms, TEGNA tells empowering stories, conducts impactful investigations and delivers innovative marketing solutions. With 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets, TEGNA is the largest owner of top 4 network affiliates in the top 25 markets among independent station groups, reaching approximately 39 percent of all television households nationwide. TEGNA also owns leading multicast networks True Crime Network and Quest. TEGNA Marketing Solutions (TMS) offers innovative solutions to help businesses reach consumers across television, digital and over-the-top (OTT) platforms, including Premion, TEGNA’s OTT advertising service. Across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, TEGNA's stations have over 31 million social followers. In everything we do, we are driven by our strongly held values and our stated purpose to serve the greater good of our communities. TEGNA produces trusted, impactful and innovative content across platforms. We tell stories that matter, are an advocate for those in need and help bring positive change to our communities. Our award-winning journalists have been recognized with numerous national honors including Edward R. Murrow, Alfred I. duPont, George Foster Peabody, George Polk, Walter Cronkite and Emmy awards.
