Senior Director, Programmatic

WE HAVE CREATED A WORLD WHERE ART AND SCIENCE ARE BEST FRIENDS

Known is what happens when a data science firm and a creative agency stop arguing and start collaborating. We were built from scratch with PhD data scientists and award-winning creatives working on the same briefs, from day one. That structure earned us an Ad Age #3 A-List ranking, back-to-back Data & Insights Agency of the Year wins, plus Emmys, Cannes Lions, Clios, and Effies across clients in finance, tech, entertainment, consumer goods, and real estate.

We’re distributed across the U.S. and unapologetically ambitious.

If you’re tired of choosing between doing smart work and doing creative work, you’ll fit right in here.

Known’s Media Science team uses analytics, machine learning, and statistics to plan and optimize advertising dollars. We work with clients to turn business goals into measurable outcomes, then buy media across every channel to hit them. The math tells us what’s working. The magic is knowing what a brand should look and feel like while it works. This job requires both.

As Senior Director, Programmatic, you own performance and optimization for your campaigns, and you protect the brand while you do it. You lead programmatic team members through daily account management, strategy, performance tracking against goals, and deadlines.

• Own the programmatic discipline at Known: its P&L, growth targets, service offering, and reputation in the market.
• Set the strategic direction for programmatic across the client portfolio, and make the calls on where the practice invests and where it doesn’t.
• Build and lead the organization. Hire senior leaders, design the team structure, own succession planning, and develop the managers who develop everyone else.
• Serve as the senior programmatic voice with client executives, including C-suite and CMO relationships, and own the health of those partnerships.
• Drive new business. Lead programmatic strategy in pitches, shape scopes and pricing, and identify organic growth opportunities across existing accounts.
• Set the R&D agenda for automation, measurement, and machine learning, and decide which bets get funded.
• Own the vendor and partner strategy, including DSP and data partnerships, commercial negotiations, and preferred-partner decisions.
• Define the operating standards for the practice: campaign setup, QA, optimization frameworks, and reporting. Hold the organization to them.
• Partner with leaders across search, social, analytics, and strategy to make programmatic work as part of an integrated media approach rather than a silo.
• Represent Known externally through industry speaking, published thinking, and partner relationships.
• Act as the final escalation point on the most complex client and performance issues.
• Report on the practice’s performance to agency leadership, including revenue, margin, client retention, and team health.
• Own the programmatic and video strategy, including CTV, online video, and audio, for every buy that runs through biddable channels. Decide which formats and inventory the practice leads with and which it walks away from.
• Balance performance and brand in how the practice buys. Efficiency targets get met, and the media plan still lands the brand in environments a CMO would be proud to see it in. You set where that line sits and defend it with clients when cheap impressions look tempting.
• Define the quality standards for inventory and measurement: brand suitability, viewability, fraud thresholds, and supply path decisions. Make the tradeoff between reach and quality an explicit choice rather than a default.

• 12+ years in programmatic media, with at least 5 years leading teams and experience managing managers.
• A track record of building a practice or discipline, not just running campaigns. You’ve grown headcount, revenue, or both.
• Deep experience across verticals and both direct response and brand campaigns, including enterprise-scale budgets.
• Substantial experience buying video programmatically, including CTV, OLV, and audio, and a view on where those dollars should sit relative to linear…