Director, Live Sports Programmatic Operations

Remote; NYC preferred

Full-time

Live sports is one of the most technically demanding environments in programmatic advertising. Millions of monetization decisions occur in real time, and every missed opportunity directly impacts publisher revenue. Fan Serv is looking for a hands-on self-starter to own the intersection of revenue optimization, programmatic strategy, and operational execution. This person brings a can-do attitude, calm under pressure, and a bias toward action.

Someone who sees ambiguity as an opportunity to build rather than a reason to wait for direction, and who treats every roadblock as a problem to be solved rather than escalated away. Reporting to the Head of Revenue Operations, this person will be accountable for maximizing monetization across our publisher portfolio by optimizing SSP performance, managing strategic demand relationships, improving auction dynamics, and building scalable operational processes.

This role sits at the center of Revenue Operations, partnering closely with Publisher Operations, Ad Operations, Product, Engineering, and Sales. You will own the full lifecycle of our SSP and DSP relationships; from deal structuring and technical setup to ongoing yield optimization and revenue growth. You will also be in the platforms daily, trafficking deals, diagnosing scale issues, and holding partners accountable to performance.

Success will be measured not by activity, but by revenue growth, operational excellence, and the ability to build systems that scale.

• Set up, traffic, and manage PMP and PG deals end-to-end across ad servers such as Spring Serve, Clear Line, Freewheel, GAM, and other DSP/SSP platforms.
• Configure deal parameters including targeting, floors, priority, and pacing; ensure accurate setup on both buy and sell sides while ensuring margins are maintained
• Serve as the internal technical expert on deal mechanics; own the troubleshooting process when deals aren’t scaling, working cross-functionally with partners to diagnose bid density, eligibility, creative, and targeting issues.
• Maintain deal documentation and trafficking workflows; build repeatable SOPs as the business scales.
• Partner with Ad Operations to ensure campaign delivery aligns with IO commitments and yield goals.
• Partner Relationships & Revenue Growth
• Own and grow a portfolio of SSP and DSP relationships, serving as the primary point of contact for commercial and operational escalations.
• Drive yield and revenue growth across demand and supply partnerships, serving as the strategic bridge between account strategy and Publisher Operations on supply-side optimizations and floor management.
• Maintain a regular cadence of business reviews and regular check-in’s with key partners to drive accountability to performance targets.
• Analyze demand partner performance data to identify yield gaps, optimize monetization across deal types, and improve overall fill and CPM.
• Develop and maintain yield reporting frameworks that surface actionable insights across publishers, deal types, and demand sources and be able to articulate that to internal stakeholders.
• Proactively monitor PG/PMP deal pacing and delivery risk, coordinating with Sales to get ahead of overage and underpacing scenarios before they become client-facing issues.
• Contribute to gross-to-net revenue reporting and provide the finance team with deal-level revenue visibility.
• Proactively identify and resolve bidder performance issues with SSP and DSP partners, including timeouts, error rates, latency, etc. to improve fill and maximize yield.

• Hands-on, proven experience setting up and troubleshooting PMP and PG deals across multiple DSP, SSP, and Ad Servers
• Direct platform experience with Spring Serve, Clearline, and GAM required
• Deep understanding of programmatic deal mechanics: bid requests, deal IDs, targeting parameters, creative eligibility, and delivery troubleshooting
• Demonstrated ability to grow revenue from existing partnerships through strategic account management and yield optimization
• Strong analytical skills; comfortable working with large data sets and building performance reports
• Excellent communication skills;able to translate technical issues into business impact for both internal and external stakeholders
• Experience in CTV, digital video, or streaming inventory preferred; sports content vertical a plus
• Comfortable operating in a lean, fast-moving startup environment where ownership and initiative are expected
• Candidates should have direct, hands-on experience with the following or comparable platforms:
• Spring Serve (required), Clearline (required), GAM (required), Freewheel or other similar adservers and curation tools in market
• Analytics & Reporting:
  Excel/Google Sheets (advanced), Spring Serve/GAM/Freewheel reporting

• 401K
• Health insurance, Vision and Dental
• Stipend for professional development
• Reimbursement for initial home office setup