Head of Programmatic Trading

Overview

Location: London (hybrid – 3 days in office)

Type: Permanent

The Company

High-growth AdTech business operating across programmatic media, performance and data‑led activation. This is a leadership hire to own the trading function, scale a team, and drive best‑in‑class execution across campaigns, performance and product‑aligned trading strategy.

The Role

This is a senior programmatic leadership position overseeing a team of programmatic traders and owning trading standards across DSPs. You’ll set strategy, improve performance, build scalable processes, and act as the internal authority on programmatic buying.

You’ll work closely with Commercial, Client Services and senior stakeholders to ensure delivery is consistent, profitable and future‑proofed as the business scales.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of programmatic traders (hiring, coaching, performance management)
• Own trading strategy and best practice across programmatic activation
• Drive performance outcomes: pacing, optimisation, efficiency and margin control
• Set standards for QA, governance, troubleshooting and operational hygiene
• Build repeatable workflows, playbooks and reporting structures
• Partner with senior stakeholders across Sales / CS / Product to align on delivery and capability gaps
• Support major client accounts and high‑value campaign strategies where needed
• Evaluate and improve platform usage (DSP features, supply paths, PMP strategy, measurement)
• Champion innovation in trading: automation, testing frameworks, new formats and performance levers

Requirements (Must‑Haves)

• Proven experience managing teams of programmatic traders
• Strong hands‑on knowledge of programmatic trading and optimisation best practice
• Deep experience across at least one major DSP (e.g., DV360, The Trade Desk, Xandr, Amazon DSP)
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced, scaling environment with commercial accountability
• Strong stakeholder management, able to influence across functions, not just trading
• Data‑led mindset with a track record of improving delivery efficiency and outcomes

What’s in it for you

• Leadership seat in a growing AdTech business with real scope and ownership
• Build and shape a trading function, not just “run the day‑to‑day”
• Strong compensation (up to £100k + bonus)
• Hybrid working: 3 days in the office for real collaboration, 2 days flexible