Programmatic Director/Head of Trading - UK

Crimtan; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading programmatic advertising firm in London seeks a Programmatic Director to lead the UK programmatic strategy. You will oversee audience strategy, mentor a diverse team, and ensure operational excellence. Candidates must have 7-10 years in programmatic advertising, a strong background in campaign management, and the ability to drive revenue growth through strategic frameworks. Collaboration with Product and Analytics teams is essential. This leadership role offers significant opportunities for influence and innovation in the UK market.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years in programmatic advertising with UK market leadership experience.
• Strong hands-on campaign management experience across major DSPs.
• Demonstrated success in strategic programmatic leadership and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the UK programmatic strategy in alignment with global priorities.
• Lead and mentor the UK Programmatic team to drive performance.
• Ensure adherence to global standards and optimize frameworks for the UK market.

Skills

Programmatic advertising

Campaign management

Strategic thinking

Commercial acumen

Audience strategy

Collaboration with Product and Analytics

Job description

Reporting to the Global Operations Director and based in our new office near Victoria in London, this role is responsible for leading and evolving the UK programmatic function.

The core focus covers strategic leadership, operational excellence, audience strategy, regional enablement (UK), product, analytics & technical collaboration, creative integration, and future readiness within the UK market.

The Programmatic Director (UK) sets and drives the UK programmatic strategy, ensuring operational excellence, audience-led planning, and close collaboration with Product, Analytics, Insights, Technical Solutions and Creative.

While global frameworks may be defined centrally, this role is accountable for implementing, refining and optimising them for the UK market — driving client revenue growth and performance through excellence in programmatic delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Market Planning

• (UK)Define and evolve the UK programmatic strategy in alignment with global commercial, operational and product priorities
• Translate global strategic priorities into actionable UK frameworks, standards and KPIs
• Anticipate and prepare the UK function for industry shifts (privacy, identity, AI, media, creative, tech)
• Act as senior advisor to the Global Operations Director on UK programmatic innovation, performance and competitive positioning
• Lead structured innovation and test-and-learn initiatives within the UK market
• Ensure UK programmatic strategy is commercially aligned to revenue growth and margin improvement
• Lead and mentor the UK Programmatic team (regional leads, managers, traders and hub teams where applicable)
• Set clear expectations to drive UK programmatic performance and revenue growth through excellence in execution
• Ensure global frameworks, standards and audience strategies are embedded effectively within the UK market
• Foster a culture of accountability, communication and knowledge sharing across UK teams
• Partner with other regional leads to share best practice and elevate standards

Audience & Media Strategy (UK Market)

• Develop and oversee a UK audience strategy aligned to global principles, with clear frameworks for segmentation, targeting, data usage and measurement
• Collaborate with Analytics and Insights to build predictive, privacy-compliant audience approaches tailored to the UK market
• Ensure audience insights inform planning, optimisation and performance measurement
• Identify opportunities for smarter buying, improved efficiency and increased client revenue through audience refinement

Creative Integration

• (UK)Partner closely with the Global Creative Production Director and UK Creative leads to align audience strategies, media activation and creative approaches
• Develop structured creative testing frameworks (variant testing, DCO, contextual creative strategies) for deployment within UK programmatic channels
• Ensure media performance insights inform creative strategy, and creative learnings feed back into media activation
• Champion innovative creative activations in programmatic environments within the UK market

Operational Excellence & Governance

• (UK)Own and evolve UK programmatic operating workflows including trafficking, targeting, optimisation, QA, reporting and performance frameworks
• Ensure adherence to global playbooks and SLAs, adapting where necessary to UK market realities
• Monitor UK performance dashboards, proactively resolving issues and driving continuous improvement
• Partner with Technical Solutions and Product to improve workflows, tooling and automation within the UK function
• Ensure high standards of delivery, accuracy, compliance and efficiency

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Work closely with Product, Analytics, Insights, Technical Solutions and Creative to ensure UK executional excellence:

Product

• Provide UK operational and strategic input into product roadmaps
• Influence feature prioritisation based on UK market needs
• Support beta testing and ensure new tools meet UK programmatic requirements

Analytics & Insights

• Partner on UK measurement frameworks (incrementality, attribution, cost of sale optimisation)
• Integrate insights into audience strategies and creative testing

Technical Solutions

• Collaborate to troubleshoot delivery issues
• Support adoption of new tools and integrations within the UK

Creative

• Align creative storytelling and programmatic activation through structured testing and performance insight

Performance Oversight & Commercial Impact

• (UK)Oversee UK programmatic performance against agreed KPIs
• Drive improvement in Cost of Sale while balancing scale, efficiency and margin

Identify systematic opportunities to increase UK client revenue through:

• Audience optimisation
• Creative testing
• Smarter buying strategies

Capability Building & Culture

• Drive UK capability development through structured training, certification and coaching
• Build a culture of excellence, collaboration and innovation
• Ensure strong alignment between UK and global programmatic standards
• Establish clear career pathways and skills development opportunities within the UK function

Ideal Background

• 7–10 years in programmatic advertising with UK market leadership experience
• Strong hands‑on campaign management experience across major DSPs
• Proven experience establishing and managing operational processes, including remote or hub teams
• Demonstrated success in strategic programmatic leadership, audience strategy and operational excellence
• Experience collaborating closely with Product, Analytics, Insights, Technical Solutions and Creative teams
• Strong commercial acumen and ability to drive revenue growth through frameworks, innovation and capability building (rather than direct client ownership)
• Strategic thinker with deep programmatic expertise
• Excellent communicator, able to influence senior stakeholders