Product Manager - Bidder and Forecasting

TEGNA; Tysons (VA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental & vision

401(k) with match

Teladoc access

Therapy sessions

Job summary

TEGNA, a leading local media company in Tysons, VA, is seeking a Technical Product Manager to own bidding and forecasting systems across its ad-tech platform. You will align bid logic, forecasting, and planning to deliver on campaigns with national scale and local execution.

Five-plus years in product management, hands-on work in DSP/SSP environments, and experience shipping bid or forecasting model changes are highly valued. This role offers robust benefits and a clear path to impact.

Qualifications

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Bid logic ownership across CTV, video, display, and audio.
• Tie-out: keep bid behavior and forecast output consistent.
• Avails, reach, and frequency forecasting for standard and custom targeting.
• Planning and execution: give planners and traders a number to commit to.
• Applied AI: own models behind bid optimization and forecast generation.

Skills

Auction mechanics

OpenRTB

Forecasting methods

SQL/log analysis

Inventory quality

Tools

SQL

OpenRTB

Job description

About TEGNA
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 than100 million people monthly across the web, mobile apps, streaming, and linear television. Together, we are building a sustainable future for local news.

About TEGNA
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 than100 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

• 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.

Pay Range
$80,000—$140,000 USD

Benefits
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 [e-mail]

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