Product Manager, Paid Ads

USA Today Co.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 125,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

USA TODAY Co., Inc. is seeking a Product Manager who combines strong product management skills with paid ads, AdTech, or digital advertising experience.

You will lead strategic initiatives across our paid ads portfolio to help SMB advertisers improve performance using AI-driven optimization and platform innovation. The ideal candidate will identify opportunities, define strategy, influence stakeholders, and deliver measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of product management experience delivering customer-facing, platform, SaaS, or technology products.
• 3+ years in digital advertising, AdTech, MarTech, or a related domain with ad platforms and optimization.
• Deep understanding of digital advertising, AdTech, performance marketing, bidding strategies, measurement, and AI-driven campaign management.
• Experience partnering with engineering teams to deliver products from concept through launch.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, and stakeholder communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own and execute a significant portion of the Paid Ads product roadmap.
• Identify market opportunities, customer needs, and platform changes for roadmap investments.
• Define product strategy for optimization, automation, bidding, measurement, and advertiser-facing capabilities.
• Evaluate emerging trends in paid ads, AI, and digital advertising for product innovation.
• Lead initiatives from discovery through launch and ongoing optimization.
• Translate business challenges into clear product requirements, user flows, and success metrics.
• Partner with Engineering and Data Science to deliver scalable products.
• Balance customer value, business impact, and technical complexity in prioritization.
• Own product outcomes and post-launch performance measurement.

Skills

Product management

Digital advertising

Cross-functional leadership

Data-driven decisions

Analytical skills

SQL

Tools

SQL

Job description

|Current USA TODAY Co. Employees- Please ensure you are using our abbreviated process on the internal Careers site by logging into Dayforce through MyApps USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a diversified media company with expansive reach at the national and local level dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. We seek to inspire, inform, and connect audiences as a sustainable, growth focused media and digital marketing solutions company. Through our trusted brands, including the USA TODAY NETWORK, comprised of the national publication, USA TODAY , and local media organizations, including our network of local properties, in the United States, and Newsquest , a wholly-owned subsidiary operating in the United Kingdom, we provide essential journalism, local content, and digital experiences to audiences and businesses. We deliver high-quality, trusted content with a commitment to balanced, unbiased journalism, where and when consumers want to engage. Our digital marketing solutions brand, LocaliQ , supports small and medium-sized businesses with innovative digital marketing products and solutions. USA TODAY Co. open roles are featured on various external job boards. When applying to a position at USA TODAY Co., you should be completing an application on USA TODAY Co. Careers viaDayforce . Job postings directing you to complete an application on other external sites may not be valid. If you are a California resident, you acknowledge that by applying for a job with us, this California Job Applicant Privacy Notice will apply to our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information. To connect with us, visit www.usatodayco.com

We are looking for a Product Manager who combines strong product management skills with meaningful experience in paid ads, AdTech, or digital advertising. You will lead strategic initiatives across our paid ads portfolio, helping thousands of SMB advertisers improve performance through AI-driven optimization, automation, and platform innovation.

The ideal candidate is an experienced product leader who can identify opportunities, define strategy, influence stakeholders, and deliver measurable business outcomes. You will partner closely with Engineering, Data Science, Customer Success, Sales, and Marketing to build scalable solutions that improve advertiser outcomes and drive business growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and execute a significant portion of the Paid Ads product roadmap.
• Identify market opportunities, customer needs, and platform changes that should inform roadmap investments.
• Define product strategy for optimization, automation, bidding, measurement, and advertiser-facing capabilities.
• Evaluate emerging trends in paid ads, AI, and digital advertising to identify opportunities for product innovation.

Product Execution & Delivery

• Lead initiatives from discovery through launch and ongoing optimization.
• Translate business challenges and customer needs into clear product requirements, user flows, success metrics, and rollout plans.
• Partner directly with Engineering and Data Science to deliver scalable product solutions.
• Balance customer value, business impact, and technical complexity when making prioritization decisions.
• Own product outcomes and post-launch performance measurement.

AI, Optimization & Measurement

• Drive innovation across AI-powered optimization, bidding, automation, and recommendation capabilities.
• Translate emerging AdTech, platform, AI, and industry innovations into differentiated product experiences.
• Define measurement frameworks and success metrics to evaluate product effectiveness.
• Use data and experimentation to inform product investments and improve advertiser performance.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Customer Success, Sales, Marketing, and Operations to ensure successful activation and adoption of new capabilities.
• Build alignment across stakeholders and influence decisions without direct authority.
• Present product strategy, recommendations, tradeoffs, and outcomes to leadership teams.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of product management experience delivering customer-facing, platform, SaaS, or technology products.
• 3+ years of experience in digital advertising, AdTech, MarTech, performance marketing, or a related domain. Experience with advertising platforms, campaign optimization, measurement, and automation is strongly preferred.
• Deep understanding of digital advertising, AdTech platforms, and performance marketing, including optimization, automation, bidding strategies, measurement, attribution, conversion tracking, and AI-driven campaign management.
• Experience partnering directly with engineering teams to deliver products from concept through launch.
• Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business problems into clear product strategies and execution plans.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives across Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Go-to-Market teams.
• Excellent written, verbal, and stakeholder communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building AI-powered, automation, optimization, recommendation, or workflow-based products.
• Experience working with Data Science teams, experimentation frameworks, or machine learning concepts.
• Familiarity with SQL, analytics platforms, or data-driven product development.
• Experience serving SMB advertisers at scale.
• Experience working in agency technology, advertising technology, marketing technology, or Google Partner environments.

The annualized base salary for this role will range between $125,000 and $135,000. Base compensation is reflective of many factors, including, but not limited to, the market in which one lives/works, individual education level, skills, certifications and experience. Note: variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable.

USA TODAY Co., Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce. As such, we will consider all qualified applicants for employment and do not discriminate in connection with employment decisions on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race, color, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, citizenship status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, marital status, personal appearance (including height and weight), sexual orientation, family responsibilities, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy status (including childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), education, genetic characteristics or information, political affiliation, military or veteran status or other classifications protected by applicable federal, state and local laws in the jurisdictions where USA TODAY Co. employs employees. In addition, USA TODAY Co., Inc. will provide applicants who require a reasonable accommodation, as a result of an applicant’s disability or religion, to complete this employment application and/or any other process in connection with an individuals’ application for employment with USA TODAY Co., Inc. Applicants must be authorized to work in the applicable location. Applications from outside these regions will be removed from our system after submission.