Head of Ad Operations

Job Description

Job Description

About Telly: Telly didn’t just build a new television—we shattered the business model behind it. Recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s Most Innovative Companies, we are completely reimagining the future of consumer entertainment and advertising. We believe the living room is the ultimate untapped frontier for advertisers and interactive technology. By joining our team of tech, hardware, software and advertising leaders, you won’t just be tweaking an app or changing a channel; you will redefine the future of TV, advertising, and consumer engagement. The living room will never be the same—and neither will your career. Welcome to Telly, the heartbeat of the modern smart home.

If you’re all in on making the biggest innovation in TV since color, read on!

Position Summary: Telly is seeking a Head of Ad Operations to lead and scale the operational engine that powers our advertising business. Reporting to the COO, you will serve as the single accountable owner of the Ad Operations function and be responsible for the systems, processes, people, vendors, and monetization strategy that maximize the value of Telly's advertising inventory.

This is a senior leadership role that combines deep programmatic expertise, strong people management, operational rigor, and business judgment. You will lead a growing team of internal employees, outsourced resources, and strategic vendor partners while working closely with Product, Engineering, Business Intelligence, Sales, and Business Development.

You will own operational monetization performance across the advertising stack, including yield optimization, inventory strategy, pricing and floor strategy, signal strategy, audience extension, SSP performance, auction dynamics, and overall revenue efficiency. While Sales, Business Development, and Account Management own demand generation and partner growth, you are responsible for ensuring Telly maximizes the value of every advertising opportunity available to the business.

This role requires both strategic leadership and hands-on execution. The right candidate is capable of operating at an executive level while remaining close enough to the details to personally diagnose monetization issues, identify revenue opportunities, and drive solutions when needed.

Key Responsibilities:

Ad Operations Leadership

• Serve as the single accountable owner of the Ad Operations function.
• Lead, develop, and scale a high-performing Ad Operations organization.
• Establish operating processes, planning cadences, prioritization frameworks, and performance standards that enable the organization to scale effectively.
• Build management systems that create accountability, consistency, and predictable execution across the team.
• Conduct performance reviews, coaching, hiring, succession planning, and organizational development activities.
• Manage internal team members, outsourced resources, and strategic vendor partners.
• Create a culture of ownership, accountability, communication, and continuous improvement.

Yield & Monetization Performance

• Own operational monetization performance across the advertising stack.
• Monitor and optimize key performance metrics including yield, fill rate, RPH, RPM, ARPU contribution, and RPMR.
• Develop and execute inventory segmentation, pricing architecture, and floor strategy across open market, PMP, and programmatic channels.
• Drive monetization strategy across supply path optimization, auction dynamics, demand channel mix, and inventory quality.
• Proactively identify and lead investigation and remediation of revenue trends, anomalies, and monetization issues.
• Partner with Sales, Business Development, and Account Management to improve pricing discipline, inventory value, and overall monetization performance.
• Own audience extension monetization technical strategy and performance.
• Evaluate and recommend new monetization opportunities, demand partners, technologies, and revenue initiatives.

Programmatic Strategy & Operational Excellence

• Serve as a key stakeholder and subject matter expert in the development of Telly's monetization roadmap, partnering closely with Ad Product to prioritize initiatives that improve yield, revenue efficiency, inventory value, and operational scalability.
• Provide strategic input on advertising architecture, platform capabilities, auction design, signal strategy, identity solutions, and monetization features to ensure new investments align with business objectives.
• Own the operational performance, optimization, and ongoing evolution of Telly's advertising stack following implementation.
• Own bidstream signal strategy, including identity, contextual, audience, device, and other monetization signals.
• Oversee supply and demand integrations, auction mechanics, QPS management, multicall strategy, inventory routing, and platform performance.
• Lead yield experiments, testing programs, and optimization initiatives with clear hypotheses, measurement plans, and outcome ownership.
• Monitor and improve operational health across monetization systems, ensuring issues are identified, escalated, and resolved quickly.
• Establish and maintain operational rigor around release readiness, QA validation, incident response, monitoring, and production support processes.

Vendor & Partner Management

• Own strategic and commercial relationships with Ad Operations vendors, measurement providers, identity partners, analytics providers, and other supporting technology vendors.
• Lead vendor evaluations, contract negotiations, renewals, and performance management activities in partnership with Finance and Legal.
• Maintain strong relationships across the programmatic ecosystem, including SSPs, DSPs, measurement providers, and ad technology partners.
• Leverage industry relationships to accelerate problem resolution, strategic initiatives, and monetization outcomes.
• Serve as the senior operational escalation point for advertising platform and partner-related issues.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the senior Ad Operations representative across Product, Engineering, Business Intelligence, Sales, Finance, and Executive Leadership.
• Translate technical and operational complexity into clear business recommendations and executive decisions.
• Build trust and credibility across the organization through strong judgment, data-driven decision making, and consistent execution.
• Align departmental priorities with broader company objectives and proactively communicate risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering to ensure monetization considerations are incorporated into platform development and roadmap planning.

Planning, Budgeting & Operational Management

• Develop quarterly and annual Ad Operations plans, priorities, and budget recommendations.
• Manage approved departmental budgets, vendor spend, outsourced resources, and operational investments.
• Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions and recommend investments based on business impact and ROI.
• Leverage automation, AI, analytics, and operational tooling to improve efficiency, visibility, and decision making across the organization.

Qualifications:

• Experience across multiple programmatic advertising formats, including CTV, online video (OLV), display, and related publisher monetization channels strongly preferred.
• Experience with audience extension, identity solutions, clean rooms, data monetization, or advanced programmatic products.
• Existing relationships across the programmatic ecosystem, including SSPs, DSPs, measurement providers, and advertising technology partners.
• Participation in industry organizations, working groups, conferences, or standards bodies.

Preferred Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in Ad Operations, monetization, programmatic advertising, or related publisher-side leadership roles.
• 5+ years of people management experience, including responsibility for hiring, performance management, organizational development, and team leadership.
• Deep publisher-side or supply-side experience required.
• Experience within a publisher, OEM, streaming platform, retail media network, or advertising technology company serving publishers.
• Proven track record scaling monetization operations through meaningful periods of revenue, inventory, organizational, or platform growth.
• Deep expertise across programmatic advertising infrastructure, including SSPs, DSPs, ad servers, identity solutions, measurement platforms, OpenRTB, and related technologies.
• Strong experience with yield optimization, audience extension, pricing strategy, inventory monetization, and programmatic revenue management.
• Experience managing vendor relationships, contract negotiations, and operational budgets.
• Experience working closely with executive leadership and influencing cross-functional decision making.

What Success Looks Like:

• Ad Operations operates as a scalable, disciplined, and highly accountable organization.
• Yield, inventory value, and revenue efficiency improve consistently over time.
• Monetization opportunities and risks are proactively identified and addressed.
• The team executes reliably, communicates clearly, and consistently delivers on commitments.
• Telly's monetization architecture scales effectively as inventory, revenue, and complexity increase.
• Vendors and outsourced partners are managed effectively and held accountable to performance expectations.
• Cross-functional partners view Ad Operations as a trusted, data-driven, and solutions-oriented organization.
• Executive leadership receives proactive recommendations, clear analysis, and strong operational ownership.
• The organization is positioned to support significant growth in revenue, inventory, and team size.

Leadership & Operating Style:

• Highly organized, process-oriented, and operationally disciplined.
• Deeply data-driven with a strong understanding of the drivers of monetization performance.
• Proven ability to build systems, processes, teams, and organizations that scale.
• Strong business judgment and prioritization skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage effectively up, across, and down an organization.
• Comfortable balancing strategic leadership with hands-on execution.
• Direct, clear, and proactive communicator.
• Strong executive presence and credibility.
• Naturally curious, analytical, and focused on continuous improvement.
• Comfortable leveraging AI, automation, and modern operational tools to improve efficiency and decision making.

What We Offer:

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Opportunity to lead and shape the ad operations function at an innovative and fast-growing company.
• Other compensations, depending on the role, include sales-based incentives, commissions, and company bonus structure.
• Other compensations, depending on the role, include sales-based incentives, commissions, and equity grant non-cash compensation.
• Collaborative and dynamic work environment with a focus on continuous learning and development.

Telly is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.