Senior Manager, Ad Ops - Mattel Digital Studio

Senior Manager, Ad Ops – Mattel Digital Studio Location: El Segundo, California Pay range: USD $156,000 – $180,000 per year. CREATIVITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER. It’s our heritage and it’s also our future. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire fans, entertain audiences, and develop children through play. Mattel thrives when every team member feels respected, included, and heard. The Opportunity We’re hiring our first dedicated Ad Monetization & Operations leader to own in‑app advertising revenue across our publishing portfolio. You'll be a player‑coach from day one – configuring waterfalls, running experiments, and writing SQL – while building the playbooks, tooling, and partner relationships that scale into a team behind you. What Your Impact Will Be Own ad revenue end-to-end. Configure and optimize mediation waterfalls and in‑app bidding across our publishing portfolio. Manage ad units, placements, frequency caps, and pacing across rewarded video, interstitials, banners, and offerwalls. Hit ARPDAU, eCPM, fill‑rate, and ad LTV targets set with the Director of Product. Run the experimentation engine. Design and ship A/B tests on placement, frequency, format, and waterfall configuration. Build a hypothesis‑test‑readout cadence the rest of the studio can rely on. Manage network and mediation partnerships. Own the relationships with AppLovin, Unity, AdMob, ironSource, Meta, Mintegral, Pangle, and others. Negotiate floors, evaluate new networks, manage SDK upgrades, integration cycles, and resolve revenue discrepancies. Build the measurement stack. Partner with Analytics to wire ad revenue into BigQuery, Mixpanel, and Singular. Stand up dashboards that the LiveOps PMs and Growth team rely on daily. Own ad LTV measurement and the IAA‑IAP interplay model. Apply AI as a force multiplier. Use modern AI tooling to compress work – anomaly detection, SQL generation, A/B test summarization, partner correspondence, vendor evaluation. Coordinate with UA and LiveOps. Ad LTV feeds UA bidding; ad placements affect retention and IAP conversion. Operate across these seams with the Sr. Director of Growth and the LiveOps PMs. Partner with Mattel163. Establish the working model, share learnings, align on standards, divide‑and‑conquer geographies and titles. Champion player experience. Brand safety, ad quality, age‑appropriate content, and frequency discipline are non‑negotiable. Build the playbook. Document standards for new title launches: SDK integration checklists, placement design principles, A/B test protocols, network onboarding, incident response. What We’re Looking For 5+ years in mobile F2P ad monetization or ad operations, with hands‑on ownership of waterfalls, mediation, and yield optimization. Hands‑on fluency in mediation platforms – AppLovin MAX, ironSource LevelPlay, AdMob, or equivalent. Demonstrable revenue impact – specific examples with measurable lift. SQL fluency. Ability to write queries against BigQuery or equivalent. Experimentation rigor. Understanding of power calculations, segmentation traps, and real lift assessment. Hybrid IAP/IAA experience. Knowledge of rewarded video impact on LTV without cannibalizing IAP. Casual or puzzle genre experience preferred – Match‑3, card, board, or hybrid‑casual. Working knowledge of post‑ATT measurement – SKAdNetwork, conversion value mapping, and attribution in a privacy‑constrained world. AI‑augmented workflow. Regular use of AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, etc., and ability to articulate their benefits. Builder’s mindset. Comfortable operating as the sole person in the function and establishing playbooks. Brand‑aware judgment. Ability to hold the line on ad quality and brand safety against revenue pressure. Nice to Have Experience with at least one IP‑led or licensed title. Direct work with a China‑based ad ops or development partner. Familiarity with publisher‑platform tooling – Singular, Mixpanel, Heroic Labs / Nakama, BigQuery. Prior experience hiring or growing into a team‑of‑one‑to‑three lead role. Mattel is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We welcome all job seekers and all applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran and protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Pursuant to the Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act, qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment. #J-18808-Ljbffr Mattel, Inc.and Subsidiaries