Programmatic & Paid Social Lead

London, Holborn | Hybrid | £65,000 base + £9,750 bonus

Company Overview

A global media group is expanding its digital capabilities and establishing a new international biddable hub in London. The organisation has a long standing presence in the UK and operates across media trading, planning, buying, and digital innovation. With continued investment in programmatic, social, data, and emerging ad tech, the business is strengthening its ability to support clients across multiple markets with more efficient, performance led solutions.

This role is part of a newly developed division focused on elevating the organisation’s addressable media offering. Working closely with UK leadership and an international digital team, you’ll help shape new digital products, refine best practices, and ensure that clients benefit from advanced technology, measurement, and strategic expertise. The culture is collaborative, development focused, and built on knowledge sharing and cross market teamwork.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy, planning, execution, and optimisation across programmatic and paid social campaigns
• Collaborate with senior digital leaders to help develop and refine the digital product roadmap
• Oversee client performance, delivery, and service levels, maintaining strong commercial and financial ownership
• Drive account growth and introduce new opportunities for innovation across programmatic and paid social channels
• Communicate digital capabilities, value propositions, and technology partnerships to clients and internal teams
• Support new business efforts, contributing to proposals and programmatic pitch responses
• Manage campaign P&Ls and work with the organisation’s commercial trading mechanics
• Mentor and support junior team members, promoting a positive, collaborative, and high performance environment
• Deliver internal training sessions on new strategies, platform features, and optimisation approaches
• Represent the business at industry events when required
• Contribute to internal knowledge sharing, cross departmental alignment, and broader business goals

Experience Required

• Strong experience in programmatic and paid social planning, buying, optimisation, and client management
• Hands on platform expertise across major DSPs (e.g. TheTradeDesk, DV360, Xandr, Amazon, Verizon, Nexxen)
• Proven experience with key paid social platforms including Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and Snap
• Solid understanding of programmatic ecosystem mechanics including DSPs, SSPs, and publisher technology
• Experience across multiple digital formats such as CTV/OTT, DOOH, display, video, native and audio
• Proficiency with IAS, DoubleVerify, DCM, ad servers and other measurement and trafficking tools
• Audience data strategy, DCO, paid search, retail media or EU5 experience is advantageous
• Strong commercial skills with experience managing budgets, financials, and client P&Ls
• Confident leader with the ability to coach, guide and upskill a growing team
• Excellent communication, data analysis, problem solving, and organisational capabilities
• High proficiency in Excel, Word and PowerPoint

If you’re ready to take ownership of a growing programmatic and paid social function within an international media environment, we’d love to hear from you.