Digital Commercial Traffic Ops Manager, CNBC- 12 Month FTC
Company Description
VERSANT (Nasdaq: VSNT) is an industry-changing media and entertainment business and home to trusted brands that shape culture, inform audiences, and build lasting connections. It operates across four core markets: political news and opinion, business news and personal finance, golf, and sports and genre entertainment. These markets are served through a powerful portfolio of iconic and innovative brands, including CNBC, MS NOW, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Versant's sports division USA Sports, along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and GolfPass
CNBC INTERNATIONAL
CNBC is the world’s No. 1 business and financial news network. Its mission is to help the influential and aspirational make astute decisions to get ahead by providing live market updates, breaking news, in-depth analysis and exclusive interviews.
CNBC’s vast portfolio includes CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the network’s premium subscription service that provides real-time global market data and market analysis, as well as a growing slate of live and virtual events where consumers can experience CNBC’s award-winning journalism, live.
With headquarters in New Jersey, London, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi, CNBC provides a truly global 24-hour business briefing for senior business leaders, the financial community and those with assets to invest or protect. Today the channel is available in more than 392 million homes worldwide. CNBC also boasts a growing audience across its social media and digital video platforms.
Visit www.cnbc.com for more information.
Job Description
The Digital Commercial Traffic Operations Manager is responsible for the accurate, timely and commercially effective delivery of digital advertising campaigns across CNBC International’s digital portfolio. The role owns the end-to-end operational workflow, from order validation and inventory confirmation through campaign setup, creative quality assurance, trafficking, launch, pacing, optimisation, billing readiness and post-campaign reconciliation.
The successful candidate will be the senior operational point of contact for Sales, Client Services, Finance, Product, Technology, Editorial and external partners. They will ensure campaign, delivery and revenue data remain aligned across Operative One, Google Ad Manager and FreeWheel; lead the training and development of a team of Commercial Traffic Specialists; and drive clear operational controls, service levels and continuous improvement across the function.
This is an exciting 1 year FTC opportunity.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Digital Sales Operations and Campaign Trafficking
• Manage the end-to-end activation of digital advertising campaigns, including order review, inventory validation, campaign setup, creative collection and quality assurance, trafficking, launch, monitoring, optimisation, close-out and archiving.
• Liaise with global Sales and Client Services teams on contracts and insertion orders, campaign objectives, pricing, budgets, flight dates, targeting, inventory availability, creative requirements, billing instructions and delivery expectations.
• Check that all digital media schedules and orders are complete, accurate, approved and operationally deliverable before activation.
• Oversee campaigns across digital video, display, mobile, connected TV/OTT, streaming and other digital products, ensuring they launch on time and deliver against agreed client commitments.
• Monitor campaign pacing and performance, identify delivery risks early, and agree recovery plans including optimisation, reallocation, extensions, makegoods or other corrective action.
• Trouble shoot client requests and act as the senior escalation point for under-delivery, over-delivery, creative or tag failures, targeting issues, inventory conflicts, reporting discrepancies and other high-priority operational incidents.
Operative One, GAM and FreeWheel Systems Ownership
• Serve as the subject-matter expert and senior user for Operative One, Google Ad Manager and FreeWheel, with hands-on responsibility for order setup, campaign mapping, data quality, workflow governance, issue resolution, user support and training.
• Ensure products, pricing, budgets, dates, targeting, booked units or impressions, campaign identifiers and billing terms are accurately captured in Operative One and correctly reflected in FreeWheel.
• Maintain robust controls and reconciliations between order management, ad serving, reporting and finance processes, investigating and resolving data-transfer or integration failures promptly.
• Own naming conventions, product and placement mapping, trafficking standards, user access controls and documented standard operating procedures for the team.
• Lead user acceptance testing, release readiness and operational implementation for system enhancements, new digital products and workflow changes, working with Technology, Product and external vendors as required.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual activity, improve data integrity and reduce campaign setup, delivery and billing errors.
People Management
• Support the Commercial Traffic Director, coach and develop a Commercial Traffic team who also handle Linear, setting clear objectives, service levels, quality standards and individual accountabilities.
• Allocate workload and manage team capacity, schedules and priorities to support campaign volumes, peak trading periods and business-critical launches.
• Provide regular feedback, performance management, training and career development, creating a culture of ownership, transparency and continuous learning.
• Build team resilience through documented processes, cross-training and effective cover arrangements, while fostering collaboration, inclusion and constructive resolution of issues.
Digital Sponsorship and Bespoke Campaigns
• Own the operational implementation of digital sponsorships, high-impact formats and other complex or bespoke campaigns, ensuring every contracted element is scheduled and delivered as committed.
• Coordinate with Editorial, Product, Marketing, Creative, Technology and external partners on campaign dependencies, launch plans, exclusivity, targeting, measurement and reporting requirements.
• Maintain an accurate sponsorship and priority-campaign status report, highlighting material risks, outstanding assets, dependencies and agreed actions.
Inventory, Delivery and Yield Support
• Monitor digital inventory availability, booked demand, sell-through, utilisation and delivery risk across markets, platforms, devices, audiences, formats and time periods.
• Work with Sales, Pricing/Yield and Client Services to assess campaign feasibility, reserve and allocate inventory, manage priorities, exclusivity and frequency rules, and prevent delivery conflicts.
• Support pricing and yield decisions with accurate availability, forecast, delivery and historical performance data.
• Prepare inventory and utilisation analysis showing booked and available impressions, sell-through, delivery, average rate or CPM, revenue and risk by product, market, platform or other relevant dimension.
Billing, Reconciliation and Revenue Assurance
• Own campaign billing readiness and month-end operational controls, ensuring completed activity is closed accurately and within agreed timelines.
• Reconcile bookings and commercial terms in Operative One against delivery in FreeWheel and finance records, investigating material discrepancies before invoicing.
• Review billable delivery, credits, makegoods, campaign extensions and other adjustments, ensuring clear approval and audit trails.
• Partner with Finance and Sales to validate invoices, support revenue recognition and provide an accurate view of booked, delivered, billable and at-risk revenue.
Sales and Operational Reporting
• Maintain accurate weekly digital advertising revenue, delivery and risk reporting, including updates on new sales, campaign changes and expected billable revenue.
• Provide leadership reporting on inventory utilisation, campaign delivery, sponsorship status, billing readiness, workload, service levels, error rates and other operational key performance indicators.
• Analyse recurring issues and root causes, recommend corrective action and track improvements through to completion.
• Build trusted relationships with regional and global stakeholders, communicating campaign status, risks and decisions clearly and in a timely manner.
Qualifications
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE AND REQUIREMENTS
ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
• Substantial experience in digital advertising operations, campaign management or sales operations within a media owner, broadcaster, streaming platform, publisher, agency or ad-tech environment.
• Advanced, hands-on experience of working in both Operative One, Good Ad Manager and FreeWheel is essential.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end digital advertising order-to-cash lifecycle, including booking, trafficking, delivery, optimisation, reconciliation, billing and campaign close-out.
• Demonstrable experience managing digital video and display campaigns across multiple products and markets.
• Experience of inventory management, forecasting, delivery analysis and revenue assurance.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills, with the ability to anticipate problems, prioritise competing demands and put effective recovery plans in place.
• Exceptional troubleshooting and incident-management skills, with strong attention to detail and a calm, logical approach under pressure.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills, including confident use of spreadsheets and large operational datasets.
DESIRED ATTRIBUTES
While not essential for the role, candidates with experience or proficiency in the following areas are likely to excel in this position:
• Relevant digital ad operations or commercial traffic experience, including two or more years in a people-management role.
• Experience within an international media, news, broadcast, streaming or digital publishing organisation.
• Experience delivering digital sponsorships, branded content, cross-platform campaigns or other complex commercial partnerships.
• Experience of system integrations, workflow design, user acceptance testing, process automation or business intelligence/reporting tools.
• Diploma and/or university degree, or equivalent professional experience.
The responsibilities associated with this position are not limited to the above description and may be modified at any time by the Company.
Additional Information
As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected].
VERSANT Media is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at VERSANT via-email, the Internet, or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from VERSANT's Talent Acquisition team will be deemed the sole property of VERSANT. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by VERSANT as a result of the referral or through other means.
