Fanatics · 8 hours ago
Director, Ad Operations
New York, NY
Full-time
Hybrid
Director/Executive
$188K/yr - $235K/yr
10+ years expFanatics is building the world’s leading sports media network, connecting brands with fans across its ecosystem of e-commerce, collectibles, media, and live events. As the Director of Ad Operations, you will lead the execution of advertising campaigns, manage vendor relationships, and oversee both in-house and offshore ad operations resources to ensure operational excellence and scale advertising efforts.
eSportsManufacturingRetailSporting GoodsSports
Responsibilities
Leading the team that oversees the full campaign lifecycle: trafficking, creative QC, tags/pixels, implementation, pacing, optimizations, delivery
Develop frameworks for monitoring KPIs, budgets, pacing; identifying risks early and working with Sales to mitigate under-delivery or overspend
Manage relationships with external vendors/supply partners (DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, measurement / verification partners)
Ensure offsite supply sources comply with quality standards, delivery expectations, SLAs
Negotiate terms, service levels, pricing or fees with vendors as needed
Perform periodic audits of vendor performance and supply quality, remediating issues as needed
Lead and oversee offshore teams or remote/international resources contributing to trafficking, QA, reporting, optimizations
Define roles, responsibilities, and workflows between in-house and offshore staff to ensure clarity, consistency, and efficiency
Set performance metrics, provide feedback, coaching, ensure synchronous work practices and communication
Build, refine, enforce SOPs, escalation protocols, QA checkpoints
Own tag / pixel management, discrepancy resolution (1st/3rd-party), creative spec compliance
Implement tools / dashboards to monitor operational health (campaign delivery, pacing drift, vendor performance, ticketing for issues etc.)
Ensure data / measurement integrity
Partner with Sales, Product, Ad Product, Analytics, Finance, Legal to ensure smooth campaign hand-offs, pricing rules, inventory availability, technical feasibility
Provide support during large or strategic deals with campaign setup, special technical requirements, custom scopes, etc
Serve as escalation point for campaign delivery issues, vendor disputes or technical failures
Manage and develop several managers/senior specialists in campaign operations / trafficking / QA
Plan and manage team priorities, capacity, resourcing (including offshore), headcount, training / upskilling
Promote high standards, accountability, continuous improvement culture
Identify operational bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and scale-ability risks; propose and lead process improvements or tool investments
Keep up with ad tech innovations, measurement changes (privacy, identity, cookieless, etc.), creative / format trends; ensure Fanatics stays ahead
Qualification
Required
~10+ years of experience in ad operations / digital advertising operations, campaign management or trafficking, with increasing leadership responsibility
Deep familiarity with ad serving systems, tags / pixel tracking, ad tech stack (DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, verification / measurement tools)
Experience managing vendor / supply partnerships and offsite / programmatic supply
Proven experience managing distributed teams / offshore resources
Strong operational rigor: building workflows, enforcing QA, dealing with tags, discrepancies, performance issues
Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills; ability to work cross-functionally
Strong analytical skills and comfort with dashboards, reporting, KPIs, problem resolution
Ability to manage multiple simultaneous campaigns; prioritize issues; stay calm under operational pressure
Preferred
Experience in commerce media, sports media, or brands with strong inventories and direct + programmatic mix
Prior experience with large campaign budgets and scale
Familiarity with video / CTV / OTT / live event ad formats
Experience managing or scaling an ad ops tech stack (automation tools, internal portals, workflow tools)
Knowledge of privacy / identity / cookieless trends and how they impact operations
Company
Fanatics
Fanatics is a sports merchandise retailer that manufactures fan gear and jerseys across retail channels. It is a sub-organization of Kynetic.
10001+ employees
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$4.9BKey Investors
Clearlake Capital GroupNational Football LeagueAlameda Research
2022-12-06Private Equity· $700M
2022-03-02Private Equity· $1.5B
2022-01-01Series Unknown· $10M
Leadership Team
J
Joseph Bozich
Advisor to Chief Executive Officer
Michael Mahan
CEO
Recent News
Rochester Business Journal
2025-12-24
2025-12-24
Company data provided by crunchbase