Programme Manager

Programme Lead - Ad Server Migration (12 Month FTC)

Location: London (Brook Green) - Hybrid (3 days a week on site)

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced Programme Lead to deliver a business-critical ad server migration within a live, revenue-generating environment.

This role is accountable for ensuring a zero-disruption transition of ad serving capabilities, protecting revenue, maintaining operational continuity, and setting up a scalable platform for future growth.

You will act as the senior integrator across Technology, Product, Commercial and external partners, driving alignment, decision-making and delivery across a complex, high-stakes programme.

What You'll Be Responsible For

Programme Leadership & Delivery

• Own the end-to-end migration programme: scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, budget and outcomes
• Lead all phases: discovery, design, build, migration, testing, cutover and stabilisation
• Deliver a seamless transition with minimal commercial or operational disruption

Stakeholder & Governance Management

• Act as the single accountable owner for senior stakeholders across Technology, Commercial, Operations, Finance, Legal and Marketing
• Establish and lead governance forums, including steering committees and risk escalation
• Provide clear, executive-level reporting on progress, risks and trade-offs

Ad Tech & Platform Migration

• Partner with Product, Engineering and Architecture to migrate core ad serving capabilities (trafficking, targeting, reporting, billing)
• Oversee migration of campaigns, inventory, forecasting logic and integrations
• Ensure compliance with data privacy and regulatory requirements

Commercial & Operational Readiness

• Prepare Sales, Ad Operations and Finance teams for the new platform
• Lead training, process redesign and operational transition
• Manage vendors, platforms and system integrators

Risk, Quality & Change Management

• Identify and mitigate technical, commercial and operational risks
• Drive rigorous testing (UAT, parallel runs, revenue validation)
• Lead change management to ensure adoption and long-term success

Cutover & Hypercare

• Define and execute cutover strategy, including go/no-go criteria and rollback plans
• Lead post-migration hypercare and rapid issue resolution
• Transition the platform cleanly into BAU with clear ownership and monitoring

What Success Looks Like

• No material revenue loss or billing errors during migration
• Stable, fully functional ad serving platform post-cutover
• High confidence and adoption across commercial and operations teams
• Clear ownership, documentation and roadmap for ongoing optimisation

What We're Looking For

Essential Experience

• Proven track record delivering large-scale ad tech or media platform migrations
• Strong understanding of ad serving, trafficking, targeting, measurement, billing and reporting
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional programmes in revenue-critical environments
• Strong programme management discipline (planning, RAID, governance, exec reporting)
• Ability to influence and align senior stakeholders

Highly Desirable

• Experience in retail media, publisher or marketplace environments
• Experience working with global vendors and system integrators
• Understanding of ad tech ecosystem integrations (e.g. DSPs, CDPs/DMPs, identity solutions)

Leadership Profile

• Strategic thinker with strong execution focus
• Calm and decisive under pressure
• Commercially aware and outcome-driven
• Collaborative and highly influential across functions
• Pragmatic and hands-on when needed to unblock delivery

The Challenge

You'll be operating at the intersection of short-term commercial delivery and long-term platform strategy.

This migration must be delivered in a live trading environment with zero tolerance for revenue disruption, while also contributing to the development of a scalable, future-ready retail media platform.

Success in this role means holding these competing priorities together-driving immediate delivery while shaping a platform that supports long-term growth.

We use generative AI tools to support our candidate screening process. This helps us ensure a fair, consistent, and efficient experience for all applicants. Rest assured, all final decisions are made by our hiring team, and your application will be reviewed with care and attention.

Pontoon is an employment consultancy. We put expertise, energy, and enthusiasm into improving everyone's chance of being part of the workplace. We respect and appreciate people of all ethnicities, generations, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, and more. We do this by showcasing their talents, skills, and unique experience in an inclusive environment that helps them thrive. If you require reasonable adjustments at any stage, please let us know and we will be happy to support you.

Please be advised if you haven't heard from us within 48 hours then unfortunately your application has not been successful on this occasion, we may however keep your details on file for any suitable future vacancies and contact you accordingly.

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