Company Description
Driven Labs, Inc. Is a cultural media platform designed to serve the passionate automotive community through premium storytelling and deep community engagement. As traditional media declines and social platforms become oversaturated, Driven fills the gap by delivering value at the intersection of culture and commerce. Backed by an exceptional team and top-tier brand and talent partners, Driven champions creators and delivers measurable benefits for brands. The platform emphasizes innovation, quality, and long-term equity in the automotive and culture space.
The engagement
We're looking for a senior ad ops practitioner to architect our setup for scale before we bring on a full-time hire. You'll establish the systems, partner relationships, and operational playbooks that a future in-house team will run day-to-day. This is a hands-on engagement — not advisory — with clear deliverables and a defined endpoint.
Scope of work
- Publica optimisation. Audit current ad pod logic, timeout configuration, prebid setup, and server-side bidding. Identify and implement improvements to fill rate, eCPM, and ad experience.
- Demand stack expansion and rationalisation. Assess incremental value of current and prospective SSP partners, manage bid duplication, and design a clean demand path. Lead onboarding of new partners as needed.
- Trafficking and QA processes. Set up direct campaign trafficking workflows (VAST tag handling, third-party verification, pacing, creative QA) suitable for our growing direct business.
- Reporting and yield analysis. Build the reporting layer — revenue, fill, eCPM by inventory segment, partner performance — that the team will run from.
- Discrepancy and troubleshooting playbook. Document standard processes for delivery issues, partner discrepancies, and engineering escalations.
- Handover. Author the FTE job description, help shortlist and interview, and document everything for handover.
You should have
- 7+ years in CTV/OTT ad ops, ideally at a publisher
- Direct, hands-on Publica experience
- Deep working knowledge of SSAI mechanics and the major video SSPs (Magnite Streaming, Index Exchange, PubMatic, OpenX, Equativ, etc.)
- Direct campaign trafficking experience: VAST/VPAID, third-party tags, IAB taxonomies, common verification vendors
- A track record of standing things up from scratch, not just running mature setups
- Comfortable in EMEA privacy frameworks (TCF v2.2, IAB EU)
90-day deliverables
- Stack audit and prioritised optimisation roadmap
- Demand path optimisation implemented and measured
- Documented trafficking and QA SOPs
- Reporting dashboard or process the team can self-serve
- FTE hiring brief, candidate shortlist support