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Duolingo is seeking a Director of Ad Platform Operations to lead the technical and operational backbone of its advertising business. This role sits at the intersection of ad operations, technical account management, and programmatic strategy, owning campaign delivery quality, troubleshooting complex issues with buyers and platforms, and building the systems and processes that make the ads business more reliable and scalable.
You will own Google Ad Manager (GAM) structure and hygiene, including canonical ad unit design, yield group logic, and order/line-item standards alongside trafficking, QA, and launch workflows with clear SLAs and escalation paths. You'll act as the senior escalation point for complex campaign delivery issues across direct, PMP (Private Marketplace), and PG (Programmatic Guaranteed) deals, working directly with buyers, DSPs, SSPs, and internal teams to monitor pacing, reconcile reporting discrepancies, and flag under-delivery risks.
Partner with Sales and Account Management on pre-sale feasibility, targeting requirements, measurement questions, and programmatic deal setup. Build documentation and training that enables commercial teams to sell technical ad products independently. Accelerate premium programmatic revenue by packaging inventory, configuring always-on and custom PMP/PG deals, and onboarding new SSPs, demand sources, and measurement vendors.
Identify critical resources, people, vendor partners, and technology required for ad operations to scale, and drive prioritization across them. You'll partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Finance, and external AdOps partners to improve campaign performance and operational excellence. Success means building a high-accountability operating model while helping Duolingo evolve from open-auction programmatic toward a more premium, deal-led business model.
Required: 8+ years in digital advertising, AdOps, or technical advertising solutions with deep hands-on expertise in Google Ad Manager, trafficking, QA, troubleshooting, pacing, reporting, and campaign delivery. Strong experience working with buyers, DSPs, SSPs, or publisher-side programmatic teams to resolve technical issues. Proven ability to build or scale operational systems including SLA-based workflows, escalation paths, QA processes, and ticket management. Experience partnering cross-functionally in fast-moving environments with evolving products.
Preferred: Experience helping premium publishers or consumer apps scale from open-auction toward deal-led PMP/PG models; experience with video and mobile app ad products; experience managing globally distributed operations support.
