Head of Programmatic Trading Europe

Ask Locala Open · verified Sep 19, 2026

Paris Director Programmatic

Leadership Programmatic role at Ask Locala. Paris.

Role brief

Growth Roles summary, based on the employer's posting.

What you'll do

Lead daily delivery for European traders, setting priorities and mentoring the team toward performance targets
Hire, coach, evaluate, and support career growth while assigning trading resources across countries
Spend about sixty percent of your time setting up, monitoring, and optimizing campaigns across platforms
Set trading standards, QA routines, reporting practices, and structured tests across DSPs and partner platforms
Align trading plans with Tier 1 client goals and share market insights with client, creative, and product teams

What you bring

At least eight years on an agency or sales-house trading desk
Three or more years successfully managing a programmatic advertising team
Hands-on knowledge of DV360, Xandr, and TTD, plus a mandatory understanding of mobile advertising
A record of building trading playbooks and QA methods across multiple markets
Strong quantitative, relationship-building, and negotiation skills, with English and French proficiency

Who this fits

You’ll suit a hands-on people leader who can spend much of the role trading while guiding a European team. The role is based in Paris, France, and requires effective work in a cross-functional, matrixed environment. International experience is a plus, while DOOH experience and coding or scripting are helpful rather than required.

From the employer

Role Summary

The Head of Trading owns the performance, standards, and people leadership of the European trading team, ensuring campaigns are executed to the highest standard across markets while acting as the internal authority on programmatic and platform best practice. The role blends hands-on trading (60% of time), team management, resource allocation, and cross-functional partnership with Client Services and other departments to drive results for Tier 1 clients.

Core Duties

Team & delivery leadership

Oversee the day-to-day delivery of the European trading team, providing priorities, guidance, and mentorship to ensure delivery and performance targets are met
Own team development end-to-end: hiring, coaching, performance management, and career-pathing for traders
Allocate trading resources according to business priorities and workload across countries
Responsible for the outputs of the trading department across all business units (countries)

Trading & platform execution

Execute campaign setup across platforms, monitor performance, and optimize strategies (~60% of time)
Establish and deploy best practices across campaign setup, QA/troubleshooting, and reporting, acting as the internal authority on programmatic buying
Drive structured testing and experimentation across DSPs and partner platforms, evaluating results rigorously to inform trading strategy
Contribute to improving the internal monitoring and reporting suite

Partnerships & stakeholder management

Manage the relationship with external partners supplementing the team when business requires it
Collaborate with the Head of CS/Account Managers to develop media trading strategies aligned with the campaign goals and objectives of Tier 1 clients
Collaborate cross-functionally with creative, account management, and product teams to align strategy and execution
Feed trading insights and advertiser feedback back into product and platform roadmap discussions

Market awareness

Stay current on industry trends, advertising technologies, platform updates, and new tools to keep the agency competitive

What You Need to Succeed

Experience

At least 8 years of professional experience on a trading desk (agency or sales house)
3+ years of successful experience as a team leader/manager in programmatic digital advertising
International experience is a plus
Track record of establishing and scaling trading best practices, playbooks, and QA processes across multiple markets

Technical & domain knowledge

Hands-on experience with the main DSPs available in the market (DV360, Xandr,TTD)
Solid understanding of the mobile ecosystem (mandatory)
Understanding of the digital out-of-home (DOOH) ecosystem; hands-on experience is a plus
Familiarity with a leading brand safety, fraud prevention, or attention measurement platform
Strong quantitative and analytical skills, comfortable working with large datasets; coding/scripting experience is a plus

Soft skills & languages

Strong relationship-building and negotiation skills, both internally and with external partners
Ability to work effectively in a cross-functional, matrixed environment
English and French proficiency (mandatory)