Product specialist – Programmatic

Closing date: 10th June 2025

Salary: Basic salary starting at £51,844.00 dependant on experience

Reports to: Product Owner Lead (VOD)

Department: Ad Tech Team, Sales Ops, 4 Sales

Location: London / Manchester

Level: P1

Flex your technical skills with this permanent role in Channel 4's Sales Operations team!

The Sales Operations team is responsible for the creation and delivery of maximum revenue across all delivery methods of viewing across C4’s Sales portfolio. The team is required to deliver exceptional levels of service to Sales and our customers, in addition to conceiving and executing innovative methods of creating value through systems, working practices and new trading opportunities.

The team is responsible for the management and delivery of the ad systems and technical deployments across our Linear and VOD (Video on Demand) portfolio of products. Working closely with IT and All4 Product, the role delivers new and optimises of existing sales products across C4 sales’ platforms.

JOB PURPOSE

Channel 4 became the first broadcaster in Europe to launch a catch-up VOD service 12 years ago. After significant success, C4Sales now requires the growth of the product and platform offering to enable the continued expectations of our partners and customers to be fulfilled. This role’s primary responsibility is to develop, maintain and optimise technical ad integrations and system optimisation across our diverse Direct and Programmatic platform set ups, enabling the successful delivery of our Ad Products. The role supports the Ad Tech Lead, who manages a team of Product Specialists looking after our digital ad serving ecosystem.

The role will require technical onboarding of new platforms and ad formats as well as managing and implementing third party integrations for video publishers to be traded in the programmatic marketplace. The role requires delivery of our technical ad serving roadmap and close collaboration with our existing external suppliers, internal stake holders and IT/Dev teams who manage the various integrations. This includes front end player deployments across our 26 platforms as well as back integration for pushing data from C4 systems to our primary and external adservers.

The role will also be required to support and troubleshoot campaign set up issues and front end delivery and player problems – including interactive VOD ads in complex debugging environments.

Measured by:

• Speed and efficiency of developing highly complex Programmatic and Digital Ad Products.
• Resolution time of technical issues.
• Uptime of internal and external systems.
• Creation of efficient technical workflows for Programmatic and Digital operations.
• Relationship management with Tech partners such as FreeWheel, DSPs, YoSpace, C4 Dev teams and Partner Broadcasters.
• Specialised operational and technical support to the Programmatic Operational and Sales teams.
• Delivery of programme of work and management of team resource.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Working with the team of Product Owners and Specialists that delivers the programme of work for digital ad technology.
• Contributing to the delivery of the Digital technology roadmap within the C4Sales and platform integrations.
• Main point of contact to support all Programmatic and Digital technical integrations.
• Ensuring optimal setup and operational use of FreeWheel Ad Server and SSP (Supply-Side Platform) products, including regular review or processes and workflows to assess efficiency.
• Supporting the testing and rollout of new VOD Ad Products and Programmatic technology including SSPs and DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms).
• Optimise and drive efficiency gains through the workflow and campaign set up processes using existing and new techniques.
• Troubleshot and debug issues on any platforms such as ad play out or Programmatic deal delivery across all platforms.
• Deliver and enforce best practice guidelines for C4 delivery teams, Partner development and teams and Programmatic partners.
• Devising and executing integrations plans with ad serving/SSP and delivery vendors, Broadcast partners, and DSPs.
• Work with Product Owner Lead to deliver new and innovative digital approaches and work with new technology partners.
• Document existing and future technology setup and workflows as required.
• Work closely with C4 Product to ensure all requirements are briefed and ranked appropriately on various backlogs and programmes of work for C4 Streaming.

OTHER JOB FACTORS
Technical & Professional Skills

• Detailed knowledge on video file formats and relevant platform support with a high understanding of CDN (Content Delivery Network) configuration techniques and advanced transcode and delivery methodologies.
• Liaising with relevant teams to deliver new functionality in C4 and supplier systems and tools, from PO to engineering to ensure requirements are captured and fully delivered in a timely fashion.
• Awareness of software delivery methodologies and project management techniques such as Agile and Prince 2.
• Understanding of forecasting techniques and logic.
• Familiarity with data manipulation and delivery methodologies.
• Ability to create and keep up to date documentation and best practice guides for end users and Dev teams for deployments.

Autonomy/Judgement/Decision Making

• Seek input and provide specific details for escalations on major decisions.
• Suggest adaptions of enabling functions or process improvements.
• Communicate regularly with other Product Specialists on decisions made.

Managing Resources

• Expected to manage their own time to ensure successful delivery of the Programmatic and Digital programme of work.
• Provide support, documentation, and training for Operational teams to ensure they have a common understanding of the technology and functional underpinnings of systems.

Stakeholder Management

• Work closely and communicates with external suppliers including Freewheel, DSPs, YoSpace and others, and is expected to maintain a high level of support and professionalism with all stakeholders.
• Maintain effective relationships with operational and sales teams, communicating updates and changes to the programme of work in a timely and transparent manner.

Complexity/Problem Solving

• Complex implementations can take months and involve key internal stakeholders such as research, Legal, Rights, Tech, Dev etc. a strong project understanding will be required.
• Capitalises on opportunities for improvement, innovation, and inclusivity through operationalising these into tangible actions for others.

Business Impact/Strategic Perspective

• Understanding of the projects in development and their impact on the business strategy, as C4 continues to innovate in the digital space.
• Jobholder plays a critical role in the seamless playout of content and advertising with minimal technical ad issues on platform.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Experience working in a technical capacity at a Broadcaster or Publisher, DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms), SSPs (Supply-Side Platforms), troubleshooting video delivery and working with multi-disciplined teams.
• High levels of understanding in Video ad serving Industry Standards and methods of ad delivery including (Video Ad Serving Template), VPAID (Video Player Ad Interface Definition), Instream stitching, VOD overlays.
• Detailed understanding of the technical aspects of online ad serving/delivery, TV convergence and cross platform advertising format innovation with demonstrable skill in outlining technical set ups of industry standard approaches.
• Exceptional debugging skills using http reading tools and deep knowledge of capturing and reading sessions using Charles, Fiddler & Wireshark.
• Understating of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and industry standard system integration methodologies.
• Q/A ing players and ad sever integrations across multiple devices and environments.
• Awareness of the programmatic industry landscape and the roles of the major tech players.
• Ability to work with external and internal support teams to manage solutions through various teams and levels to resolution.
• A flexible, pragmatic and above all tenacious approach to problem solving.
• An appreciation for technical integrations and system set ups for the entire end to end automated ad serving and transactional DAI (Dynamic Ad Insertion) methodologies.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts in clear and understandable manner to non-technical colleagues and partners.

Hybrid Working

From September 2023 employees will be working minimum 3 days per week in their office location. The other 2 days should be working from home. This is to create more time for collaboration, creativity, learning and feedback. We also have a working from another location policy for up to 10 days. This pattern is subject to future changes which would be communicated in advance to provide employees with adequate notice of any change. If you need any additional support or workplace adjustments upon joining, please speak with your manager or our workplace disability lead.

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.