Head of AdTech Architecture – Programmatic & CTV

Head of AdTech Architecture – Programmatic & CTV

Location: UK, Spain, France or Italy | Senior Leadership Opportunity

We're partnering exclsuively with a leading international streaming and digital media business to appoint a Head of AdTech Architecture, responsible for designing and building its next-generation programmatic advertising infrastructure.

This is a rare opportunity to take ownership of a greenfield AdTech platform, shaping the technical architecture from the ground up whilst playing a key role in the wider commercial and advertising strategy.

You'll work directly with senior leadership, influence major technology investment decisions and lead a specialist team as the platform develops.

This isn't a purely strategic leadership position. We're looking for someone who brings hands-on experience architecting RTB, bidding or ad-serving systems, alongside the commercial understanding to make informed decisions about how the technology should evolve.

The Opportunity

• Own the architecture: Design and lead the development of a scalable programmatic advertising stack, covering RTB bidding, auction mechanics, CTV ad delivery, impression tracking and measurement pipelines.
• Build from the ground up: Make critical build-versus-buy decisions, determining which technologies to develop internally and where to leverage external partners.
• Shape commercial strategy: Work closely with senior product and commercial leadership on demand partnerships, monetisation strategy, yield optimisation and the evolution of the advertising product.
• Lead technical innovation: Define the approach to industry standards, integrations, data architecture and real-time advertising infrastructure.
• Build and develop a team: Lead a small, specialist team across AdTech engineering and product, remaining technically involved whilst helping shape the team's future growth.

What We're Looking For

We're particularly interested in candidates from SSPs, DSPs, ad exchanges, broadcasters, streaming platforms or AdTech vendors, who can demonstrate significant ownership of programmatic technology.

Essential experience:

• 8–12+ years in AdTech, with substantial experience in programmatic advertising and CTV/video monetisation.
• Hands on experience designing or owning RTB bidding, auction or ad-serving architecture, rather than solely managing teams responsible for these systems.
• Extensive knowledge of OpenRTB 2.x/3.0, bid request/response flows, auction mechanics and programmatic deal structures (PMP/PG).
• Strong understanding of CTV/video advertising technologies, including VAST, VMAP, SCTE-35 and client-side/server-side ad insertion (CSAI/SSAI).
• Experience designing high-volume, low-latency systems, including real-time event streaming, impression processing and measurement pipelines.
• Understanding of the SSP/DSP ecosystem, yield optimisation, CPM floors, fill rates and programmatic economics.
• Experience making or influencing significant build-versus-buy decisions and translating commercial requirements into technical architecture.
• Ability to provide hands-on technical leadership whilst collaborating effectively with product, engineering and commercial stakeholders.

Experience with first-party audience data, identity solutions (UID2, ID5), GDPR/TCF compliance and direct DSP integrations would be particularly valuable.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

• Genuine ownership: Architect a new programmatic platform without the constraints of an inherited technology stack.
• Strategic influence: Work directly with senior leadership and help determine the future direction of the advertising business.
• Technical challenge: Solve complex problems across real-time bidding, CTV monetisation, large-scale data processing and advertising infrastructure.
• Commercial impact: See the direct relationship between your architectural decisions, platform performance and revenue growth.
• Leadership opportunity: Build and develop a specialist team, with scope to shape the function as the business scales.
• Established international business: Join a well-backed organisation with an existing streaming audience and significant ambitions for its advertising technology.

Interested?

If you've personally designed or owned RTB, SSP or ad-serving infrastructure at scale, and you're excited by the opportunity to build a platform from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you.

Candidates must be based in Spain, France, Italy or the UK.

Apply directly or get in touch on alex@round8.com for a confidential conversation about the opportunity.