Director, Demand - Sovrn Exchange

About Sovrn

Every interesting company solves important problems for other people. Sovrn is a Software and Data business that helps Open Web businesses be and remain independent. We help them understand their business better, operate more efficiently, and make & keep more money.

• We believe in the freedom and free-flow of information.
• We believe the Open Web is the largest source of this information.
• We believe in helping Open Web businesses be and remain Independent.

Through Software products and Data solutions we help our customers:

• Understand their business better, so they can make better decisions
• Operate their business more efficiently, so they can invest in what matters most
• Make (and Keep) more money, so they control their own destiny

Sovrn Core Values: Candid, Customer Empathy, Learning, Scrappy, Second Order Thinking

About the Opportunity

Sovrn's Exchange business is an omnichannel SSP connecting publisher supply to 40+ demand-side partners — from top-tier DSPs like The Trade Desk, DV360, and Amazon down to a long tail of direct DSP and SSP-reseller relationships. The Director of Demand leads our effort to acquire new demand sources, expand with existing partners, and owns the operational playbook — onboarding, identity, QPS, IVT, deal troubleshooting, RFPs — that the Demand team runs on. Reporting to the VP, Demand Partnerships, this role manages a small team and works closely with Sales, Product, and Engineering, and Legal, serving as a cross-functional operator as Sovrn scales its demand business.

What You'll Own

• Lead and grow a portfolio of strategic partners, spanning DSPs, SSP resellers, and 3rd party curators accountable for driving new demand acquisition and expansion with existing partners.
• Manage a team, including hiring, performance, coaching, and workload distribution, building the team as the book of business scales.
• Run regular (monthly/quarterly) partner cadence calls tracking opportunities, challenges, roadmap, and commercial terms for each account.
• Own Salesforce account/opportunity data hygiene for the demand book of business.
• Set the standard for the full partner lifecycle: endpoint setup, QPS cap negotiation, bundle/domain and ads.txt/app-ads.txt approvals, and geo/format targeting.
• Shape deal activation strategy with DSP partners including deal UI structuring, floor pricing, and open-auction pushes to maximize yield across your portfolio.
• Direct incident response for demand-side issues — performance drops, discrepancies, endpoint/config changes — as first-line escalation through resolution with Engineering and Support.
• Resolve IVT, fraud, and supply-chain (schain) escalations raised by demand partners, including publisher/bundle blocking decisions.
• Lead partner RFI/RFP responses, representing Sovrn's technical, commercial, and compliance posture.
• Champion Demand/Exchange interests in cross-functional forums with Operations, Product, and Engineering contributing to decisions that affect your partners and contributing to roadmap items.
• Mentor and serve as a resource across adjacent teams, including publisher account management and agency/advertiser sales.
• Provide partner-market input into broader commercial hiring and strategy decisions.

What You'll Need

• 7+ years in programmatic/ad tech, in a demand-side account management, partnerships, or technical account management role at an SSP, DSP, or exchange.
• Working fluency in OpenRTB, SSP/DSP auction mechanics, and identity solutions (EIDs, UID2, RampID, ID5, and similar).
• Experience owning partner escalations end-to-end — comfortable being the point person when something breaks and revenue is on the line.
• Familiarity with IVT/fraud tooling (e.g., HUMAN Security) and ads.txt/app-ads.txt compliance.
• CRM discipline (Salesforce) and comfort owning commercial data hygiene for a large account portfolio.
• Strong cross-functional communicator — this role sits at the intersection of Sales, Operations, Product, Engineering, and external partners daily.
• Demonstrated people-management experience — you’ll manage an existing team of account managers.
• Nice to have: experience responding to formal partner RFIs/RFPs; CTV/OTT demand experience.

Location: New York. We believe shared purpose and collaboration lead to deeper relationships, more creative problem-solving, and more learning, faster. For employees located near one of our offices, working in-person is our default. We trust people to use judgment when focused work or life circumstances call for flexibility.

Compensation and Benefits: The annual base salary for this position is $150,000 to $175,000 in New York. This range represents the good-faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting. Individual compensation decisions are based on job-related education, experience, skills, and work location. In addition to base salary, this role may also be eligible for bonus opportunities, commission earnings, and/or equity awards, subject to the terms of the applicable plans.

Benefits available to eligible employees include medical, dental, and vision insurance; paid holidays; flexible paid time off; paid medical leave; paid parental leave; short- and long-term disability coverage; life insurance; 401(k) plan participation with company match; commuter benefits; and other wellness and employee support programs.