Programmatic Specialist

Walker and Sloan are proud to be working with a well known Digital Marketing Agency in Cardiff as they are keen to bring on board a Programmatic Specialist to the team on a full time basis.

Location: Cardiff (hybrid working)

Reports to: Digital Performance Director

Salary: £30k-£40k DOE

The Role:

We're looking for a hands-on Programmatic Specialist to plan, activate and optimise campaigns across the open web and walled gardens. Working end-to-end - from brief through to reporting - you'll play a key role in delivering effective, well-governed programmatic campaigns for our clients.

You'll be part of a small, collaborative digital team, so you'll be comfortable moving between strategy, trafficking, QA and client communication. This role suits someone who is data-driven, curious, and enjoys testing, learning and scaling what works.

What you'll be responsible for:

• Planning and strategy
• Translating briefs and KPIs into clear programmatic media plans, including audiences, formats, inventory, budgets, pacing and channel mix
• Building test-and-learn frameworks across creative, formats, audiences and bidding strategies
• Making informed channel recommendations across Programmatic Display, Video, Audio and DOOH
• Working closely with in-house and external creative teams, analytics and planning to align messaging, formats and measurement.
• Activation and trafficking
• Setting up, QA'ing and launching campaigns across one or more DSPs.
• Implementing pixels, conversion events and custom audiences accurately.
• Managing PMP deals, contextual and keyword lists, and brand-suitable inventory.
• Applying advanced geo-targeting techniques (e.g. radius, polygons, POI, postcode), frequency caps and day-parting.
• Optimising campaigns against outcome-based KPIs such as CPA, CPL, completed views and incremental reach.

Optimisation and performance:

• Optimising campaigns against outcome-based KPIs such as CPA, CPL, completed views and incremental reach.
• Using bid strategies, creative rotation, blocklists and supply-path optimisation to improve performance.
• Running regular experiments, scaling successful tactics and pausing under-performers quickly.
• Monitoring pacing and delivery daily, proactively addressing under-delivery or budget risks.
• Measurement and reporting
• Creating dashboards and regular performance reports with clear insights and recommended actions (e.g. Funnel IO, GA4, CM360).
• Implementing clean, privacy-aware measurement including UTMs, viewability and brand safety metrics.
• Supporting post-campaign analysis and effectiveness reporting.
• Presenting results clearly to clients, translating data into meaningful recommendations.

Governance and quality:

• Enforcing brand safety standards, fraud prevention measures and inclusion/exclusion lists.
• Ensuring GDPR-compliant data use and alignment with consent frameworks.
• Maintaining clear documentation, change logs and QA standards.
• Contributing to internal checklists, process improvements and team upskilling sessions.

What we're looking for:

• 2-4 years' hands-on experience activating programmatic campaigns in a DSP.
• Strong experience optimising against performance, reach and quality metrics (e.g. CPA, CPL, VCR, CTR, incremental reach).
• Practical knowledge of GA4, CM360 (or equivalent), pixels, conversion mapping and audience building.
• Experience delivering campaigns across Display, Online Video and Programmatic Audio (DOOH desirable).
• Working knowledge of geo-targeting, device and supply reporting.
• Experience building automated or semi-automated reports (Funnel IO desirable).
• Strong QA discipline and familiarity with brand safety and verification tools.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with confidence explaining performance to clients.