Autodidact/Operations Manager

Operations Manager

The Orchestration Engine

Executive Mission & The Big Picture

The Operations Manager is the connective tissue of the entire Open G Scale machine. This role ensures that every campaign, integration, and team workflow runs with precision, speed, and accountability. From onboarding new partners to troubleshooting delivery issues, the Ops Manager keeps the engine running.

In the AdTech world, the Operations Manager is the "Air Traffic Controller." They manage the flow of campaigns, people, and processes across the entire organization. Their "Big Picture" is Operational Excellence: ensuring that the gap between "what we promise" and "what we deliver" is zero. They are the ones who turn chaos into systems and systems into scale.

Core Strategic Objectives

1

Oversee end-to-end campaign lifecycle from setup to delivery and reporting, ensuring zero dropped balls across dozens of simultaneous campaigns.

2

Design and enforce SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for campaign trafficking, QA, reporting, and partner onboarding that scale with the organization.

3

Coordinate between Media Buyers, Traffickers, Account Managers, Developers, and clients to ensure alignment on priorities, deadlines, and deliverables.

4

Manage platform onboarding and integration: DSPs, SSPs, ad servers, verification tools, and analytics platforms.

5

Identify bottlenecks and implement process improvements that reduce manual work, errors, and time-to-delivery across all teams.

6

Build and maintain internal documentation, training materials, and knowledge bases that enable new team members to ramp up quickly.

Daily Operations & Core Responsibilities

Campaign Pacing & Delivery Monitoring

Reviewing all active campaigns to ensure budgets are pacing correctly, delivery is on track, and no campaigns are under- or over-spending against their Insertion Orders.

Cross-Team Standup Coordination

Running or participating in daily standups with Trafficking, Buying, and Account Management teams to identify blockers, reassign priorities, and ensure deadlines are met.

Platform Onboarding & Integration Management

Managing the technical and administrative setup of new DSP seats, SSP accounts, ad server configurations, and verification tool integrations.

SOP Enforcement & Process Audits

Reviewing campaign setups, QA checklists, and reporting workflows to ensure teams are following established procedures and identifying areas where processes are breaking down.

Escalation Management

Serving as the first point of escalation when campaigns go wrong: delivery failures, billing discrepancies, creative rejections, or partner disputes.

Resource Allocation & Capacity Planning

Monitoring team workloads and redistributing tasks to prevent burnout and ensure even coverage across all active accounts.

Vendor & Partner Communication

Managing relationships with technology vendors, platform support teams, and external partners to resolve issues and negotiate better terms.

Documentation & Training Updates

Keeping internal wikis, SOPs, and training decks up to date as processes evolve and new tools are integrated into the stack.

The Collaboration Ecosystem

Internal Collaboration

With Media Traffickers

Ensuring campaign setups follow QA protocols, managing workload distribution across the trafficking team, and identifying automation opportunities to reduce manual setup time.

With Media Buyers

Coordinating on campaign timelines, budget adjustments, and optimization schedules. Ensuring that buyer requests are prioritized and executed by the trafficking team on time.

With Account Managers

Aligning on client expectations, delivery timelines, and reporting schedules. The Ops Manager ensures that what the AM promises to the client is operationally feasible.

With AdTech Developers

Translating operational pain points into technical requirements. When a process needs automation or a tool needs customization, the Ops Manager defines the specs and manages the timeline.

External Collaboration

With Platform Support Teams

Managing relationships with DSP, SSP, and ad server support for account setup, troubleshooting, and feature requests.

With Verification Vendors

Coordinating IAS, DoubleVerify, and MOAT integrations, ensuring brand safety settings are correctly applied across all campaigns.

With Finance & Billing Teams

Reconciling campaign spend with Insertion Orders, managing invoice disputes, and ensuring accurate financial reporting across all platforms.

Tech Stack & Tools

Project Management & Workflow

Asana / Monday.com / Jira The operational command center. Used to track every campaign task, assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and monitor team throughput.
Notion / Confluence The knowledge base. All SOPs, process documentation, training materials, and decision logs live here.
Slack / Microsoft Teams Real-time communication hub for cross-team coordination, escalation channels, and quick decision-making.

AdTech Platforms (Operational Oversight)

Google Ad Manager Monitoring delivery health, troubleshooting ad serving issues, and ensuring proper line item and order management across the publisher stack.
DV360 / The Trade Desk Overseeing campaign setup standards, pacing alerts, and ensuring buyer teams follow trafficking protocols.
SSP Dashboards (Magnite / Index Exchange / PubMatic) Monitoring supply-side operations, partner performance, and integration health.

Automation & Efficiency

Zapier / Make (Integromat) Building no-code automations for repetitive tasks: notifications, data syncing, report distribution, and workflow triggers.
Google Sheets (Advanced) Building operational trackers, capacity planners, and budget reconciliation tools with advanced formulas and scripts.
Custom Internal Tools Working with Developers to build bespoke tools for campaign QA, automated reporting, and workflow management.

Reporting & Monitoring

Looker Studio / Google Sheets Dashboards Building operational dashboards that track campaign health, team throughput, error rates, and SLA compliance in real time.
PagerDuty / OpsGenie Alert management for critical delivery failures or platform outages that require immediate attention.

KPIs & Success Metrics

1

Campaign Launch Time

The average time from receiving a campaign brief to the campaign going live. Measures operational efficiency and team coordination.

Target: < 48 hours for standard campaigns

Speed-to-market directly impacts client satisfaction and revenue. Delays mean lost impressions and missed opportunities.

2

Error Rate

The percentage of campaigns launched with trafficking mistakes, misconfigurations, missed deadlines, or incorrect targeting.

Target: < 2% error rate

Every error costs money, damages client trust, and creates rework that slows the entire operation.

3

Team Throughput

The number of campaigns managed per team member per month, adjusted for complexity.

Target: Consistent month-over-month improvement

Rising throughput with stable error rates proves that operational improvements are working.

4

SOP Adoption Rate

The percentage of team members consistently following documented standard operating procedures.

Target: > 95% compliance

SOPs exist to ensure quality and scalability. Low adoption means processes are either poorly designed or poorly communicated.

5

Process Improvement Impact

Measurable time saved, errors reduced, or revenue protected through process improvements implemented by the Ops Manager.

Target: > 30% reduction in manual work within 6 months

The Ops Manager's value is measured by how much more efficient the entire organization becomes under their leadership.

6

Partner Onboarding Time

The time from signing a new platform or partner agreement to full operational integration.

Target: < 2 weeks for standard integrations

Slow onboarding delays revenue generation and frustrates both internal teams and external partners.

Native Dictionary

SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)
A documented, step-by-step process that ensures consistency and quality across repeated tasks like campaign setup, QA, and reporting.
Capacity Planning
The process of forecasting team workload and ensuring sufficient resources are allocated to meet upcoming demand without burnout or bottlenecks.
Escalation Path
The predefined chain of communication for resolving issues that exceed a team member's authority or expertise level.
SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Contractual commitments regarding response times, delivery timelines, and quality standards that the operations team must meet.
QA (Quality Assurance)
The systematic review process applied to campaign setups, creative assets, and targeting configurations before a campaign goes live.
Runbook
A detailed operational guide for handling specific scenarios: platform outages, campaign emergencies, billing disputes, or partner onboarding.
Throughput
The volume of work completed by a team within a given time period, used to measure operational efficiency and identify capacity constraints.
Bottleneck
A point in the workflow where work accumulates faster than it can be processed, slowing down the entire operation.
Change Management
The structured approach to transitioning teams from current processes to new ones, minimizing disruption and resistance.
Post-Mortem
A formal review conducted after an incident or campaign failure to identify root causes, document lessons learned, and prevent recurrence.

The Learning Curve

1

The Process Observer

Months 1-3

Concepts: Understanding all internal workflows, tools, team structures, and the end-to-end campaign lifecycle from brief to billing.

Skills: Mapping every process, identifying all stakeholders, learning platform interfaces, and documenting the current state of operations.

Milestone: Producing a comprehensive operational audit that identifies the top 5 bottlenecks and quick wins for immediate improvement.

2

The Process Builder

Months 3-6

Concepts: SOP design methodology, automation principles, and change management. Understanding how to implement new processes without disrupting active campaigns.

Skills: Writing clear SOPs, building automation workflows in Zapier/Make, creating QA checklists, and training team members on new procedures.

Milestone: Implementing 3+ process improvements that demonstrably reduce manual work by 30% and error rates by 50%.

3

The Operations Leader

Months 6-12

Concepts: Capacity planning, resource optimization, vendor negotiation, and cross-functional project management at scale.

Skills: Leading cross-team projects, managing platform onboarding end-to-end, building operational dashboards, and mentoring junior operations staff.

Milestone: Successfully scaling operations to handle 2x campaign volume without proportionally increasing headcount or error rates.

4

The Orchestration Engine

12+ Months

Concepts: Organizational design, strategic operational planning, and building systems that run themselves. Transitioning from doing to designing.

Skills: Defining the operational roadmap, influencing product and technology decisions based on operational data, and building a self-sustaining operations team.

Milestone: Building an operations function so robust that the organization can scale into new markets, products, or verticals without operational friction.