Ad Sales Lead, Programmatic
Duolingo · New York, NY · 3 wk ago
Marketing$152k–$228k/yrFull-time
We need to output HTML fragment with sections: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. Only include sections where there is real specific content. We must not repeat job title. Must not include Job ID etc. Must remove boilerplate like mission statement? The mission statement is part of intro but not a heading; we can keep as prose? The instruction: "Preserve ALL substantive information; do NOT invent or summarize away detail." So we need to keep the substantive content: mission description, about the role, responsibilities list, qualifications list, etc. Also benefits and salary range.
We need to parse the posting.
Content:
- Mission statement: "Our mission at Duolingo is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. It’s a big mission, and that’s where you come in! At Duolingo, you’ll join a team that cares about educating our users, experimenting with big ideas, making fact-based decisions, and finding innovative solutions to complex problems. You’ll have limitless learning opportunities and daily collaborations with world-class minds — while doing work that’s both meaningful and fun. Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world. Read our blog to learn more."
- About The Role... (heading) then description: "Join us to build Duolingo Ads, Duolingo’s premium programmatic business. Most learners use our free, ad‑supported app—so great ads are core to our mission. Reporting into the Head of Ad Sales, the Ad Sales Lead, Programmatic will build a deal‑led book of business with agency holding companies, independent agencies, and advertisers who want access to Duolingo’s native formats, first‑party learner signals, and one of the most engaged mobile audiences in the world. You will own buy‑side relationships across holdco investment and programmatic teams, trading desks, curation and principal media groups, and premium programmatic buyers. This is a high‑ownership, high‑visibility, early‑stage opportunity to help define how programmatic can fuel high‑quality ads for millions of learners while driving outcomes for partners."
- Then "🧠 You will..." list of responsibilities (bulleted with line breaks). We need to capture each as .
List:
- Own a programmatic revenue target and forecast, and build a predictable pipeline across agency holding‑company programmatic and investment teams, trading desks, independent agencies, and premium programmatic buyers.
- Lead our shift from open auction to premium, deal‑led PMP/PG by packaging Duolingo’s native formats and first‑party learner signals into always‑on and custom deals that buyers will pay a premium for, and negotiate annual and upfront commitments that make that revenue durable.
- Become the person holdco programmatic teams call about mobile app inventory: run joint business planning; get Duolingo onto preferred supply paths, curated marketplaces, and principal/outcome‑based buys; and defend our position when buyers consolidate
- Build the programmatic value proposition and measurement story through proposals, pricing narratives, and post‑campaign proof that connect our native formats and audience data to brand and performance outcomes (e.g., verification, attention, brand lift, incrementality, MMM).
- Partner with Ad Platform Operations and Ad Ops on deal setup, targeting, floors, pacing, and troubleshooting—ensuring what you sell is deliverable and delivers against expectations.
- Work alongside our direct sellers under clear rules of engagement so programmatic expands the account through incremental value; coordinate with Account Management pre‑ and post‑sale to drive renewal and expansion.
- Feed structured market intelligence back to sales, product, and engineering leadership about what buyers need in pricing, packaging, audience segments, formats, and integrations, balancing this input with our learner‑first standards and operational quality.
- Establish the operating rhythm for a scaling programmatic business via account planning, outreach cadences, deal hygiene in CRM, pipeline rigor, and repeatable playbooks the next sellers can run.
- Then "✅ You have..." list of requirements/qualifications:
List:
- 8+ years in digital advertising, including at least 4 years selling programmatic on the sell side (publisher/platform/app) or in a holding‑company programmatic/investment role, carrying and hitting a quota; demonstrated PMP/PG selling and trading‑desk engagement.
- A demonstrated book of PMP and PG business you personally sourced, negotiated, and grew.
- Experience selling premium mobile or consumer app inventory—especially video and native/custom formats—through programmatic channels to top‑tier advertisers and agencies.
- Strong understanding of ad tech and mobile app ecosystems, including DSP/SSP workflows, deal IDs, verification/measurement, and using data to inform pricing and packaging.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills; clear, concise storytelling for both technical and non‑technical audiences.
- Then "⭐ Exceptional candidates will have..." list (maybe qualifications/skills). Could be considered as "Preferred Qualifications" or "Skills". We'll treat as additional qualifications or maybe "Skills". We'll include as part of Requirements or maybe a separate "Preferred Qualifications". But we only have headings: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. We need to decide where to put each list.
We have "You will..." responsibilities. That's Responsibilities.
We have "You have..." (required). That's Requirements.
We have "Exceptional candidates will have..." could be Qualifications or Skills. Since they are about deep relationships, experience moving partners, sold against first‑party audience segments, hands‑on partnership with Ad Ops. Those are more like preferred qualifications/skills. We could put them under Qualifications (or Skills). Let's put them under Qualifications.
We have Benefits: "Benefits: Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here." That's a link but no specifics. The instruction: never create Benefits section unless posting actually states them. It does state "Benefits: Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here." That's vague but it's a statement about benefits existing. However it's not specific details. The rule: "never emit a heading followed by filler/placeholder text (e.g., 'commensurate with experience', 'not specified', 'N/A', 'varies', 'TBD')". This is similar: "Take a peek at how we care for our employees' holistic well-being with our benefits here." That's placeholder/link, not specific. Likely we should not create Benefits section because it's not substantive detail. The instruction: "Prefer a few substantive sections over many thin ones." So we may omit Benefits.
Pay: "The offered salary is dependent upon several factors, including work experience, skills, and internal peer comparisons. The posted range is subject to change in the future. For this role, base salary is supplemented by equity compensation. We encourage you to talk with your recruiter for more information related to compensation for this role! Salary Range $152,000—$228,000 USD". That's specific salary range. So we should include Pay section with that info.
Schedule: No mention of schedule. So omit Schedule.
Now we need to output HTML fragment with headings
for each section we include: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Pay. Possibly also include an introductory paragraph before About the role? The mission statement is substantive; we could put it as a
before the first heading. The instruction: "Do NOT repeat the job title as a heading (the page already shows it)". So we can start with a paragraph containing the mission statement. Thus structure:
Our mission at Duolingo is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. It’s a big mission, and that’s where you come in! At Duolingo, you’ll join a team that cares about educating our users, experimenting with big ideas, making fact-based decisions, and finding innovative solutions to complex problems. You’ll have limitless learning opportunities and daily collaborations with world-class minds — while doing work that’s both meaningful and fun. Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world. Read our blog to learn more.
About the role
Join us to build Duolingo Ads, Duolingo’s premium programmatic business. Most learners use our free, ad‑supported app—so great ads are core to our mission. Reporting into the Head of Ad Sales, the Ad Sales Lead, Programmatic will build a deal‑led book of business with agency holding companies, independent agencies, and advertisers who want access to Duolingo’s native formats, first‑party learner signals, and one of the most engaged mobile audiences in the world. You will own buy‑side relationships across holdco investment and programmatic teams, trading desks, curation and principal media groups, and premium programmatic buyers. This is a high‑ownership, high‑visibility, early‑stage opportunity to help define how programmatic can fuel high‑quality ads for millions of learners while driving outcomes for partners.
Responsibilities
- Own a programmatic revenue target and forecast, and build a predictable pipeline across agency holding‑company programmatic and investment teams, trading desks, independent agencies, and premium programmatic buyers.
- Lead our shift from open auction to premium, deal‑led PMP/PG by packaging Duolingo’s native formats and first‑party learner signals into always‑on and custom deals that buyers will pay a premium for, and negotiate annual and upfront commitments that make that revenue durable.
- Become the person holdco programmatic teams call about mobile app inventory: run joint business planning; get Duolingo onto preferred supply paths, curated marketplaces, and principal/outcome‑based buys; and defend our position when buyers consolidate
- Build the programmatic value proposition and measurement story through proposals, pricing narratives, and post‑campaign proof that connect our native formats and audience data to brand and performance outcomes (e.g., verification, attention, brand lift, incrementality, MMM).
- Partner with Ad Platform Operations and Ad Ops on deal setup, targeting, floors, pacing, and troubleshooting—ensuring what you sell is deliverable and delivers against expectations.
- Work alongside our direct sellers under clear rules of engagement so programmatic expands the account through incremental value; coordinate with Account Management pre‑ and post‑sale to drive renewal and expansion.
- Feed structured market intelligence back to sales, product, and engineering leadership about what buyers need in pricing, packaging, audience segments, formats, and integrations, balancing this input with our learner‑first standards and operational quality.
- Establish the operating rhythm for a scaling programmatic business via account planning, outreach cadences, deal hygiene in CRM, pipeline rigor, and repeatable playbooks the next sellers can run.
Requirements
- 8+ years in digital advertising, including at least 4 years selling programmatic on the sell side (publisher/platform/app) or in a holding‑company programmatic/investment role, carrying and hitting a quota; demonstrated PMP/PG selling and trading‑desk engagement.
- A demonstrated book of PMP and PG business you personally sourced, negotiated, and grew.
- Experience selling premium mobile or consumer app inventory—especially video and native/custom formats—through programmatic channels to top‑tier advertisers and agencies.
- Strong understanding of ad tech and mobile app ecosystems, including DSP/SSP workflows, deal IDs, verification/measurement, and using data to inform pricing and packaging.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills; clear, concise storytelling for both technical and non‑technical audiences.
Qualifications
- Deep, current relationships with programmatic leads at major agency holding companies and larger independents.
- Experience moving partners from a heavy open‑auction