Principal Program Manager

ProRata

$220K — $260K *
Consumer Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in Program Management or related fields with a strong delivery track record
  • Experience in advertising technology, particularly ad serving and programmatic systems
  • Ability to manage large-scale technical programs in distributed systems
  • Strong technical fluency to understand system architecture and AI concepts
  • Excellent skills in project and program management including risk management
  • Exceptional communication skills for aligning diverse teams and presenting to executives
  • Comfortable in a startup environment with evolving requirements and rapid iteration

Responsibilities

  • Lead end-to-end program planning for major AdTech initiatives
  • Collaborate with engineering to define technical roadmaps and ensure delivery
  • Align with frontend, Product, and Business Development on campaign management
  • Manage cross-functional dependencies and coordinate resolutions
  • Establish program artifacts to maintain transparency for leadership
  • Drive launch readiness and post-launch activities including performance monitoring
  • Facilitate working sessions and prioritization discussions to resolve trade-offs
  • Continuously improve program management processes as the platform scales

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI technology
  • Collaborative and innovative work environment
  • Competitive salary and benefits package
  • Professional development and growth opportunities
  • Chance to significantly impact the company's success
Full Job Description
About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Program Manager to drive the successful planning, coordination, and delivery of our core AdTech product initiatives. You will serve as the connective tissue across Engineering, Product, Frontend, Business Development, and external partners - ensuring our ad serving infrastructure, agentic workflows, reporting systems, and fraud detection capabilities launch on time, with high quality, and aligned to business impact.

This is a high-visibility strategic role ideal for someone who excels at orchestrating complex, technical programs in a fast-moving startup. You will help translate ambitious product visions into executable plans while managing dependencies, risks, and cross-team collaboration in our AI-native advertising platform.

Key Responsibilities
  • Lead end-to-end program planning and execution for major AdTech initiatives, including the ad serving system, agentic backend workflows, campaign/creative management tools, scalable reporting, and fraud detection systems.
  • Partner closely with the Principal Software Engineering Manager (Tech Lead) and engineering teams to define technical roadmaps, break down epics into actionable milestones, and drive on-time delivery.
  • Collaborate with the frontend team, Product, and Business Development to align on requirements for campaign management, creative optimization, and advertiser/publisher-facing features.
  • Manage cross-functional dependencies, risks, and blockers - proactively surfacing issues and coordinating resolutions across Engineering, Product, Design, and external partners (publishers, SSPs, DSPs).
  • Establish and maintain clear program artifacts: roadmaps, timelines, status reporting, RACI matrices, and success metrics to ensure transparency for leadership and stakeholders.
  • Drive launch readiness and post-launch activities, including go-to-market coordination, partner integration support, performance monitoring, and iterative improvements.
  • Facilitate effective working sessions, prioritization decisions, and trade-off discussions between technical constraints and business needs.
  • Continuously improve program management processes, tools, and best practices as the AdTech platform scales from pilots to production traffic.

Qualifications
  • 8+ years of experience in Program Management, Technical Program Management, or related roles, with a proven track record delivering complex software products at scale.
  • Experience working in advertising technology (ad serving, programmatic, real-time bidding, or AI-driven ad platforms) is strongly preferred.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage large-scale technical programs involving distributed systems, low-latency infrastructure, and emerging AI/ML components.
  • Strong technical fluency - able to understand system architecture, APIs, scalability challenges, and AI concepts (LLMs, agentic workflows, inference) without writing production code.
  • Excellent project and program management skills, including roadmap planning, risk management, dependency tracking, and stakeholder communication.
  • Exceptional communication and influence skills - able to align diverse teams (engineering, product, business) and present clearly to executives.
  • Comfort operating in a startup environment with evolving requirements, high ambiguity, and rapid iteration.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Qualifications
  • Prior experience with GenAI/LLM-powered products, prompt engineering, or agentic systems.
  • Background in adtech ecosystems (OpenRTB, header bidding, SSP/DSP integrations, ad quality, fraud detection).
  • Hands-on experience with agile methodologies, Jira/Asana/Linear, and program management tools.
  • Startup experience - thriving in resource-constrained, high-ownership environments.
  • Familiarity with cloud-native architectures and AI inference challenges.


Compensation

The compensation for this position is competitive and commensurate with experience including :
  • Base salary range: $220,000 - $260,000
  • Equity participation


What We Offer
  • Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI technology
  • Collaborative and innovative work environment
  • Competitive salary and benefits package
  • Professional development and growth opportunities
  • Chance to make a significant impact on the company's success


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