Director, Ad Monetization & Insights

The Business Operations team exists to enable the DTC business to operate in a way that will meet our operating and long-range plans (AOP and LRP), while driving growth, health, and stability for the business in the near and long term.  We drive results across teams and functions to facilitate alignment of goals, priorities and execution. We create an accelerant for what is possible across the resources that support DTC, identifying and capitalizing on opportunities and mitigating risks. We develop new solutions and processes and partner cross functionally to operate our global DTC business at scale. We tell the story of the DTC business- both our results and where we are going, serving as a representative for the Business in our partnerships across TWDC.  We serve as a steward of the premium TWDC brand experience, delivering value to our consumers, employees, and shareholders through our streaming offering and operations.

JOB SUMMARY 

This DTC role will collaborate cross-functionally with Disney Global Ad Sales, Ad Platform Technology, Product teams, DTC Programming, Marketing, Finance, and other partners across The Walt Disney Company, to lead ad monetization initiatives that support the growth of the DTC businesses.  The Director, Ad Monetization & Insights will be a key executive responsible for executing the company's direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising monetization growth strategy. This role requires a deep understanding of customer engagement and experience, advertising technology and marketplaces, data analytics, and best practices across various digital and direct-to-consumer initiatives. This role will drive new monetization opportunities and solutions to deliver scale and revenue growth for our global advertising strategy, with an eye towards preserving our premium brand and customer experience. This role will oversee a key function in the overall Monetization & Growth organization by managing advertising revenue and supply data and insights and oversight of ad loads, including experiments to drive operational capacity.

RESPONSIBILITIES
Supply Management & Optimization

• Define and execute strategies around advertising supply management, including ad load changes and new monetization opportunities, including sponsorship, hosted content, and optimized ad placements.
• Support international growth and scale by developing global and region-specific strategies, best practices, learning and insights. Facilitate knowledge sharing across regions.
• Customize monetization approaches to meet regional market conditions, regulatory requirements, and cultural nuances while driving global business objectives. Partner with regional business, operations, and sales teams.
• Serve the DTC Business by partnering across functions including Ad Sales, Ad Platform, and finance teams to ensure alignment of strategies, execution, and forecast expectations of initiatives for monetization
• Leveraging emerging technologies, consumer behavior, and trends to identify insights and new opportunities and revenue streams for DTC monetization,
• Represent the DTC business in strategic sponsorships and branded content opportunities, working with the Ad Partnerships, Content, and Programming teams to drive revenue growth beyond digital advertising media
• Manage the integration of sponsorships and branded content into the broader monetization strategy, ensuring alignment with audience needs and platform & brand guidelines. Facilitate executive approvals as necessary.
• Collaborate with other departments to identify merchandising opportunities, including potential partner integrations to enhance ad inventory and revenue
• Serve as a thought partner to the Executive Director on long-term monetization strategies that will contribute to a sustainable digital advertising business on DTC services. Provide support including materials, analysis, and plans for the Exec Director to lead with executives across DTC, Ad Sales, Ad Platform and finance.
• Lead and coach a team that will contribute to cadenced reporting, analysis, and growth tactics to ensure the health of the DTC ad business
• Partner with the policy & solutions team to ensure that regulatory and compliance requirements are considered in all monetization strategies

Insights & Metrics:

• Lead DTC reporting and insights for DTC advertising monetization, including KPI reporting and analysis on advertising revenue, performance trends, emerging opportunities and risks
• Ensure DTC performance is evaluated using complete and accurate data sets that align to those used by partner teams in Finance, Technology, and Sales
• Identify and analyze opportunities for richer insights from KPI’s including high demand and high value audiences, engagement trends, and pricing
• Develop DTC requirements for new or evolving data and reporting needs
• Size opportunities and risks and present to senior leadership for decision-making. Partner with Ad Sales, Subscriber, and Engagement Finance teams to align assumptions for inclusion in forecast development, including sizing of supply tactics
• Provide inputs for engagement and supply forecasts. Track performance against those forecasts, identifying insights, trends, risks and opportunities
• Partner with DTC Subscriber and Engagement Finance, Data Science, Ad Sales Finance, and Revenue-Yield Management teams to identify opportunities to increase accuracy and insights in ad sales forecasting and reporting, including mechanisms to provide early signals for opportunities and risks to plan. Facilitate development of disaggregated supply forecasts to allow more intelligent supply management and tracking
• Maintain an informed, data-backed perspective on expected outcomes and results, directing leadership attention where needed to support delivery of business plans
• Serve as primary contact with Data teams to ensure accurate dashboards and insights tooling and consistent use of data sources across teams and stakeholders. Provide DTC requirements for the development of new data and reporting capabilities and dashboards

WHAT TO BRING

• 8+ years of experience in digital media, streaming, or related fields, with a strong track record of driving direct to consumer monetization growth at scale
• 6+ years of people management; effective org design, goal setting, and performance management for results. Proven track record of delivering results by motivating and empowering teams to deliver on goals.
• Fluency with digital video advertising concepts and metrics
• Joyful leadership, motivation, high-energy, tenacity, and a positive attitude
• Ability to determine resource needs and recommend solutions, managing constraints
• Proven experience interacting with and communicating effectively with senior executives and commanding rooms through effective communication
• Able to translate between high level strategy and the details of tactical planning and execution
• Experience working in and leading large, complex and high-visibility cross-functional projects and revenue driving initiatives
• Skilled in navigating complex, matrixed organizational structures with an aptitude for gaining consensus and collaboration for decisions and action
• Expert analytical and modeling skills 
• Generalist digital business experience with sufficient fluency in finance, marketing, product, legal, and analytics domains
• Proven experience driving monetization strategies to push business priorities forward
• Excellent communicator, able to work with, influence and align with multiple stakeholders
• Strong business aptitude, clear thinking and communicating, and great decision making
• Expert knowledge to anticipate a wide range of future needs and opportunities and facilitate development of complex solutions
• Excellent people management skills, including the ability to influence a wide range of audiences
• Creatively and collaboratively disruptive
• Strong negotiation and issue resolution skills

NICE-TO-HAVES 

• Personal affinity for the brands and franchises of The Walt Disney Company
• BA/BS in business, computer science, other business/tech field or equivalent work experience