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Location London, United Kingdom

About the role

As our Publisher Yield and Programmatic Lead, you will be instrumental in shaping the future of Deliveroo Advertising's monetisation strategy. This high-impact role requires a hands-on approach to lead our yield operations and optimisation. You will be directly responsible for driving significant improvements in price realisation and revenue quality across both on-platform and off-platform retail media. Our ad tech stack leverages bespoke in-house technology and third-party ad tech solutions. You will work closely with Commercial Strategy and Commercial Operations to operationalise external pricing and guidance into yield operations decisions, configurations, and evidence-backed strategies that enhance price realisation while diligently protecting the consumer experience. Collaborating in lockstep with Product, Data Science, and Media Operations, you will design robust rules that are practical to build and simple to understand. This role suits a highly numerical and strategic thinker who is also hands-on and eager to build, test, and iterate on complex solutions. While primarily an individual contributor, you will also provide mentorship and guidance to the Media Operations team and fellow specialists, fostering their growth and ensuring their contributions align with our strategic objectives.

What you'll be doing

• Develop & Execute Yield Strategy & Pricing Governance:

  • Lead the rate optimisation strategy within yield operations. Propose and refine floors, caps, discount guardrails, and sponsorship packages by placement and season, all within our monetisation policy.

  • Align proposals with Commercial Strategy on rate envelopes and discount governance. Secure approvals and personally create detailed internal build sheets for seamless execution by Media Operations. (Note: External pricing guidance is owned and published by Commercial Strategy).

  • Propose, implement, and refine surface mix targets and seasonal rate guidance across sponsored search, category and home placements, menu, basket, and order tracker. Align these with Commercial Strategy and the Director, balancing demand with supply while consistently protecting the consumer experience.

• Own & Drive Yield Analytics and Forecasting:

  • Directly own and interpret key price realisation views, sell-through, fill curves, bid density, and revenue quality metrics.

  • Develop and provide robust forward-looking views for strategic planning, partnering closely with Finance and Data Science on advanced forecasting methodologies.

• Lead & Implement Programmatic Demand & Supply Path Management:

  • Propose, develop, and implement deal strategies across programmatic deal types such as Programmatic Guaranteed, Preferred Deals, and Private Marketplaces where applicable.

  • Personally own and manage the line item architecture and demand routing in close collaboration with Product and the ad server team, ensuring simple rules that maintain reliable delivery and healthy margins.

  • Maintain adherence to supply chain transparency standards, including ads.txt, app-ads.txt, and sellers.json, in collaboration with Legal and Policy. Safeguard supply path integrity and ensure all external connections meet Deliveroo's policy and security standards.

• Define & Enforce Inventory Policy & Strategic Enablement:

  • Work collaboratively with Product and Policy to define the inventory taxonomy, eligibility rules, and sponsorship constraints that uphold the consumer experience and brand safety.

  • Drive the creation of clear build sheets and feasibility notes, personally ensuring Media Operations can execute packages accurately and efficiently. Translate complex setups into simple steps and clear checkpoints, minimising rework and ensuring smooth trafficking.

• Cross-functional Strategic Partnerships:

  • Product & Data Science Collaboration: Co-design eligibility, ranking, and pricing signals that enhance the consumer experience while significantly improving yield. Validate hypotheses through well-defined experiments and share clear, data-driven insights. Effectively translate complex model behaviour into plain language for commercial and operations teams.

  • Commercial Strategy Partnership: Work hand-in-hand on core rate strategy, discount governance, and packaging principles. Share compelling yield evidence and market signals, co-author quarterly guidance, and ensure pricing rules are simple to sell and durable in the market.

• Operating Cadence and Governance:

  • Lead a weekly yield and rate clinic and a monthly sponsorship and surface review with key stakeholders, ensuring transparent decision-making.

  • Maintain visible decision records, owners, and timelines. Proactively escalate material policy or consumer guardrail issues to the Director.

Requirements

• Extensive senior-level experience in yield and programmatic operations within a leading publisher, platform, or retail media network, with a proven track record as a hands-on individual contributor.

• Deep expertise in auction dynamics, sophisticated rate strategy, sponsorship design, and all programmatic deal types, including Programmatic Guaranteed, Preferred Deals, and Private Marketplaces.

• Direct, hands-on experience with ad server configuration, complex deal setup, and robust revenue quality controls.

• Proven confidence in yield analytics (price realisation, sell-through, fill, pacing, and bid density) and the ability to extract actionable insights, telling a clear and compelling story from complex data.

• Comprehensive understanding of identity, privacy, and consent requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and their implications for packaging and routes to demand.

• Strong familiarity with supply chain transparency standards, including ads.txt, app-ads.txt, and sellers.json.

• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex rules and concepts clearly, develop simple templates, and effectively teach sophisticated ideas to diverse commercial and operations teams.

• A highly collaborative style coupled with calm judgment and a steadfast consumer-first lens, ensuring all monetisation strategies enhance the overall user experience.

• A strong drive to personally "build, test, and iterate" solutions, taking ownership from conception to execution.

Why Deliveroo

Our mission is to transform the way you shop and eat, bringing the neighbourhood to your door by connecting consumers, restaurants, shops and riders. We are transforming the way the world eats and shops by making access to food and products more convenient and enjoyable. We give people the opportunity to buy what they want, as they want it, when and where they want it.

We are a technology-driven company at the forefront of the most rapidly expanding industry in the world. We are still a small team, making a very large impact, looking to answer some of the most interesting questions out there. We move fast, value autonomy and ownership, and we are always looking for new ideas.

Workplace & Benefits

At Deliveroo we know that people are the heart of the business and we prioritise their welfare. Benefits differ by country, but we offer many benefits in areas including healthcare, well-being, parental leave, pensions, and generous annual leave allowances, including time off to support a charitable cause of your choice. Benefits are country-specific, please ask your recruiter for more information.

Diversity

At Deliveroo, we believe a great workplace is one that represents the world we live in and how beautifully diverse it can be. That means we have no judgement when it comes to any one of the things that make you who you are - your gender, race, sexuality, religion or a secret aversion to coriander. All you need is a passion for (most) food and a desire to be part of one of the fastest-growing businesses in a rapidly growing industry.

We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our hiring process. We recognise that some candidates may require adjustments to apply for a position or fairly participate in the interview process. If you require any adjustments, please don't hesitate to let us know. We will make every effort to provide the necessary adjustments to ensure you have an equitable opportunity to succeed.