About South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is South Africa’s national public service broadcaster and one of the largest state-owned enterprises in the country. Its mandate is to inform, educate, and entertain the public, as well as to reflect the cultural and multilingual diversity of South Africa.

Job Summary

• JOB TITLE:                              Ad Operations Manager
• DIVISION:                                Sales
• DEPARTMENT:                         Digital Sales
• BUSINESS UNIT:                      Sales
• SSCLE CODE/GRADE:            402B (Paterson C3, Pernomnes 9)
• SAP Position ID:                        60024068
• POSITION REPORTS TO:        Head Of Digital Sales
• LOCATION:                               Head Office

 

JOB PURPOSE

The Ad Operations Manager is responsible for leading and optimising the entire digital advertising delivery ecosystem for SABC – including direct-sold campaigns, campaigns executed via external digital sales partners (e.g., MediaMark, MediaNorth, Arise/365 Digital), and programmatic campaigns via SSPs/DSPs (Castoola, Magnite, Adform, etc.).

This role ensures operational excellence, yield maximisation, governance and revenue assurance, partner enablement, and continuous process improvement in a multi-platform, multi-channel environment.

 

C.        MAIN OBJECTIVES (KEY PERFORMANCE AREA)

 

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

DELIVERY LEADERSHIP & CAMPAIGN EXECUTION

•Oversee the setup, trafficking, QA, pacing and delivery for all campaigns (direct, partner, programmatic).

●Lead the Ad Ops team in ensuring campaigns launch on time, hit targets, and meet quality standards.

●Resolve high-level trafficking or delivery issues and ensure escalation processes are in place.

 

PROGRAMMATIC + YIELD STRATEGY        

●Develop and execute programmatic strategy: deal types (PMP/PG), floor price policy, yield optimisation across SSPs/DSPs.

●Monitor supply path, auction dynamics (Magnite, Adform), fill rates, eCPM/net revenue by channel/device.

●Implement pricing controls (UPR/floor), segment inventory (geo, device, format) for increased yield.

 

GOVERNANCE, REPORTING & COMPLIANCE    

•Ensure all campaigns are compliant with PFMA, internal policies, partner contracts and ad-tech vendor SLAs.

•Lead reconciliation between ad server/SSP /finance (SAP) to verify delivery vs bookings/invoicing.

•Consolidate reporting across Castoola, Magnite, Adform, and partner systems for unified dashboards.

•Maintain audit-ready documentation and reporting.

 

PARTNER & STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION   

•Serve as the operational link between SABC and its digital sales partners and tech vendors.

•Standardise operational workflows, traction, reporting templates for partners.

•Conduct partner performance reviews, SLA monitoring, training/adoption of tools.

TEAM LEADERSHIP & PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

•Lead and develop the Ad Ops team (Executives, Specialists), build capability.

•Identify process inefficiencies, implement best practices / automation within ad ops workflows.

•Drive continuous improvement in campaign delivery, tech stack, and reporting.

D.          INHERENT REQUIREMENT

FORMAL QUALIFICATIONS:

•NQF 6/7 diploma / degree or equivalent in Marketing, Digital Business, Media, or similar field.

•Additional certification/training in AdTech, Programmatic Advertising or Digital Media preferred.

EXPERIENCE:             

•5-8 years in digital ad operations / campaign management / programmatic environments, with at least 2 years in a leadership or supervisory role.

•Demonstrated experience with ad serving platforms (e.g., Castoola, Google Ad Manager, Xandr, Freewheel), SSPs/DSPs (Magnite, Adform, The Trade Desk, DV360).

•Experience in managing yield, pricing/floor strategy, partner/vendor relationships, and cross-functional teams.

•Proven experience in troubleshooting, trafficking, and reporting across multiple systems.

•Prior exposure to working with external sales partners or agencies is an advantage.

KNOWLEDGE:

•Strong understanding of the digital advertising ecosystem: ad servers, SSPs, DSPs, PMP/PG deal types, real-time bidding, inventory management.

•Excellent analytical skills: able to interpret performance data, identify optimisation opportunities, and translate into strategy.

•Proven ability to design, implement and improve workflows and processes (particularly in campaign delivery and programmatic operations).

•Leadership & stakeholder management skills: able to lead a team, engage with sales, finance, tech & partner teams, and represent operations in senior forums.

•Commercial acumen: understands revenue drivers, pricing, yield optimisation, financial reconciliation and governance.

•Problem-solving orientation: able to identify root causes of delivery or performance issues, propose corrective actions.

•High attention to detail, strong organisational skills, capable of managing multiple campaigns and priorities.