---
title: 'Senior Director, Programmatic at Known'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-programmatic-known-new-york-rabqzq2ckbeg'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Senior Director, Programmatic at Known

- **Company:** Known
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Posted:** 2026-08-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/known/jobs/8728811002

## Job description

WE HAVE CREATED A WORLD WHERE ART AND SCIENCE ARE BEST FRIENDS

[Known](https://known.is/) is what happens when a data science firm and a creative agency stop arguing and start collaborating. We were built from scratch with PhD data scientists and award-winning creatives working on the same briefs, from day one. That structure earned us an Ad Age #3 A-List ranking, back-to-back Data & Insights Agency of the Year wins, plus Emmys, Cannes Lions, Clios, and Effies across clients in finance, tech, entertainment, consumer goods, and real estate. We're distributed across the U.S. and unapologetically ambitious.

If you're tired of choosing between doing smart work and doing creative work, you'll fit right in here.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT US, LET'S TALK ABOUT YOU

About the role:

Known's Media Science team uses analytics, machine learning, and statistics to plan and optimize advertising dollars. We work with clients to turn business goals into measurable outcomes, then buy media across every channel to hit them. The math tells us what's working. The magic is knowing what a brand should look and feel like while it works. This job requires both.

As Senior Director, Programmatic, you own performance and optimization for your campaigns, and you protect the brand while you do it. You lead programmatic team members through daily account management, strategy, performance tracking against goals, and deadlines.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Own the programmatic discipline at Known: its P&L, growth targets, service offering, and reputation in the market.
- Set the strategic direction for programmatic across the client portfolio, and make the calls on where the practice invests and where it doesn't.
- Build and lead the organization. Hire senior leaders, design the team structure, own succession planning, and develop the managers who develop everyone else.
- Serve as the senior programmatic voice with client executives, including C-suite and CMO relationships, and own the health of those partnerships.
- Drive new business. Lead programmatic strategy in pitches, shape scopes and pricing, and identify organic growth opportunities across existing accounts.
- Set the R&D agenda for automation, measurement, and machine learning, and decide which bets get funded.
- Own the vendor and partner strategy, including DSP and data partnerships, commercial negotiations, and preferred-partner decisions.
- Define the operating standards for the practice: campaign setup, QA, optimization frameworks, and reporting. Hold the organization to them.
- Partner with leaders across search, social, analytics, and strategy to make programmatic work as part of an integrated media approach rather than a silo.
- Represent Known externally through industry speaking, published thinking, and partner relationships.
- Act as the final escalation point on the most complex client and performance issues.
- Report on the practice's performance to agency leadership, including revenue, margin, client retention, and team health.
- Own the programmatic and video strategy, including CTV, online video, and audio, for every buy that runs through biddable channels. Decide which formats and inventory the practice leads with and which it walks away from.
- Balance performance and brand in how the practice buys. Efficiency targets get met, and the media plan still lands the brand in environments a CMO would be proud to see it in. You set where that line sits and defend it with clients when cheap impressions look tempting.
- Define the quality standards for inventory and measurement: brand suitability, viewability, fraud thresholds, and supply path decisions. Make the tradeoff between reach and quality an explicit choice rather than a default.

## WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU HAVE

- 12+ years in programmatic media, with at least 5 years leading teams and experience managing managers.
- A track record of building a practice or discipline, not just running campaigns. You've grown headcount, revenue, or both.
- Deep experience across verticals and both direct response and brand campaigns, including enterprise-scale budgets.
- Substantial experience buying video programmatically, including CTV, OLV, and audio, and a view on where those dollars should sit relative to linear and direct publisher deals.
- Experience running campaigns where brand outcomes carried real weight, not only cost-per-action. You've set inventory quality standards and held to them when a cheaper path was available.
- Proven ability to own executive client relationships and defend strategy in the room.
- Experience with new business: pitch leadership, scoping, and pricing.
- Fluency in how programmatic connects to search, social, SEO, mobile, and attribution, plus a point of view on where measurement is heading.
- Hands-on background in The Trade Desk or DV360, with enough command of the platforms to pressure-test your team's work.
- A degree from a well-regarded college or university.

SKILLS, ABILITIES, AND KNOWLEDGE

- Command of the statistics and math behind media buying, and the ability to explain both to a non-technical executive.
- Executive-level communication and presentation skills.
- Expertise designing high-performance programmatic campaigns, including allocation, measurement design, and scaling budgets.
- Skill in building video and CTV plans that hold up on both counts: reach and frequency a brand team recognizes, efficiency a performance team accepts.
- Working knowledge of brand measurement, including lift studies, incrementality testing, and brand suitability tools, and the judgment to know which one answers the question in front of you.
- Commercial fluency: pricing, margin, and resourcing models.
- Experience working closely with data scientists and engineers on product or tooling development.
- Comfort going in-platform when the situation calls for it.

## COMPETENCIES

- You translate ambiguous business challenges into quantitative problems and get them solved.
- You hold the line on brand quality when the efficiency math argues for cheaper inventory, and you can explain the tradeoff to a CMO and a CFO in the same meeting.
- You build leaders. Your former reports have been promoted, and you can name them.
- You make decisions with incomplete information and own the outcome.
- You hold a high bar on analytical rigor and accuracy, in your work and everyone else's.
- You work across functions without turf battles.

## SOME OF OUR PERKS

- Unlimited paid time off
- 401k with company matching and no vesting period
- Annual bonuses
- Generous medical plan
- Paid parental leave

## ONE LAST THING TO ASK YOURSELF

All this might sound great, but you’re probably still wondering, “Would I be a good fit for Known?” or “Would Known be a good fit for me?” Our culture is propped up by four values that we aspire to every day: We are one team. We see the good. We never stop learning. There’s always a better way. At Known we are setting out to build something more than just a company. We are building a legacy filled with exceptionally talented people with a kaleidoscope of backgrounds, experiences, and origin stories who feel encouraged and empowered to bring their whole selves to work, and to partner with us in molding and shaping our culture through our values.

Known is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against employees or qualified job applicants on the basis of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or locally protected class.

The base salary for this position is $170K - $185K.

This range is posted in compliance with state and municipal Pay Transparency laws. In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible to receive additional Known benefits.

## #LI-RR1

## About Known

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Known is a modern marketing company that pairs PhD data scientists with award-winning creatives to produce science-led marketing solutions for leading brands.
- **Entity Type**: Private
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, USA
- **Founded**: 2020
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Marketing & Advertising, Data Science, Creative Services
- **Target customers**: B2B, enterprise-level brands in finance, technology, media, CPG, real estate, and other sectors
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To produce marketing that is rooted in science, designed to succeed, persistently optimized, and profoundly impactful for clients’ businesses [known.is](https://known.is/about)

## Products & Services
- **Science-Led Creative & Media Agency**: An end-to-end marketing service combining data science, strategy, and creative production. The agency offers market research, data analytics, media planning/buying, brand strategy, and creative development.
- **Data Science & Analytics**: Teams of PhD-level data scientists who power campaign optimization, audience insights, and measurement.
- **Media Services**: Media planning, programmatic buying, ad operations, and search marketing.
- **Creative Studios**: In-house creative teams producing copy, art direction, design, and experiential marketing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: ~478 total employees; 450+ on the careers page
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly available; clients include leading brands in finance, technology, media, CPG, real estate (specific client names not disclosed)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of ~478 within 5 years of founding (2020); recognized with multiple industry awards including Emmys, Clios, Effies, Cannes Lions, Digiday’s Most Innovative Media Agency, and ProMax Agency of the Year [known.is](https://known.is/about); active hiring across data science, software engineering, strategy, and creative roles [job-boards.greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/known)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Science-Creative Integration**: A unique model that pairs PhD data scientists with award-winning creatives, treating marketing as a blend of empirical science and artistic craft.
- **Proprietary Data & AI Capabilities**: Deep expertise in data science and generative AI, with dedicated data scientist roles focused on AI.
- **Award-Winning Output**: Consistently recognized by top industry awards (Emmy, Clio, Cannes Lions, Effies), signaling creative excellence.
- **End-to-End Offering**: Covers strategy, research, media, and creative under one roof, providing clients with integrated, transparent solutions.

## Strategic Focus
- **Generative AI Integration**: Actively hiring for Data Scientist roles with a Generative AI focus, indicating investment in AI-powered marketing solutions.
- **Data Science Leadership**: Continued emphasis on data-driven decision making and advanced analytics as a core differentiator.
- **Talent Expansion**: Growing headcount across engineering (Senior Software Engineer, Software Engineer), data science, and creative director roles, signaling an expansion of both technical and creative capabilities.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture Highlights**: Known emphasizes a collaborative, curious, and innovative culture. The company describes the collaborative energy as “Known Sauce” and holds company-wide retreats. They incorporate “days of giving” and pro-bono client work for social impact [known.is](https://known.is/culture).
- **Remote/Hybrid/Office Policy**: Hybrid workspace. Most employees work in a hybrid setting near major offices (New York, Los Angeles, Cambridge). Some roles (like Senior Manager, Product and Sr. Copywriter) are remote; others are location-specific [job-boards.greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/known). Offices feature open-concept indoor/outdoor spaces, coffee/tea bars, and free team lunches [known.is](https://known.is/culture).
- **Notable Perks**: Unlimited PTO (with a culture encouraging actual time off), generous medical insurance (free employee-only coverage), pet insurance, professional development through speaker series and mentorship programs, and access to industry events [known.is](https://known.is/culture).
- **Engineering Culture**: Uses modern tech stack including Python, TypeScript, Docker, Kubernetes, BigQuery, Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, and Tornado [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/known). Teams work on data science, media optimization, and AI applications.

## Sources
1. [known.is](https://known.is/about) - Company overview and mission
2. [known.is](https://known.is/culture) - Culture, perks, and employee experience
3. [job-boards.greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/known) - Current job openings and hiring details
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/known) - Company profile, employee count, tech stack, and office locations
5. [theorg.com](https://theorg.com/org/known-is) - Org chart, leadership, and office distribution

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