Ad Operations Manager

About You

You're detail-oriented to the core, and you catch the small things other people miss. You like fast-moving work, you pick up new tools quickly, and you'd rather teach yourself something than wait for someone to walk you through it. You're hard working and easygoing, the kind of teammate people are glad to have when a campaign needs to go out the door. You care about getting it right, because you know a single trafficking error can cost a client real money.

Share what kind of person thrives in this role—how they think, work, and show up on the team.

About the role

This is a hands-on role at the heart of Tavern's advertising operation. You'll play a lead role in trafficking ads, reporting on how they perform, and quality-checking setups so that nothing goes out with an error. It's detailed work, and it matters. The campaigns we run depend on it being done carefully and on time. This isn't just a trafficking role — you'll also take ownership of cross-channel media planning, helping shape how campaigns are built from the ground up, not just executed.

We value in-person work and would love for you to join us in our South Loop office in Chicago. We're also happy to talk with strong remote candidates.

Responsibilities

• Traffic ads across Meta, Google, programmatic and other platforms.
• Report on ad performance clearly and accurately.
• QA trafficking setups from colleagues to make sure no errors are made.
• Pick up new tools and workflows quickly as the team's needs change.
• Manage sophisticated audience targeting, including first-party audiences built with data vendors.
• Turn campaigns around quickly when the news cycle or a client need calls for it.
• Develop cross-channel media plans.
• Draft clear, sophisticated client reports that connect spend to results.
• Partner with our engineering and product teams to shape new tools for creative production, ad buying, monitoring, and reporting.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of hands-on ad trafficking experience across digital platforms.
• Experience with Meta, Google Ads, and programmatic ads.
• Detail-oriented, capable of self-learning, hard working, and easygoing.
• Comfort with AI tools and Google Drive software.
• Political or campaign experience is a plus, but not required.

To be explicit: you don't need a degree to work here. You just need to be exceptional at what we're asking from you.

Benefits

• Premium health insurance
• Unlimited PTO
• Office closed for all federal holidays
• 401k match
• Equity

Tavern Research is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Ad Operations Manager

Location: Chicago, IL preferred (or remote for extremely well-qualified candidates)

Office: 3 days/week in South Loop office

About Tavern Research

Tavern Research is a political tech startup building tools and insights to help our customers win elections and make better, evidence-based decisions. We specialize in scaling expert human work, such as content generation and survey research to support thoughtful, data-driven civic engagement. We're a venture-backed, mission-driven, fast-moving, and mostly technical team focused on supporting campaigns and organizations working to strengthen democratic participation. We are experimental by design and expect every team member to continuously improve how they work using new tools and technology. Everything else is on ourwebsite. If you still have questions, let us know when you apply!