Head of Advertising (Product)

Advertising plays a vital role in funding our journalism and supporting our global reach. At the same time, The Economist is a subscription-led, editorial-driven product, and advertising must be delivered in a way that respects audience trust, protects the reader experience and upholds our brand. 

We are seeking a Head of Ad Productto lead the strategy, technical ownership and delivery of advertising products across The Economist’s digital ecosystem. 

This role sits within the Product organisation, reporting to the VP, Engagement, to ensure that advertising products are developed with a strong product mindset - balancing commercial value with user experience, editorial integrity and long-term sustainability. It will have a dotted line to the Global Head of Advertising. 

The role

The Principal Product Manager / Head of Ad Product will be accountable for the end-to-end advertising product portfolio across The Economist’s owned and operated platforms. 

You will own the advertising product vision and roadmap, and provide technical product leadership across the advertising technology stack spanning web, mobile app, newsletters, Espresso and future surfaces. 

A core responsibility of this role is balance: ensuring advertising is an integrated, high-quality part of a subscription-first ecosystem - effective for advertisers, operationally sound for the business, and appropriate within a premium editorial experience. 

You will lead the evolution of advertising products that make responsible, privacy-safe use of The Economist’s first-party data, enabling relevant, high-value advertising while maintaining audience trust and complying with regulatory requirements. 

You will manage and lead a cross-functional product squad and work in close partnership with the Global Head of Advertising, who is your primary commercial stakeholder. Together, you will shape how advertising evolves at The Economist, while this role remains accountable for product quality, platform integrity and user experience.

Responsibilities 

• Own the product vision and roadmap for advertising across The Economist’s digital products. 
• Manage and prioritise the advertising product backlog, leading a dedicated product squad. 
• Define how advertising fits coherently within a subscription-led, editorial-first ecosystem. 
• Lead technical product ownership of the advertising stack across web, app, newsletters and Espresso. 
• Define how first-party datais responsibly leveraged to support targeting, measurement and performance - in line with privacy, consent and trust expectations. 
• Ensure advertising products are scalable, performant, privacy-compliant and future-ready. 
• Partner closely with the Global Head of Advertising to translate commercial strategy into product capabilities. 
• Lead the discovery, design, delivery and optimisation of advertising formats, sponsorships and integrations. 
• Set clear standards for ad quality, placement, relevance and user experience. 
• Work with engineering teams to define architecture and integrations that balance optimal ad delivery with uncompromised content performance and user experience. ● 
• Partner with Revenue Operations to streamline ad-related workflows and reduce operational complexity. 
• Own relationships with key ad tech vendors and platforms, ensuring they support first-party-data-led strategies. 
• Establish feedback loops between sales, editorial, product and operations to drive continuous improvement.
• Communicate product strategy, trade-offs and progress clearly to senior stakeholders.

Who you are

• Senior product leader: Significant experience owning complex, platform-level products. 
• Ad tech fluent: Deep understanding of digital advertising systems, including first-party data-driven models. 
• Product-first mindset: Strong judgement about balancing monetisation with user experience and trust. 
• Technically confident: Comfortable engaging deeply with engineers on architecture, data flows and trade-offs. 
• Data-aware: Experience working with audience data, consent frameworks and measurement systems. 
• Strategic thinker: Able to set direction while driving execution through teams. 
• Commercially aware: Understands how advertising products deliver value for clients and the business. 
• Collaborative: Effective partner to editorial, sales, operations and technology leaders. 
• Clear communicator: Able to explain complex decisions to technical and non-technical audiences. 
• Pragmatic and decisive: Comfortable making prioritisation decisions in a live, high-impact environment. 

Domain knowledge 

• Experience working with ad servers, programmatic platforms and sponsorship products. 
• Strong understanding of first-party data strategiesin premium or subscription-led environments.
• Familiarity with privacy, consent, identity and regulatory requirements in digital advertising. 
• Experience delivering products across multiple platforms (web, app, email).
• Enthusiasm for The Economist’s mission and editorial standards.

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