Principal Program Manager

About the Role ProRata.ai http://ProRata.ai is redefining digital advertising for the AI era through patent-pending AI agent technology. Our ProRata Ads platform enables real-time, contextual, prompt-driven advertising that intelligently matches brand objectives with content semantics across Gist.ai http://Gist.ai and premium publisher environments. We are seeking a Principal Program Manager to drive the successful planning, coordination, and delivery of our core AdTech product initiatives. You will serve as the connective tissue across Engineering, Product, Frontend, Business Development, and external partners — ensuring our ad serving infrastructure, agentic workflows, reporting systems, and fraud detection capabilities launch on time, with high quality, and aligned to business impact. This is a high-visibility strategic role ideal for someone who excels at orchestrating complex, technical programs in a fast-moving startup. You will help translate ambitious product visions into executable plans while managing dependencies, risks, and cross-team collaboration in our AI-native advertising platform. Key Responsibilities - Lead end-to-end program planning and execution for major AdTech initiatives, including the ad serving system, agentic backend workflows, campaign/creative management tools, scalable reporting, and fraud detection systems. - Partner closely with the Principal Software Engineering Manager (Tech Lead) and engineering teams to define technical roadmaps, break down epics into actionable milestones, and drive on-time delivery. - Collaborate with the frontend team, Product, and Business Development to align on requirements for campaign management, creative optimization, and advertiser/publisher-facing features. - Manage cross-functional dependencies, risks, and blockers — proactively surfacing issues and coordinating resolutions across Engineering, Product, Design, and external partners (publishers, SSPs, DSPs). - Establish and maintain clear program artifacts: roadmaps, timelines, status reporting, RACI matrices, and success metrics to ensure transparency for leadership and stakeholders. - Drive launch readiness and post-launch activities, including go-to-market coordination, partner integration support, performance monitoring, and iterative improvements. - Facilitate effective working sessions, prioritization decisions, and trade-off discussions between technical constraints and business needs. - Continuously improve program management processes, tools, and best practices as the AdTech platform scales from pilots to production traffic. Qualifications - 8+ years of experience in Program Management, Technical Program Management, or related roles, with a proven track record delivering complex software products at scale. - Experience working in advertising technology (ad serving, programmatic, real-time bidding, or AI-driven ad platforms) is strongly preferred. - Demonstrated ability to manage large-scale technical programs involving distributed systems, low-latency infrastructure, and emerging AI/ML components. - Strong technical fluency — able to understand system architecture, APIs, scalability challenges, and AI concepts (LLMs, agentic workflows, inference) without writing production code. - Excellent project and program management skills, including roadmap planning, risk management, dependency tracking, and stakeholder communication. - Exceptional communication and influence skills — able to align diverse teams (engineering, product, business) and present clearly to executives. - Comfort operating in a startup environment with evolving requirements, high ambiguity, and rapid iteration. - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field (or equivalent experience). Preferred Qualifications - Prior experience with GenAI/LLM-powered products, prompt engineering, or agentic systems. - Background in adtech ecosystems (OpenRTB, header bidding, SSP/DSP integrations, ad quality, fraud detect