Head of Advertising Sales & Service

We are hiring a Head of Advertising Sales & Service to join our team located in Washington, D.C.

As the Head of Advertising Sales & Service, you will:

• Lead the advertising business across all publications and markets, directly managing and supporting a team of experienced sellers
• Own all advertising revenue targets: new business, expansion, and campaign effectiveness
• Build a repeatable, scalable sales motion while maintaining the creativity and agility that’s fueled growth to date
• Partner closely with product and marketing to develop new ad units and improve existing ones (starting with newsletters and sponsored events; mobile coming soon)
• Modernize our service offering by improving post-sale delivery, reporting, and insights — including the development of foundational ad ops infrastructure
• Serve as a trusted thought partner to customers, helping them design advocacy-driven campaigns that educate and influence
• Use data and AI tooling to scale performance, uncover patterns, and test creative formats and placements
• Create a unified advertising narrative across our brands, and ensure we show up consistently and professionally to advertisers, agencies, and partners

Essential Qualifications:

• 7+ years of professional work  experience in digital media or ad sales, including team leadership
• Prior professional work experience building or scaling a revenue-generating function from the ground up
• Ability to think strategically and also execute while balancing work activities such as  selling, managing, planning, and doing
• Ability to lead a high-performing sales team while also improving the operational backbone of the function (CRM, reporting, process, etc.)
• Skilled in client communication and campaign delivery, with a service mindset
• Knowledge of advocacy, issue-based marketing, or public affairs-style campaigns

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior professional work experience selling into both agencies and directly to advertisers, across state/local and national segments
• Prior professional work experience with newsletter, event, or sponsorship-style ad products
• Prior professional work experience in packaging multiple media properties or brands into a coherent advertiser value proposition
• Knowledge  of corporate, policy, and/or public sector audiences
• Knowledge of ad ops infrastructure and campaign performance analytics

This is a hybrid work opportunity and our teams operate from the Washington, D.C. office (located at L and 15th St. NW) at least 4 (four) days per week. State Affairs offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package, and a meaningful equity position to employees.

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $161,000 to $181,000 (on-target earnings) for candidates working from the State Affairs office in Washington, D.C. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity.  Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with State Affairs.