Director, Global Field Operations
The Guardian of Uptime
About Advertima
Advertima is building the missing audience infrastructure that brings the power of digital advertising to the physical world.
Today, most advertising inside physical retail stores still operates like the internet did twenty years ago: static screens, no audience intelligence, and almost no measurable performance. Meanwhile, online advertising evolved into a trillion-dollar ecosystem powered by real-time data, automation, and programmatic infrastructure.
We are changing that.
Global retail leaders such as Walmart, Carrefour, FairPrice, SPAR, EDEKA and other tier-1 retailers are deploying our technology across thousands of stores. Together, we are defining a completely new category.
Our technology transforms physical retail environments into real-time, data-driven media channels. Using computer vision, edge computing, and distributed AI systems, we translate physical shoppers into anonymized digital audiences that can be measured, targeted, and activated in real time. This is an extremely hard engineering and deep tech problem.
Our platform operates across large fleets of edge AI devices deployed globally, processes real-world data in real time, and integrates with complex cloud infrastructure and the global adtech ecosystem — all while ensuring that the resulting data can be trusted, interpreted, and used to make high-stakes commercial decisions.
At the same time, everything we build follows a strict privacy-by-design philosophy. Our systems operate without storing personal data or images, while still enabling the audience intelligence required for real-time performance media. This approach, rooted in Switzerland’s strong privacy culture, has become one of the key reasons global retailers trust Advertima to power their next-generation Retail Media infrastructure.
This is not a theoretical vision or an incremental improvement. It is the creation of a completely new global technology standard.
But building the technology is only one part of the equation.
Operating it reliably in the physical world across thousands of devices, stores, and partners is just as critical. Our systems run inside live retail environments, where uptime, calibration, connectivity, and data quality directly impact commercial performance and customer trust.
At scale, operational quality becomes product quality. If the fleet degrades, the product degrades. This infrastructure must work consistently, globally, and without friction.
That is why we are building a world class global field operations function.
Job Overview
We are looking for a Director, Global Field Operations to own the operational stability of Advertima’s global hardware fleet.
Our platform runs on a distributed network of edge devices deployed across thousands of retail locations and touchpoints worldwide. These systems power real-time audience measurement and activation and must be online, calibrated, and producing reliable data at all times.
Your responsibility is simple to describe but hard to execute. Everything must work.
You own uptime and operational readiness of the entire fleet, from installation to daily performance at scale. Fleet health directly determines commercial performance, customer trust, and data integrity.
You ensure that every device is operational and delivering reliable data. You detect and resolve issues early before they become customer problems. You lead a global network of integrators and field service partners and define clear operational standards across regions.
You coordinate closely with engineering, customer success, and procurement, and build the processes and systems required to scale reliably. You operate in imperfect environments, deal with incomplete information, and meet high expectations from global customers.
This role exists to ensure the fleet never becomes a liability. Success means the fleet runs reliably, and issues are resolved before they are visible.
If you take ownership and care deeply about systems working in the real world, this role puts you at the core of making a new global infrastructure actually function.
The Role
Day-to-day, the role sits at the intersection of three groups:
- Engineering — who build and maintain the software and firmware running on the fleet
- Local integrators — the global network of installation and field service partners who physically touch the devices
- CUS Managers — who own the customer relationship and communicate with retailers when issues arise
This role owns the operational engine that prevents negative customer conversations and provides the technical depth when escalations require it.
This role coordinates with procurement on replacement logistics and fleet availability.
Core Responsibilities
Fleet Monitoring & Uptime
- Maintain real-time monitoring covering device health, connectivity, and data output quality across the entire global fleet
- Detect and triage outages, communication gaps, and anomalies across all regions
- Own the fleet uptime KPI
- Report uptime performance internally and to customers
- Continuously refine monitoring tools and observability infrastructure; define improved device health metrics with engineering; drive development of fleet-level dashboards and alerting systems at store, region, and network level
Data Quality Monitoring
- Monitor not just whether devices are online, but whether they are producing reliable, accurate data
- Act as the first line of detection for data quality issues: wrong sensor angles, miscalibrations, corrupted audience counts
- Escalate analytically complex data quality issues to the Senior Data Scientist for deeper investigation
- Distinguish clearly between hardware-driven data failures and software or model-level issues
Incident Coordination
- Coordinate troubleshooting with local integrators globally when devices fail or underperform
- Manage device replacements, repairs, and returns — including logistics, shipping, and customs where required
- Escalate systemic or recurring failures to engineering with structured root cause documentation
- Support CUS Managers with technical context during customer-facing escalations when required
Firmware & Software Update Management
- Own the firmware update process globally: from scheduling and communication through to completion tracking and audit
- Coordinate with engineering on readiness and with Customer Success and Account Management on per-customer sign-off before any update reaches a live environment
- Ensure no update is deployed to a customer's fleet without appropriate approvals, particularly during active campaign periods
- Maintain a clear audit trail of firmware versions deployed across all sites and regions
Site Acceptance & Fleet Onboarding
- Design and own a formal site acceptance process — the structured handover from the Delivery Director once physical installation is complete
- Define the technical criteria a site must meet before entering the live fleet: sensor calibration, connectivity validation, data output verification, and zone configuration
- Own the sign-off that brings a new site live, ensuring what enters the fleet is production-ready from day one
Integrator Network Management
- Serve as the primary operational interface for the global network of local installation and field service integrators
- Define and enforce operational standards, response time expectations, and quality requirements across the network
- Coordinate integrator activity for incident response, replacements, and new site readiness
What You Bring
Background
- Operations management of IoT device fleets or distributed physical IT infrastructure
- Experience working with field service or installation partner networks at scale
- Hardware fleet management in retail, digital out-of-home, or connected device environments
- Exposure to firmware lifecycle management and structured release processes
- Experience defining and owning operational KPIs in a customer-facing technology environment
Tooling Familiarity
Advertima doesn't require all of these, but familiarity with comparable tools is a strong advantage.
- Remote device management / MDM platforms (e.g. Balena, Mender, AWS IoT Greengrass, or similar)
- Network monitoring and observability tools (e.g. Grafana, Datadog, Zabbix, or similar)
- Field service coordination and ticketing (e.g. Jira, ServiceNow, or similar)
How You Work
- Operationally relentless: you derive genuine satisfaction from a system running perfectly, and genuine urgency when it doesn't
- Process builder: comfortable designing structure where none exists, disciplined enough to enforce it consistently
- Technically grounded: able to diagnose hardware and connectivity issues without routing everything through engineering
- Cross-functional coordinator: effective at managing dependencies across engineering, commercial, and field teams without direct authority over any of them
- Data-oriented: understands that this role's output is not just uptime, but the quality of the data the fleet produces
- Globally minded: comfortable operating across time zones, cultures, and regulatory environments without losing operational discipline
Why Advertima Vision?
- Innovative Environment: Join a team combining computer vision, IoT, edge computing, and real-time data pipelines to build enterprise-grade tech that transforms retail and advertising. We model complex enterprise processes and stakeholder networks, applying AI to drive real-world business impact.
- Global Impact: Collaborate with some of the world’s largest retailers and lead the charge in shaping the future of unified omnichannel Retail Media.
- Professional Growth: Your role won’t be static. As Advertima grows, we’ll create new leadership and specialist roles, giving you a chance to lead those new opportunities. Your work will have a direct impact on our growth trajectory.
- Supportive Culture: Be part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence, without the corporate fluff.
- Fast-Paced and International Startup Environment: Work in a high-growth scale-up environment where we combine flexibility with scalable processes to meet the complex demands of global Retail and AdTech industries.
- Flexible Work Policies: Hybrid work environment with the flexibility to balance your personal and professional life.
- Employee Participation Plan: Benefit from our employee participation plan, so your success is directly tied to our company’s success.
- Self-Development Budget: Get your own budget for professional development, learning, and growth.
What You Need for a Cultural Fit
- Self-Management: You take ownership and responsibility without waiting for direction.
- Adaptability and Motivation: You are adaptable, self-motivated, and enjoy working independently as well as collaboratively.
- Hands-On Approach: You roll up your sleeves to solve problems and remove obstacles for yourself and your team.
- Curiosity and Learning: You have a curious mind and continuously deepen your understanding of tech, the industry, and where our company is heading. You are willing to ask questions and learn from diverse sources to stay ahead of your industry and specialization.
- Tech-Savvy: ClickUp, shared calendars, AI collaboration tools—this is your normal work environment and essential for success in our hybrid work environment.
- In-Person Collaboration: You value face-to-face exchanges at the office and at team events, which are important to build strong interpersonal relationships and improve creative work outcomes.
- Cross-Functional Teamwork: You’re comfortable collaborating across teams and engaging in open, direct conversations.
- Feedback Culture: You give and receive direct feedback naturally; it’s how we get better, together.
- You are a Game Changer: You want to shape things, not just manage them. You seek opportunities to break the status quo and build something better.
Please submit your application via this page or send your resume and a cover letter outlining your qualifications and vision for the role to [email protected]