Cars.com is looking for a high impact Sr. Analyst to join our Yield Management & Sales Planning team. The team’s primary focus is to identify opportunities for optimization, assist in building operationally scalable products, and consult with sales, product, and other Stakeholders to achieve company sales goals Additionally, the Yield team has a sales strategy component related to packaging and pricing ad inventory, forecasting available inventory, and consulting with sales to develop cohesive client plans to maximize client revenue and achieve company sales goals.

As a key member of the Yield Management team, the ideal candidate will be familiar with the concepts of Online advertising pricing, yield optimization, and ad serving. The Sr. Analyst is responsible for diving deep into our ad serving and inventory data, providing analysis and recommendations based on findings. The Sr. Analyst will also be responsible for creating and maintaining reporting on inventory utilization/consumption, and the Forecasting and Availability lookup process. The Sr. Analyst will work closely with internal and external teams to continually evolve and improve the reporting and analysis capabilities of the team.

The ideal candidate will be able to:

• Create and deliver consistent and impactful results by diving deep into disparate data and translating ad hoc requirements/requests into clear insights and recommendations
• Run, interpret, and share Yield Management performance results with business partners throughout the organization; this includes standardized reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis from a variety of inputs using multiple output methods (Excel, Word, PPT, DFP, Yieldex, Salesforce, Tableau among others)
• Responsible for reporting accuracy and timeliness adherence to deadlines, identifying flaws and errors in the data and managing/correcting upstream data issues
• Partner with Product Management teams to provide revenue and inventory modeling; arming Product managers with data as they test and integrate on strategic site enhancements as well as communicating all planned testing and impacts back to the team
• Serve as a key point of contact with critical external partners/vendors (e.g. Yieldex) and own the Cars.com implementation of these tools
• Lead the maintenance and refinement of seasonal inputs to the forecasting system and run forecasting studies and analysis to ensure models are behaving as expected
• Assist the Sales Planning Team in managing and troubleshooting the forecasting and availability lookup process
• Maintain and refine the sponsorship reservation process and calendar for the national sales team
• Other duties assigned by manager

Required Skills

• Self-starter with strong analytical, critical and creative problem-solving skills with an ability to anticipate problems
• Understanding of website advertising inventory management and analysis, strong understanding of inventory utilization considers a plus
• Familiarity and comfort using statistical methodologies centered around forecasting and analysis, i.e. Standard Error, Standard Deviation, Confidence intervals, etc.
• Able to work with large, complex data sets and derive value and produce clear results
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel) and Data Visualizations tools (Tableau)
• Extreme attention to detail
• Highly organized, with an ability to balance and prioritize multiple tasks
• Superb time management with a continual focus of meeting deadlines in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Required Experience

• BA/BS degree in Business or related field (Finance, Marketing, Accounting, or Economics); MBA or similar degree is considered a plus
• Prior experience in Online/Digital media is strongly preferred (2-4 years)
• Solid understanding of digital ad formats, functionality, and ad serving technology/systems (DFP, Operative, Yieldex, or others) is preferred