Principal Consultant (Commerce & Digital)

VML is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML's specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world's largest and most awarded health agencies. VML's global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.

We are seeking a visionary and distinguished Principal Consultant to influence and drive transformation at the highest levels of our consultancy. This pivotal role offers a unique opportunity to act as a trusted advisor to C-suite global business leaders, shaping the future of our consultancy solutions on a global scale. As a senior figure within our organization, you will mentor and lead our clients and internal teams toward unparalleled success. Your profound industry expertise and collaborative leadership will be crucial in delivering impactful business outcomes, while your dedication to a people-first ethos will cultivate a culture of empowerment, growth, and continuous improvement across our Consultancy team and the entire Business Services department.

Other core elements of this role will be:

• Orchestrating teams with diverse, cross-functional skill sets to collaboratively generate strategic, high-quality solutions to complex client challenges.
• Demonstrating a relentless passion for deciphering and resolving intricate client problems within the dynamic and evolving digital landscape.
• Proactively identifying new opportunities for client support by leveraging deep client insights and extending value beyond the initial engagements.
• Utilizing advanced communication and analytical skills to swiftly dissect client issues, providing clear, actionable strategies in often ambiguous and high-pressure situations.

You will have a distinguished consultancy background or an executive leadership position, demonstrating profound expertise in multiple specialized sectors. Ideally, your experience spans at least 1-2 key industries, such as retail, FMCG/CPG, B2B, or automotive.

Key responsibilities:

• Client Engagement & Relationship Management:

• Operate at C-suite level to engage and lead clients through complex transformational change across truly omni-channel ecosystems.
• Tackle the biggest transformational business questions that lead our clients to global success across experience, technology and organisational change.
• Lead cross-functional engagements, serving as the primary point of contact for senior client stakeholders across a number of our largest clients.
• Build and nurture strong, trusted relationships with clients, understanding their business challenges and objectives.
• Proactively identify and pursue opportunities to expand existing client relationships and generate new business.

• Lead, mentor, and coach the more junior consultants, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment.
• Inspire and empower team members to take ownership, develop their skills, and reach their full potential.
• Promote knowledge sharing and best practices across the team and wider organization.

• Leverage your expertise in eCommerce and specialist sector knowledge (e.g., retail, FMCG/CPG, B2B, automotive) to provide strategic guidance and solutions to clients.
• Confident communicator who can articulately ask questions and actively listen to get to the core of the client problem.
• Being comfortable with 'grey', bringing clarity to ambiguous situations and utilising your advanced problem-solving capability to analyse complex business problems and independently overcome obstacles quickly.
• A lateral thinker who is able to step back to assess the client and ask from a broader perspective.
• Conduct thorough business analysis, identifying pain points, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• A deep understanding of technologies that form a part of digital ecosystems, such as eCommerce platforms, CMS, PIM etc. as well as software delivery methodology including agile.
• Develop and present compelling proposals, roadmaps, and presentations that clearly articulate value propositions and solutions.
• Support the delivery function with business insights to help keep the business & team focussed on outcomes.

• Proactively identify and implement process improvements to enhance team efficiency, output quality, and client satisfaction.
• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices, incorporating relevant learnings into your work.
• Contribute to the development and refinement of internal methodologies, frameworks, and tools.

What we want from you:

• Extensive experience in management or consultancy roles within the e-Commerce domain.
• In-depth specialist sector knowledge in at least 1-2 areas, ideally including retail, FMCG/CPG, B2B, or automotive.
• Proven leadership skills with the ability to effectively lead and motivate cross-functional teams.
• Exceptional relationship-building and networking skills, with a knack for building rapport with senior stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of digital ecosystems and technologies, including e-commerce platforms, CMS, PIM, and agile software delivery methodologies.
• Advanced problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyse complex business problems, think laterally, and develop creative solutions.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and concisely to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Passion for client success and a commitment to exceeding expectations.
• Willingness to travel to client sites within the UK and potentially within the EU.

What we can offer you:

• Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we will also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills.
• We will empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are.
• Permanent only: We offer a great benefits package including a discretionary bonus scheme, training opportunities, competitive pension, medical insurance, life assurance, social events, opportunities to buy and sell holidays, family friendly policies, discounts with hundreds of retailers and much more.

Our culture thrives on our core values, designed for impact-driven individuals: Heart, Brains and Courage. We lead with Heart, fostering empathy and trust where genuine connections and human-centric work flourish. We empower your Brains for innovation, valuing relentless curiosity and collaborative intelligence to solve complex challenges. And we champion Courage, inspiring you to speak up, embrace experimentation, and advocate for bold solutions that push our thinking to be better than yesterday.

Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world's leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands.

We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury's, Selfridges, Shell and Tiffany & Co. We've built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business.

As our business grows internationally, we're looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client's successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team.

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we've adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.