Commerce Strategy Lead in London

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

OpenMind by WPP is an integrated agency model drawing on talent from across WPP. It has been created to accelerate the European transformation for Nestlé’s media function. Core to the solution is the advanced best data and technology capabilities, fuelled by WPP’s investment in AI, to maximise the impact of Nestlé media investment. This role is for the OpenMind team for Nestlé Europe.

With 47 countries, +450 team members, and regular new product launches, the account is looking for a Commerce Strategy Lead to provide strong eCommerce and Retail Media leadership for in-scope Nestlé categories, supporting the ZEUR RDM Lead. The role is responsible for operationalising best practices, developing commerce solutions, and delivering Nestlé business objectives.

Role Summary and Impact

We are seeking a highly collaborative and results-oriented Commerce Lead, to lead the coordination and alignment of Nestlé’s UK Retail Digital Media (RDM) strategies and End-to-End Commerce initiatives. This role is pivotal in ensuring seamless execution by orchestrating efforts across internal teams, retailers, and external partners. As part of this role, you will act as the central point of contact, bringing together stakeholders from marketing, commercial, analytics, and customer teams to deliver cohesive and impactful commerce activations. You’ll ensure that all parties are aligned on strategy, objectives, and execution plans, driving measurable outcomes such as increased basket incidence, transaction uplift, and consumer recruitment.

This is an exciting opportunity to work at the intersection of strategy and execution, enabling Nestlé to lead in retail innovation while fostering collaboration across diverse teams and markets.

Responsibilities:

• Orchestrating Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as the central coordinator for RDM and E2E Commerce initiatives, ensuring alignment across marketing, commercial, analytics, and customer teams within OpenMind's commerce, data/strategy and planning teams. Facilitate regular touchpoints and workshops to align stakeholders on campaign objectives, timelines, and roles. Partner with the wider trade and shopper marketing teams to ensure customer-specific strategies are executed effectively. Serve as the primary liaison between Nestlé and external partners (retailers, agencies, retail media platforms), ensuring smooth communication and collaboration.
• Strategic Planning & Alignment: Lead the orchestration of RDM activation plans, ensuring they align with Nestlé’s broader consumer recruitment and revenue growth objectives. Work closely with analytics teams to ensure data-driven insights inform campaign planning and execution. Advocate for a unified approach to pre-store, in-store, and post-shop activation, ensuring all touchpoints are seamlessly integrated.
• Driving Execution Excellence: Oversee the deployment of RDM campaigns, ensuring timely and effective execution by coordinating with relevant teams, such as Digital, AV and Commerce at OpenMind. Support customer teams in negotiating incremental off-shelf placements and in-store visibility enhancements as part of RDM activations. Monitor campaign progress and address roadblocks by facilitating quick decision-making among stakeholders.
• Scaling & Knowledge Sharing: Document and share best practices from successful RDM and E2E Commerce activations to drive scalability. Foster a culture of learning by organising post-campaign reviews and incorporating feedback into future planning cycles.
• Measurement & Continuous Improvement: Collaborate with analytics teams to track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as basket incidence, transaction uplift, and ROI. Provide actionable insights to stakeholders based on campaign performance data, ensuring continuous optimisation. Work with the OpenMind Data and Analytics teams to enhance measurement frameworks and enable closed-loop reporting.

Skills and Experience

• 8+ years of experience in commerce across paid media, trade strategy, retail, consulting, and/or analytics.
• Ability to execute effective strategic plans that achieve business objectives.
• Experience managing direct reports.
• Drive to learn and understand the retail landscape and the latest trends in commerce media.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex ideas.
• Deep understanding of retail commercial elements such as profit margin, inventory levels, forecasting, and demand planning to inform media decisions.
• Deep understanding of how different media channels work together and how retail media fits within the wider ecosystem.
• Experience with retail bid management platforms, such as Pacvue.
• Experience in campaign management and optimisation across multiple retail platforms (Amazon, Criteo, etc.).
• Ability to collaborate and work effectively with internal teams and external partners.
• A self-starter attitude that thrives in a fast-paced environment.
• Attention to detail.
• To have an opinion and be able to voice it in a clear and positive light.

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular 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. 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 around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location.