Programmatic Senior Associate Director

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth.

About EssenceMediacom: A Leading WPP Media Brand. EssenceMediacom is a new breed of media agency. Grounded in analytics & insights and powered by data & technology, we believe in the power of media and creative to drive breakthroughs for the world’s best brands. We help clients understand the modern marketing paradox and discover the breakthroughs brands need to win with their consumers.

Role Summary and Impact: We are a team of approximately 150 people working on a mix of clients such as Coca Cola, Dell, Adidas, Google, and Mastercard. We are now looking for the new Programmatic Senior Associate Director to come and join the growing Programmatic team based in London.

The Programmatic Senior Associate Director provides day-to-day leadership to their direct team, both locally and our Global Operations Centre. You will ensure on-going and timely optimisation is delivered whilst constantly looking for opportunities to improve campaign performance to ensure that we are delivering programmatic excellence for our clients.

• Campaign Management: Take a proactive role in providing day to day activation guidance and coaching to your direct team of activation experts to deliver programmatic excellence for your clients. Drive understanding of the products and solutions that could be relevant for clients that have been developed within the group. Ensure that the team is using templates to prove methodologies for optimisation approach for key trading tactics and optimisation logs. Escalation points for your direct team on activation issues and challenges and any conflict between best practice and client requirements and asks. Understand when to elevate issues to your director.
• Client and Partner Management: Responsibility of client interaction and the success of the relationship, with a focus on key strategic relationship, and team operations/deliverables. Agree and set business objectives for each client and review campaign performance against these objectives. Create/design programmatic strategy for client portfolio, ensuring strategy is clear and most appropriate to the client's objectives, KPIs and client's industry. Drive revenue growth through spotting new optimisation opportunities, services or products and delivering excellent results. Develop strong relationships with media owners and other service providers to guide team in developing their understanding of the ecosystem.
• People Management: The ability to manage, motivate and train individuals, in line with business requirements, resource, and development needs. Ensure individuals workloads are managed and prioritised in line with client needs and SLAs. To be responsible for the team’s development, their reviews, and objectives. Identifying training requirements within a formal plan over an annual period. Highlight great teamwork, and client initiatives. Demonstrate examples of Programmatic best practice to the wider team and contribute to department and wider agency communications. Ensure output and relationship with GOC team is maintained to expected standards.
• Operational Excellence: The appropriate use of tools to drive accountability in programmatic buying, operational efficiencies, and actionable business insights, with the scoping of agreed client outputs. Ensure financial accuracy, integrating the planning and buying process, and reconciliation of spends, including client terms and programmatic fees, via buying templates and processes. Ensure team maintains standards and process throughout the end-to-end campaign lifecycle. Develop productive relationships with key internal departments and help develop new revenue opportunities through matching client needs to resource and facilitate introductions. Understand and promote the function and value of the other departments within the Agency and its partners within the group.

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.

Passionate about programmatic activation and driving continued excellence, with proven experience in multi-channel campaign activation and management. Experience in developing and leading client relationships. Exceptional people management skills, including support and development of junior team members. Confidence in core DSPs: DV360, TTD and Amazon. An understanding of how Programmatic can integrate with other digital and offline channels. Ability to translate technical and complex points to non-technical audiences and coach others to do the same. Ability to develop and execute comprehensive testing roadmaps in the Programmatic space – audience, media, creative. Ability to lead and manage a hybrid team located in different markets.

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.