GOC | Senior Director, Client Lead

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.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

As part of the Global Operations Centre (GOC), you will work closely with teams across the United States, Europe, and Asia to deliver high-impact solutions in a collaborative, multicultural environment. We are looking for a Senior Director, Client Lead.

Act as the primary GOC strategic partner and senior lead for cross-channel media planning and activation for key global and multi-market clients (e.g., Google, Colgate, Ford, etc.).
Drive client outcome growth by ensuring media planning excellence, applying performance-led principles, data-informed insights, advanced analytics, and optimization strategies to maximize ROI.
Own end-to-end strategic stewardship across planning and activation, ensuring robust plans are executable, activated as intended, and continually optimized to achieve client business objectives.
Serve as a trusted advisor and senior cross-channel subject-matter expert to client stakeholders, nurturing long-term relationships and providing strategic guidance on media solutions, business challenges, and market dynamics.
Lead senior-level planning and activation discussions, demonstrating deep business acumen and strategic expertise to synthesize diverse inputs and drive alignment across stakeholders.
Maintain a future-forward perspective, staying ahead of media and technology trends to proactively identify emerging opportunities and develop innovative, impactful solutions for clients.
Establish, scale, and lead the long-term evolution of the cross-channel Media Planning discipline within the Polish GOC. This includes defining role profiles, competency frameworks, quality standards, and career paths.
Identify capability gaps within GOC planning and activation teams, implementing targeted development, upskilling, or hiring initiatives to address them.
Provide leadership and oversight for planning talent, fostering high performance and career progression through consistent development approaches, evaluation, and coaching.
Build and maintain robust planning governance, including methodologies, templates, and quality assurance standards, to ensure consistency, scalability, and excellence of all planning outputs.
Champion a data-driven planning culture, fostering continuous improvement, knowledge sharing, and best-practice exchange within the GOC planning community.
Operate effectively within a complex, matrixed organizational environment, providing leadership through influence and partnership across GOC, client, planning, and activation teams.
Collaborate closely with in-market client leadership, activation leads, and regional stakeholders to ensure seamless translation of strategic intent into planning outputs and efficient execution delivery.
Act as a senior counterpart to Activation Directors and Leads, promoting shared accountability for client outcomes and fostering strong inter-disciplinary collaboration across disciplines.
Enable effective communication and knowledge sharing between GOC planning and activation teams and market teams, ensuring clarity, alignment, and continuous improvement in workflow and integration.
Partner with senior stakeholders to proactively identify and address gaps, risks, or misalignments in processes, contributing to the development of action plans and improvement frameworks.

 

12+ years of progressive experience in paid media, media planning, activation, strategy, or consulting, with significant leadership and accountability roles.
Proven expertise in digital media, adtech, martech, and data platforms, coupled with a sophisticated understanding of the media investment and agency ecosystem.
Demonstrated capability in building and scaling a media planning discipline, including defining roles, developing talent, and implementing performance management within a GOC or similar multi-market delivery environment.
Extensive experience managing complex, multi-market accounts, with a track record of delivering measurable business outcomes and fostering senior client relationships in matrixed environments.
Deep knowledge of multi-practice area/industry trends and their impact on client businesses, fluent in diverse media strategies that integrate brand building with performance marketing principles.
Exceptional communication skills (written and verbal), with the ability to convey complex narratives persuasively and compellingly to senior stakeholders.
Strong leadership presence, adept at influencing and collaborating effectively across all seniority levels, with empathy and credibility.
Experience overseeing technology and/or operations transformation programs is highly desirable.