Head of Productivity, Commercials and Operations

With a history that dates back over 80 years,Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the centre of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, we are the flagship Publicis Media agency that uses our ‘Power of One’ business model, with teams that span multiple disciplines across clients such as Aldi, P&G, P&O Ferries, Primark, Samsung, Stellantis, and Visa. 

We place a huge focus on our People and have driven flagship D&I and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential and we encourage everyone to make “Brave Plays” in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work for three years in a row (2021, 2022 and 2023) and most excitingly, Media Week's Agency of the Year 2023!

What will you be doing?

As Head of Operations at PGOne, you will be responsible for delivering operational excellence. You’ll be expected to identify and drive efficiencies by evolving and streamlining processes through automation, simplification, deduplication and standardisation.

You will need to understand key business issues and find solutions to overcome them and be able to rationalise your decisions. Change management can be challenging to roll out, so it’s imperative to build and maintain strong internal relationships across multiple teams and departments.

A key part of the role is to monitor the output of the Operations team who perform all financial administrative tasks relating to approval, booking, reconciliation, invoicing and reporting of campaigns across all media. Leadership of the 8 team members is critical, and you’ll be required to manage their development, training and motivation.

Move People

You will have the chance to be a major contributor in shaping the culture of the teams that work in the agency. Under this goal, you’ll:

• Build strong, trusted relationships with key clients, ensuring you’re their first port of call for anything and everything
• Be an inspiring leader for the team you work with
• Have day to day management of a team of 8 operations executives & managers who are responsible for campaign booking and reconciliation
• Foster a culture of learning and self-improvement, setting clear progression plans for your team, encouraging Brave Plays in the way the team approach their work and their own career development (and count on the same support from your own line manager).

Move Business

Operational excellence is a key pillar for P&G and something that is a key driver of their business. Under this banner, you’ll be responsible for:

• Oversight on financial diligence for the operations team, maintaining 100% record for operational excellence
• KPI tracking and adherence to KPI tolerance
• Revenue Tracking & PO management - keeping a log of all POs that are raised, issuing instructions to finance team for related billings and inputting revenue into the annual tracker
• Reporting unbilled media amounts to P&G
• Proactively interrogate processes and procedures to identify where improvements can be made
• Oversight on quarterly stewardship audits
• ABACUS (campaign booking robot) oversight and future proofing development sprints
• Stewardship SPOC - responsible for compliance with P&G's stewardship principles and annual agency stewardship training

What are we looking for?

In order to be successful in this role, you’ll have significant experience in an operations role, ideally in a media environment.  In addition to this, we’ll prioritise candidates who have the majority of the below skills and experience:

• Experience in developing and executing workflow processes
• An entrepreneurial mindset with outstanding organisational and leadership skills
• Strong, structured communicator bringing energy, determination and proactivity
• A drive to execute new ideas and be at the forefront of new industry developments
• Confidence and ability to interrogate processes and develop new, more efficient ways of working Critical thinker and problem-solver
• Ability to translate complex messages in a straightforward and simple manner
• Adept at interpreting data and identifying themes and inconsistencies
• Knowledge of MediaOcean applications, especially Prisma is desired
• Understanding of Excel macros / VBA development or Python is preferred

Starcom has fantastic benefits on offer to all of our employees. In addition to the classics, Pension, Life Assurance, Private Medical and Income Protection Planswe also offer;

• WORK YOUR WORLD opportunity to work anywhere in the world, where there is a Publicis office, for up to 6 weeks a year.
• REFLECTION DAYS - Two additional days of paid leave to step away from your usual day-to-day work and create time to focus on your well-being and self-care.
• HELP@HAND BENEFITS 24/7 helpline to support you on a personal and professional level. Access to remote GPs, mental health support and CBT. Wellbeing content and lifestyle coaching.
• FAMILY FRIENDLY POLICIES We provide 26 weeks of full pay for the following family milestones: Maternity. Adoption, Surrogacy and Shared Parental Leave.
• FLEXIBLE WORKING, BANK HOLIDAY SWAP & BIRTHDAY DAY OFF You are entitled to an additional day off for your birthday, from your first day of employment.
• GREAT LOCAL DISCOUNTS This includes membership discounts with Soho Friends, local restaurants and retailers in Westfield White City and Television Centre.

Full details of our benefits will be shared when you join us!

Publicis Groupe operates a hybrid working pattern with full time employees being office-based three days during the working week. 

We are supportive of all candidates and are committed to providing a fair assessment process. If you have any circumstances (such as neurodiversity, physical or mental impairments or a medical condition) that may affect your assessment, please inform your Talent Acquisition Partner. We will discuss possible adjustments to ensure fairness. Rest assured, disclosing this information will not impact your treatment in our process.

Please make sure you check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG’s (Employee Action Groups).