Senior Project Manager

About WPP Media

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.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com .

1341 - Senior Project Manager - Client Operations

Role Summary and Impact

As a  Senior Project Manager at WPPmedia, you will play a critical role in directing and managing the overall transition of media services for newly won business, ensuring seamless integration and minimal disruption for clients. Your primary responsibility will be to lead these complex client onboarding projects from initial scoping through to operational handover, working across global, regional, and local teams to ensure they are adequately set-up, resourced, onboarded, and equipped.

Beyond new business transitions, this dynamic role will also encompass a variety of operational projects across people, technology, product, and digital domains. Reporting to the programme director, you will champion best-in-class project management methodologies, ensuring all initiatives are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards. Your expertise in managing complex cross-functional efforts, coupled with exceptional diplomatic, communication, and organizational skills, will enable you to translate strategic objectives into tangible outcomes, fostering strong relationships with internal stakeholders and external clients alike. This role is key to enhancing our delivery capabilities and supporting WPP Media's continued growth and innovation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead New Client Transitions: Direct and manage the entire transition of media services for new business wins, from initial agreement to full operationalization. Define, own, and meticulously manage the transition project plan, ensuring alignment with client expectations and WPPmedia's service delivery model.
• Strategic Planning & Scoping : Work closely with the Global Account Director (GAD) and new clients to define and agree upon project objectives, scope, key milestones, and critical success measures from the outset. Develop comprehensive program initiation documents including deliverables, resource requirements, and detailed project plans.
• Workstream Coordination & Onboarding: Liaise with relevant workstream leads (e.g., finance, technology, operations, client teams) to define optimal onboarding processes. Ensure that global, regional, and local teams are adequately set-up, resourced, onboarded, and equipped to deliver operational services.
• Effective Project Governance & Control: Establish and maintain robust project governance structures, including weekly and monthly status updates, risk/issue logs, and regular briefing meetings. Proactively identify, assess, track, and mitigate project risks and issues, developing contingency plans and escalating critical matters for timely resolution.
• Milestone & Delivery Management: Ensure all project milestones are achieved and internal teams deliver their required components on time and to specification. Run frequent status calls with global and local parties, following up to ensure actions are taken to mitigate any roadblocks.
• Stakeholder & Client Communication: Act as the primary point of contact, ensuring relevant internal and external stakeholders (including client-side project management resources) are continuously informed and effectively managed regarding project risks, issues, and progress. Host project calls to provide clear status updates and facilitate effective communication.
• Meeting & Workshop Coordination: Coordinate and lead meetings and workshops involving clients, product teams, operational teams, and key functional leaders (e.g., people, marketing, finance) to drive project deliverables and foster collaboration.
• Documentation & Reporting : Define and agree on the initial program initiation document. Create other relevant project documents such as scopes of work, project implementation documents, or business cases. Establish and set up project reporting methodology to report on progress against objectives and key success measures.
• Cross-Operational Project Management: When transition projects are not in flight, step into and lead a variety of operational projects across people, technology, product, and digital domains, adapting project management approaches as needed.
• Process Adherence & Improvement: Ensure adherence to WPPmedia's project management methodologies, tools, and processes. Identify and champion opportunities for continuous improvement in project delivery practices.

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How Success is Measured:

In this role, your success will be evident through tangible contributions, specifically by:

• Successfully directing and managing the overall transition of new client media services on time, within budget, and to the agreed scope and quality, with minimal client disruption.
• Achieving high levels of client and stakeholder satisfaction through effective communication, expectation management, and successful project outcomes.
• Proactively identifying, mitigating, and resolving project risks and issues, ensuring smooth project continuity and effective resolution of roadblocks.
• Driving the adoption of robust project management practices and contributing to the continuous improvement of WPPmedia's project delivery capabilities.
• Demonstrating strong leadership, diplomatic, and organizational skills in managing multiple concurrent projects and diverse, often global, teams.

Skills and Experience

• Progressive experience in project management, with a proven track record of successfully leading complex projects, ideally within the media, marketing, advertising, or related professional services sectors.
• Project Leadership Expertise: Qualified project manager with proven project leadership capabilities and extensive knowledge of standard project reporting tools and methodologies.
• Organisational Skills: Outstanding organizational skills, demonstrating an exceptional ability to plan, prioritize, multi-task, and manage multiple complex projects concurrently, with meticulous attention to detail and ability to work on your own initiative.
• Communication & Diplomacy: Superior written and verbal communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills. Must be diplomatic and possess the ability to manage various external & internal stakeholders at all levels, articulating complex information clearly and persuasively.
• Client Management: Demonstrated ability to build and nurture strong client relationships, manage expectations effectively, and navigate client feedback and demands, especially during critical transition phases.
• Stakeholder Leadership: Proven capability to lead cross-functional project teams, influence stakeholders without direct authority, and drive consensus across diverse groups (global, regional, local).
• Risk & Issue Management: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating project risks and effectively resolving issues.
• Technical Proficiency: Proficiency with project management software (e.g., Jira, Asana, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet) for planning, tracking, and reporting.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Project Management Certifications: PMP (Project Management Professional), PRINCE2, SAFe, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), or other relevant certifications are highly desirable.
• Change Management Experience: Valuable experience in leading or contributing to change management projects.
• Agile Knowledge: Knowledge of Agile project delivery methodologies would be a significant advantage.
• International Experience: Proven experience leading or working on international projects, demonstrating cultural awareness and global coordination capabilities.
• Media Industry Knowledge: Knowledge of the Media industry would be advantageous but is not crucial to the role.
• Prior experience working within WPP Media or a large agency network, demonstrating familiarity with internal systems, processes, and culture.
• Familiarity with operational excellence or process improvement frameworks (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma).
• Experience managing projects involving technology implementations, data analytics, or significant operational change.

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