Business Overview
We believe in the power of media to reshape our industry and orchestrate a brand’s entire consumer experience, by balancing both what unites people and what makes them different. When brands unite people in culture, they build Fame, and when brands connect individuals to their unique journeys, they build customer Flow. Initiative builds Fame & Flow for brands like Nike, Amazon, Merck, and T-Mobile. Media responsibility is at the forefront of everything we do, whether it’s creating media plans that reflect the diversity of our communities, promote brand safety, and foster sustainability. Our agency celebrates diversity in an inclusive environment where all of our 6,000+ strong talent across 90+ markets feel seen, heard, and valued. Our vision is to create not only a better media company, but also a better media industry, and maybe even a better world.
We make a promise to our people that we double down on seeing, celebrating & elevating all the things that make you, uniquely you. And just as we do for our brands and clients, we connect our people to the journeys that matter in building a meaningful career.
There are four I’s in Initiative and these represent our core values and behaviors.
- INDIVID[YOU]ALITY – you bring your genuine and unique self to and into the work, every day.
- INSTINCT – you’re tuned in and armed with intelligence; you have a bias for action – shit happens when you’re around.
- IMPACT! – you care deeply about the impact you have on our clients, their customers, our community, the media landscape and our world at large.
- IMAGINATION – your ability to imagine and bring to life the ideas, solutions, and the future of Initiative, makes us THE create media agency in the world.
Position Overview
The Director, Media Operations, serves as an operations and agency enablement champion for the agency’s tools, technology / platforms, innovation, and thought leadership. As primary liaison between platform operations partners – including MediaOcean, SQAD/MediaTools, internal tools (Halogen, MIE, and Taxonomies) and our agency / client teams, this agency leader seeks to democratize the agency’s toolkits. They’ll ensure standardization, mass adoption, accelerate platform utilization, and engage teams in a collaborative community to share and adopt best practices across the agency and within IPG Mediabrands.
This individual executes the global strategic vision for the Transformation and Operations team through the agency’s day to day teams, supporting the creation of new practices, oversight of agency technology licensing, and support of new business consulting. Reporting directly into the Global Head of Media Operations, this individual will play a central and pivotal role in the advancement of Initiative’s and IPG Mediabrands’ transformation agenda in their individual region (NA, LatAm, EMEA, APAC).
Responsibilities
- Audit client processes across crafts and functions to identify and support the adoption of operational minimal viable product (MVP) to be documented in playbooks, supported with training, and translated across agency teams
- Consult on client briefs related to technology, operations and media platform utilization (ex: Media Tools)
- Actively serve as an agency representative in client meetings, commanding a presence with an ability to express complex matters with ease and simplicity from a technical / tools lens.
- Creatively solve client business challenges through the mapping of new technologies, platforms, agency solutions, and innovation opportunities
- Liaise between Global Media Operations and agency technology partners – including both specialty business units (SBU) capabilities and third-party platform partners
- Liaison with IPG IT and our internal cross craft teams to document and implement new features and input into the overall product roadmaps
- Steward syndicated agency licenses and contracts with third party platforms and support ongoing negotiations to drive increased agency adoption and cost efficiencies
- Develop and maintain end to end playbooks in collaboration with Rufus Media Ops and Transformation leadership
Required Skills and Experience
- Strong ability to think systemically about processes and workflows with skill to simplify the complicated and determine the most effective and efficient path forward
- Deep understanding of media business, specifically as it relates to the lifecycle of a media dollar (planned, authorized, purchased/booked, billed, paid and reconciled) with specific knowledge of digital media
- Experience customizing and implementing tools and processes required to aggregate media planning and investment data and produce clean, accurate and efficient reporting on that data (e.g. Taxonomy, Mediatools/Lumina, Mediaocean/Prisma)
- Understanding of the benefits of automation as well as types of tools and processes that can be leveraged to facilitate automation
- Highly structured and organized
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to articulate operational or account challenges both laterally to peers as well as upward to senior management
Desired Skills and Experience
- Project Management experience and PMO tool experience (i.e. Smartsheets) preferred
- 8+ years experience in media, with a focus on digital (including things like Taxonomy)
- 5+ years in operations, best practice development, and/or process optimization
- 5+ years in MediaOcean/Prisma or any local Media Billing/Buying/Paying System
- 5+ years in MediaTools/SQAD
Salary Range
$140,000—$160,000 USD
