Product Owner, Emerging Experiences - Temporary Worker

Job Description:

TEMP Role - W2 dentsu payroll only

Hybrid Role - NYC Area - In office 3 days/week

Part-Time 10-30 hours per week fluctuating

Duration: 11/18/2025 - 2/27/2026

Must be US based

Company Overview:

Merkle, a dentsu company, powers the experience economy. For more than 35 years, the company has put people at the heart of its approach to digital business transformation. As the only integrated experience consultancy in the world with a heritage in data science and business performance, Merkle delivers holistic, end-to-end experiences that drive growth, engagement, and loyalty. Merkle’s expertise has earned recognition as a “Leader” by top industry analyst firms, in categories such as digital transformation and commerce, experience design, engineering and technology integration, digital marketing, data science, CRM and loyalty, and customer data management. With more than 16,000 employees, Merkle operates in 30+ countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. 

Job Description:

We are seeking a Temporary Product Owner, Emerging Experiences to join our team. In this role, you will elevate and ensure creative excellence through production on your assigned accounts. The successful candidate must be expert at navigating agency systems, predicting potential roadblocks, working to remove them, and working with key players across the agency to foster the teamwork necessary to produce the work. Along the way, they harness support within production, tech, business affairs, legal, project management and other disciplines. They will advise creatives, account teams and clients on choices that shape the creative idea and turns them into even stronger executions. They ensure client needs/goals are met and integrity in the final deliverables are kept. An important part of the role is to mentor and oversee the work of junior producers on the brand and guide them to execute with the highest level of craft.

Key Accountabilities:

Production: 

• Lead ( >1-5mil) high stakes Content Productions with A-list Directors/Partners, Celebrity talent and multiple workstreams and media, independently or with support
• Ensure that all key stakeholders are kept informed and (if needed) educated on the production process.
• Lead the discovery/vetting/bidding process on large projects, while defining project requirements; this includes the development of production specs and evolving creative concepts into clear sets of deliverables and ability to develop production solutions that ensure creative excellence within budget parameters.
• Build strong relationships with Business Affairs as a partner in discovery and through the production process. Have full understanding of AICP and AICE bid format.
• Possess comprehensive knowledge of SAG-AFTRA guidelines for shooting and recording of talent, including usage and payment considerations.
• Lead post project summary meetings and suggest ways to instill learnings within the department and across disciplines.
• Responsible for account financial health and to find solutions that has both client and agency interests in mind.

Creative Delivery and Network: 

• Elevate the creative; lead the evolution of creative concepts into even stronger executions.
• Have your ear to the ground, help maintain dentsu creative's cultural capital and credibility by working with both the up-and-comers and the most wanted established partners.
• Have strong relationships with outside partners and have a wide network but close connections for the range of work we produce.

Management:

• Oversee junior producers, and their work, and help guide them on their productions on the brand.
• Vendor selection, bid analysis, project organization, time management, scoping and actualizing.
• Share inspirational work, innovative technological solutions, and best practices.
• Utilize agency tools: including templates, status documents and wrap report.

Person Specification:

• 12 years' of experience managing large productions (500 < 1mil+) as an integrated producer focused on Content (Broadcast, social and still). Experience in digital and/or experiential a plus.
• Passion for the craft of production and creativity.
• Emotional intelligence - Have a good sense of professionalism, awareness of group dynamics and the ability to moderate one's own communication and behavior style to mirror the group/project need.
• Effective communication and presentation skills - The ability to develop presentations and speak to audiences including senior level clients.
• Ability to clients with confidence through complex and high-risk productions.

 Additional Information: