CIO – Ogilvy/AKQA Group

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients, and communities.

Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 115,000 accomplished people in 110 countries. WPP has headquarters in New York, London and Singapore and a corporate presence in major markets worldwide.

We create transformative ideas and outcomes for our clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce, and technology.

WPP and our award-winning agencies work with most of the world's biggest companies and organisations – from Ford, Unilever and P&G to Google, HSBC, and the UN. Our clients include 61 of the FTSE 100, 307 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30 and 62 of the NASDAQ 100. WPP are the leader in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and 20th in the FTSE 100 rankings for Women on Boards.

WPP is currently driving the industry’s largest business transformation across the marketing and advertising sector.  Dominic Shine has recently joined as our Global CIO and is driving a major transformation of our Enterprise Technology capabilities across the group.  Key to this transformation is the strengthening of the Global Enterprise Technology Leadership Team and the introduction of a new operating model which will see 2500+ technology professionals across the group come together to form an integrated global team that services and enables the ongoing transformation of our agencies and functions.

Along the journey we will ensure WPP Technology is a destination for tech talent, modernise our ways of working, shift to cloud and micro-service-based architectures, drive automation, digitise colleague and client experiences and deliver insight from WPP’s petabytes of data.

The CIO for Ogilvy & AKQA Group will align the agency strategies, roadmaps and ways of working with the other agencies under the Creative Archetype to ensure consistency across the creative brands in delivering market-leading, fit-for-purpose technology. The role will drive technology transformation, implement the future structure and embed new ways of working for Ogilvy & AKQA teams supporting those business units to own transformation and strategic outcomes.

This will be achieved by establishing strong working relationships with senior stakeholders across agencies, partners and technology teams to ensure strategies are aligned, demand is managed, cost is monitored, services are delivered, and value and impact are realised.

In our new operating model, you will lead and deliver within a matrix environment to ensure accountability to our agencies and collaboration between teams.  

Key Responsibilities:

 

Strategic Leadership & Relationship Management

• Partner with and report to the CIO – Creative agencies to develop and deliver a technology strategy, and a roadmap of long-term (3-5 years) and short-term (1-2 years) plans which aligns with WPP’s vision and goals.
• Advocate the adoption of enterprise platforms while managing a portfolio of agency-specific solutions. Leading and empowering cross-functional teams to collaborate and deliver together.
• Cultivate and manage strong relationships with agency leaders, understanding demand and translating them into technology solutions that deliver reliable and cost-effective services.
• Lead and drive opportunities for greater efficiency through platform, process and resource optimisation.
• Lead and drive implementation of ‘target’ structure, culture and ways of working.
• In conjunction with the CIO – Creative, lead a CIO team to deliver technology transformation within your agency cluster, fostering a culture of simplification and continuous improvement.
• Lead on mergers, acquisitions and divestments within your respective agency group, defining technology, data strategy and transformation in partnership with relevant teams.
• Co-develop with Corporate CIO, a Technology Investment Roadmap, monitoring investment impact and value for your agency.

 

 

Team Leadership & Development

 

• Ensure the Ogilvy & AKQA technology team has the right skills and capabilities, with WPP’s strategic direction, developing a workforce plan to attract, recruit, retain and develop capability globally.
• Provide task/activity direction to your CIO team and management oversight for TechOps Leads, Data Lead and Risk & Compliance. Due to our matrix structure, you will share management responsibility with another LT member.
• Proactively mentor and foster professional growth and c