Global Operations Lead, Social Influencer Practice

WPP is a single company: four operating units, four regions, four practices – all united by one platform, WPP Open. This is a WPP that is simpler to work with and built to win. WPP’s practices give client teams direct access to capability in high-growth areas of marketing — and a practice only delivers on that promise when it runs as one: shared standards, shared data, shared measurement, and an operating model that works every day across agency brands and operating units.

The Global Operations Lead is the operational engine of WPP’s Social Influencer Practice. Reporting to the Global President, Social Influencer, this leader translates the practice’s strategy into a working operating system across WPP Media and WPP Creative: integration delivery, standards, data and measurement alignment, talent operations, technology adoption and governance. Where the Global President sets the vision, holds the standard and leads the practice in the market, this leader makes it real — building the machinery that turns a network of distributed capability into one joined-up proposition for clients.

This is a build role. The operating system for the practice does not yet exist; the person in this seat will design it, stand it up, and run it — working through influence across agencies and operating units they do not directly control, with the pragmatism to ship and the discipline to scale. The role is based in New York.

Social and influencer capability at WPP is distributed by design: social-first creative, community management and influence teams inside the group’s creative agencies — including VML, Ogilvy and AKQA — and paid social, influencer commerce, investment and measurement inside WPP Media, alongside specialist and regional teams. The practice exists to connect client teams with the best of all of it, regardless of agency brand or operating unit. The Global Operations Lead builds and runs the machinery behind that promise: the operating model, the standards, the data and measurement spine, the talent operations and the governance rhythm that let the practice function as one — without flattening what makes each agency distinctive.

• →Practice operating model — design, build and run the operating model that connects social and influencer capability across WPP Media and WPP Creative — roles, interfaces, decision rights and ways of working — in service of the practice strategy set by the Global President.
• →Cross-network integration delivery — deliver the integration: align offer standards, data, measurement, talent and best practice into a single operating system for the discipline, working through influence across agencies, markets and operating units.
• →Data, measurement & standards — build the practice’s measurement spine: common taxonomies, influencer measurement frameworks that connect investment to business outcomes, benchmarks, and quality standards applied consistently across the network.
• →WPP Open adoption — operationalize WPP Open and Open Intelligence in the practice’s workflows — driving adoption across agencies and markets, and ensuring the platform is how the practice identifies influencers, optimizes investment and proves impact in daily practice, not just in principle.
• →Governance & performance — run the practice’s governance rhythm — including support of the WPP Executive Steering Committee — with clear performance reporting on practice growth, adoption and integration, and early escalation of strategic and delivery risks.
• →Talent & capability operations — map capability across the network, coordinate casting and resourcing for major client opportunities, and build the enablement engine — training, playbooks and communities of practice — that raises the standard everywhere.
• →Commercial & operational discipline — bring commercial rigor to how the practice runs: pipeline visibility, resource utilization, vendor and tooling management, and support for pricing and commercial decisions on major opportunities.

Stand up the practice’s operating model and deliver the cross-network integration behind it. Define how work flows between creative agencies, WPP Media and specialist teams; where decisions sit; and how the practice engages client teams — so clients experience one joined-up social and influencer proposition rather than a patchwork.

Own the practice’s data and measurement architecture: shared taxonomies, influencer measurement frameworks tied to commercial outcomes, benchmarking, and consistent quality standards. Make measurement the connective tissue that lets the practice prove impact to clients and to WPP leadership.

Turn platform strategy into daily practice. Drive adoption of WPP Open and Open Intelligence across the practice’s workflows, manage the influencer tooling and marketplace stack, and ensure AI-enabled ways of working — agentic workflows, generative content operations — are embedded, governed and scaled.

Run the operating rhythm of the practice: leadership cadence, support of the WPP Executive Steering Committee, performance reporting on growth and adoption, and risk identification and escalation. Ensure the practice is never managed by surprise.

Build the capability map, casting and resourcing coordination, and enablement engine for the practice — training, playbooks, best-practice sharing and communities of practice that connect exceptional people to the work where they can have the greatest impact.

Run the practice with commercial rigor and operational discipline: pipeline and utilization visibility, vendor and contract management, and the operational support behind pricing and commercial decisions — so growth ambition is matched by sound economics.

WPP assesses, develops and promotes its enterprise leaders against eight leadership dimensions — the character of the WPP Enterprise Leader. Candidates for this role will be evaluated against these dimensions, and the successful leader will be expected to model them across the network.

• Transformational — Leads change with vision, courage and conviction — and earns trust in how the change is led, not just what is changed. Sees what’s next before it’s obvious and brings people with them.
• Talent First — Leads through service to the team and the client. Multiplies the impact of others rather than concentrating it in themselves. Builds benches, not bottlenecks.
• Accountable — Owns outcomes, honours commitments, and takes the call when it’s hard. No drift, no delegation of difficult truths. Action-oriented; biased toward the move.
• Growth Mindset — Learns fast, adapts faster, and gets better on purpose. Treats setbacks as feedback, not verdict — and creates the psychological safety for others to do the same.
• Adaptable — Navigates ambiguity with calm. Flexes style, pace and approach to fit the moment, the market and the client — without losing the line.
• Commercially Capable — Fluent in the economics of our clients and our business. Drives sustainable, profitable growth — not just revenue. Operationally capable, rises to the occasion, and never settles.
• Client Obsessed — Starts and ends with the client. Clients feel partnership, not vendor — and they say so, without being asked. Maintains momentum on what matters most to them.
• “One WPP” Operator — Humble, enterprise-first thinking. Puts the whole of WPP ahead of the part. Leaves teams, businesses and the institution better than they found them.

• 12+ years in operations, transformation or practice management within marketing, media, agency, platform or consulting environments, with significant global scope
• Proven track record designing and running operating models across complex, federated or matrixed organizations — delivering integration through influence rather than direct control
• Deep fluency in social and influencer marketing operations: workflows, tooling, marketplaces, content operations and campaign delivery at scale
• Strong data and measurement grounding: taxonomies, measurement frameworks connecting marketing investment to business outcomes, and benchmarking across markets
• Hands-on experience driving marketing technology and AI-enabled operations adoption at scale — platform rollouts, agentic and generative workflows, and the governance around them
• Program leadership credentials: large, multi-market change programs delivered on time and adopted in practice, not just launched
• Commercial acumen across budgeting, utilization, vendor and contract management, and pricing support
• Talent operations experience: capability mapping, resourcing coordination, and building enablement engines — training, playbooks and communities of practice
• A builder’s temperament: pragmatic, low-ego and delivery-obsessed — the trusted engine behind a market-facing practice leader, with the credibility to hold the standard across the network

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