GOC | Senior Director, Client Lead

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.

As part of the Global Operations Centre (GOC), you will work closely with teams across the United States, Europe, and Asia to deliver high-impact solutions in a collaborative, multicultural environment. We are looking for a Senior Director, Client Lead.

Provide senior leadership in media planning and activation for priority accounts (including Google, Colgate, Ford) being managed by the Poland Global Operations Centre (GOC). 

Be the primary GOC point of contact for WPP Media account teams in UK/Europe, ensuring high‑quality planning and activation output. Additionally, review and improve workflow and integration between the GOC and the account teams. 

In addition to client deliverables, the role is also responsible for developing cross-channel Media Planning capability within GOC Poland. 

The WPP Media team adopts a collaborative and customer‑centric approach in delivering high‑value and innovative solutions for agencies and their clients.

The Media Planning discipline plays a critical role as a strategic connector between client business objectives, agency strategy and activation delivery.

The Planning team ensures that robust, insight‑driven media strategies are developed in close collaboration with client teams, and that activation specialists are enabled with clear direction, measurable KPIs and scalable frameworks.

Media Planning also plays a central role in client leadership, pitch participation, multi‑market coordination, and strategic stewardship of global accounts, ensuring consistency, excellence and business impact across markets.

In this context, the Client Lead role extends beyond planning ownership to include senior stewardship of activation alignment, delivery quality and onshore/offshore collaboration.

The Senior Director, Client Lead is responsible for owning client relationships for priority TOP clients, acting as the primary senior client partner across media planning and activation, and the main point of accountability in Poland for integrated, cross‑channel delivery for key clients.

In this role you will:

• Lead media planning for key global clients operating in the EMEA region,
• Represent the planning and activation discipline in senior client forums, global governance calls and strategic business discussions,
• Work hand‑in‑hand with in-market client leads and activation leads to ensure seamless translation of strategy into execution.

Beyond client leadership, this role is responsible for establishing and scaling Media Planning as a distinct discipline within the Polish GOC, setting quality standards, defining planner roles and competencies, and developing high‑performing planning talent.

1. Owning senior client partnerships for TOP global clients: You are the Poland GOC representative working with the regional leads of key clients like Google, Ford and Colgate. You will work them to determine the overall media strategy and deliver the clients’ business growth in the region.
2. Building a planning discipline from the ground up: You will shape Media Planning as a standalone capability within the Polish GOC, defining structure, roles, standards, and career paths for planners.
3. Working at the intersection of strategy, planning and activation: You collaborate closely with activation specialists, client leads and global stakeholders, ensuring planning and activation intent is consistently delivered through execution.

• Act as the primary GOC strategic partner and senior lead for cross-channel media planning and activation for key global and multi-market clients (e.g., Google, Colgate, Ford, etc.).
• Drive client outcome growth by ensuring media planning excellence, applying performance-led principles, data-informed insights, advanced analytics, and optimization strategies to maximize ROI.
• Own end-to-end strategic stewardship across planning and activation, ensuring robust plans are executable, activated as intended, and continually optimized to achieve client business objectives.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and senior cross-channel subject-matter expert to client stakeholders, nurturing long-term relationships and providing strategic guidance on media solutions, business challenges, and market dynamics.
• Lead senior-level planning and activation discussions, demonstrating deep business acumen and strategic expertise to synthesize diverse inputs and drive alignment across stakeholders.
• Maintain a future-forward perspective, staying ahead of media and technology trends to proactively identify emerging opportunities and develop innovative, impactful solutions for clients.

• Establish, scale, and lead the long-term evolution of the cross-channel Media Planning discipline within the Polish GOC. This includes defining role profiles, competency frameworks, quality standards, and career paths.
• Identify capability gaps within GOC planning and activation teams, implementing targeted development, upskilling, or hiring initiatives to address them.
• Provide leadership and oversight for planning talent, fostering high performance and career progression through consistent development approaches, evaluation, and coaching.
• Build and maintain robust planning governance, including methodologies, templates, and quality assurance standards, to ensure consistency, scalability, and excellence of all planning outputs.
• Champion a data-driven planning culture, fostering continuous improvement, knowledge sharing, and best-practice exchange within the GOC planning community.

• Operate effectively within a complex, matrixed organizational environment, providing leadership through influence and partnership across GOC, client, planning, and activation teams.
• Collaborate closely with in-market client leadership, activation leads, and regional stakeholders to ensure seamless translation of strategic intent into planning outputs and efficient execution delivery.
• Act as a senior counterpart to Activation Directors and Leads, promoting shared accountability for client outcomes and fostering strong inter-disciplinary collaboration across disciplines.
• Enable effective communication and knowledge sharing between GOC planning and activation teams and market teams, ensuring clarity, alignment, and continuous improvement in workflow and integration.
• Partner with senior stakeholders to proactively identify and address gaps, risks, or misalignments in processes, contributing to the development of action plans and improvement frameworks.

• 12+ years of progressive experience in paid media, media planning, activation, strategy, or consulting, with significant leadership and accountability roles.
• Proven expertise in digital media, adtech, martech, and data platforms, coupled with a sophisticated understanding of the media investment and agency ecosystem.
• Demonstrated capability in building and scaling a media planning discipline, including defining roles, developing talent, and implementing performance management within a GOC or similar multi-market delivery environment.
• Extensive experience managing complex, multi-market accounts, with a track record of delivering measurable business outcomes and fostering senior client relationships in matrixed environments.
• Deep knowledge of multi-practice area/industry trends and their impact on client businesses, fluent in diverse media strategies that integrate brand building with performance marketing principles.
• Exceptional communication skills (written and verbal), with the ability to convey complex narratives persuasively and compellingly to senior stakeholders.
• Strong leadership presence, adept at influencing and collaborating effectively across all seniority levels, with empathy and credibility.
• Experience overseeing technology and/or operations transformation programs is highly desirable.