Business Director, Marketing Science

About WPP Media

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

WPP Media is WPP’s global media collective. In a world where media is everywhere and in everything, we bring the best platform, people, and partners together to create limitless opportunities for growth. For more information, visit wppmedia.com

About Mindshare: A Leading WPP Media Brand

Mindshare delivers Good Growth for its clients. As “Growth Architects," we drive growth that benefits all stakeholders — better for people, planet, and business — by using media with intention. This approach creates more meaningful connections with consumers, increases consumer trust in the brand, and delivers better outcomes for all stakeholders.

Role Summary and Impact

The Marketing Sciences team is charged with accelerating our clients’ growth by integrating data and analytics into marketing decision making. We work with senior marketing and business decision makers to provide analytical solutions for their most pressing marketing challenges. Our role as a team is to:

• Find creative ways to use data and analytics to uncover powerful marketing insights that drive growth for our clients
• Design and implement measurement and effectiveness frameworks that drive performance in marketing
• Develop new analytical products and tools that can identify opportunities for growth and performance improvements in our clients marketing
• To cultivate a culture of effectiveness in our client’s marketing by evangelising and enabling experimentation, testing and constant learning

As a Business Director you will be responsible for managing and developing Marketing Science relationships with senior clients (both internal and external). You will be expected to become a trusted advisor to them and will help solve their marketing challenges by diagnosing problems and designing and executing analytical solutions.

You will lead the delivery of analytics and marketing effectiveness projects for clients by supervising teams of analysts – providing business insight, technical leadership, and quality assurance.

In addition to project work, you will also support agency strategists and media planners by providing analytical decision support on day-to-day media planning and optimisation for clients. You will also be responsible for ensuring that insights generated on analytics projects are evangelised and embedded into decision-making.

While you will report into a Client Director, on day-to-day project work, you will be expected to work independently with minimal oversight.

You will also play a key role in new product development. It is important to us to constantly push the boundaries on the use of analytics in marketing. You will use your data science expertise both to improve our core offering in marketing effectiveness (econometrics / MMM) as well as to create new analytical products that we take to market.

Finally, you will also provide line-management to junior analysts, with responsibility for their development and well-being. You will also contribute to the running of the team, taking an active part in key initiatives on issues like process improvement, resource management, team well-being and revenue generation.

Skills and Experience

At WPP Media, we believe in the power of our culture and our people. It’s what elevates us to deliver exceptional experiences for both our clients and each other. In this role it will be critical to embrace WPP & WPP Media’s shared core values:

• Be Extraordinary by Leading Collectively to Inspire transformational Creativity.
• Create an Open environment by Balancing People and Client Experiences by Cultivating Trust.
• Lead Optimistically by Championing Growth and Development to Mobilize the Enterprise.

Your Background: 

• Numerate / analytical degree such as statistics, econometrics, mathematics, sciences, or economics. Candidates from other backgrounds will also be considered if they demonstrate a high level of competence across all other criteria
• Extensive experience using analytical methods within an agency / consultancy or marketing analytics team
• Proven track record of delivering analytical projects for clients

Consultative abilities: 

• Ability to build and grow strong relationships with senior internal and client-side stakeholders to become their trusted adviser
• Strong problem solver with the ability to understand a client’s marketing and business challenges and provide analytics led consultancy
• Ability to diagnose marketing challenges, design analytics led solutions and write proposals to pitch them to senior client stakeholders
• Understanding of marketing / advertising and the ability to communicate recommendations in this arena to clients
• Ability to quickly pick up and learn the use of business tools to inform decision making. Prior experience / understanding of common marketing tools and systems is a plus
• Strong presentation skills – both verbal and written. Proficient in communicating complex data led insights in a simple way

Technical skillset: 

• Expertise in two or more of the following analytical skillsets:
• Econometric modelling / market mix modelling (preferred)
• Business forecasting
• Machine learning as applied in a marketing context
• A/B testing and multivariate testing
• Quantitative analytics of survey-based data e.g. (segmentation, driver models, multivariate analysis etc.)
• Coding fluency in R for use in data and analytical work is essential
• Familiarity and fluency in developing data-led applications in R Shiny (or equivalent) is desirable but not essential
• Fluency in one or more of the following Python, SQL, VBA, SPSS, Q – also desirable but not essential

Team / people skills: 

• Strong project planning and management skills
• Able to develop more junior members of team in their technical skills and non-technical abilities with previous line management experience

Life at WPP Media & Benefits

Our passion for shaping the next era of media includes investing in our employees to help them do their best work, and we’re just as committed to employee growth as we are to responsible media investment. WPP Media employees can tap into the global WPP Media & WPP networks to pursue their passions, grow their networks, and learn at the cutting edge of marketing and advertising. We have a variety of employee resource groups and host frequent in-office events showcasing team wins, sharing thought leadership, and celebrating holidays and milestone events. Our benefits include competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.  

WPP Media is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

Please note this is a UK based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location

Please read our Privacy Notice (https://www.wppmedia.com/pages/privacy-policy) for more information on how we process the information you provide.

While we appreciate all applications received, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. 

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