Executive Director, Operations

About Ogilvy

Ogilvy was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy. David created a culture that deeply respects and cares about its people and clients. Our mission is to inspire people and brands to make an impact and we are committed to attracting, growing, and retaining the best talent in the industry.

About the Role

We are looking for an Executive Director, Operations to lead operations across one of our largest clients as we continue to drive their business forward. You will be essential to the continued success the client/agency partnership at large. This is a highly visible role as the client, and agency, will depend on your expertise to elevate our operational ability to drive efficiency, agility, profitability, and quality of work.

What You'll Do

• Partner with key client-side leaders to improve quality of work and realize efficiencies across the entire client/agency scope of work
• Standardize reporting and intelligence sharing across the Agency ecosystem
• Lead annual agency planning process in collaboration with Agency stakeholders, including:
• Participation in development of full-year and project scope based on client priorities and budget realities across Client business units
• Coordination across global agency ecosystem for timely delivery of all scopes
• Final SOW socialization to respective agencies in collaboration with CFO and finance
• Support Global Client Lead in all 'on the business' matters not related to client work product, including:
• Partner with finance on all client-facing operational activities including quarterly business presentations, KPI measurements, burn rates, ad-hoc reporting, etc.
• Steward and improve our diversity initiatives, owning all reporting
• Define, implement, and oversee long-term resource forecasting and short-term resource management processes in partnership with key business leaders
• Collaborate with agency leads to build and track annual business/ growth plans for agency leadership to achieve account revenue and margin goals
• Lead special projects spanning team culture to resourcing budgets
• Develop a deep understanding of the agency process to ensure quality control and brand consistency in each of the client's lines of business
• Design and execute roadmaps to drive efficiency throughout the creative process helping us get from origination to production faster while delivering a world-class product
• Oversee project management team on the account – the health and success of these teams is a crucial responsibility
• Manage agency systems and tools to support agency workflow and realize maximum efficiencies.
• Partner with HR, Finance and Leadership on driving action quickly when it comes to talent acquisition
• Work with key agency leads on organic new business opportunities, including coordinating with appropriate agency partners and securing client funding.

What You'll Need

• 15+ years of experience solving complex operational and organizational challenges (advertising agency experience a must)
• Experience sitting over a large multi-organization operating model in a client service environment
• Proven record of solving tough operational challenges to increase efficiencies, drive cost savings and deliver high quality product
• Capable of applying problem solving toolkit and critical thinking to areas or challenges without prior experience
• Leader of people across disciplines with an ability to exercise both influence and directive as the situation requires
• Appetite for an extremely fast paced businesses in a highly competitive and evolving industry
• Comfortable navigating through ambiguity, bureaucracy, and conflicting direction
• Systems thinker with ability to understand knock-on effects and implications of individual decisions or choices on broader ecosystem and business
• Naturally curious problem solver able to quickly acquire and apply new knowledge on marketing disciplines and beyond
• Highly confident but with little ego, someone who is okay with rapid change and doesn't take business decisions personally
• Follow-through-master, capable of stewarding final products across a wide range of disciplines to completion

How We'll Support You

Ogilvy celebrates its people. Fully. Enthusiastically. Unhesitatingly. We'll empower you with the tools you'll need to succeed. We'll give you the autonomy to seek out new paths and better ways of doing things. We'll support you with colleagues who are experts in their disciplines, drawn from across the Ogilvy network. And we'll provide opportunities for you to do work of which you'll be proud, with people you'll be proud to call your teammates.