Consulting Director (Data & Marketing)

Who We Are:

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

Who we’re looking for:

VML is seeking a Consultancy Director to lead a team of world class consultants to deliver first class projects for clients. VML has world-class data capabilities across marketing technology, operations, insights, analytics & AI. You will be a trusted partner to our clients, navigating their businesses, understanding their challenges, connecting across VML to deliver world-class consultancy that drives growth for our clients.

Role Overview

The ideal candidate will be experienced in leading teams to architect and transform marketing infrastructure: marketing operations, as well as recent experience defining data strategies for customer engagement across all digital channels and the marketing technologies to enable them. They must have experience of spotting opportunities and converting those into projects, working with the team to determine where the biggest potential for future work lies and using their commerciality to determine what effort should be put in to convert effectively.

They will be a seasoned client and team leader, advising senior level clients on how to transform their businesses into effective data-driven organisations. They will be able to instil confidence and clearly articulate complex ideas, structuring recommendations around business needs and value and producing high quality written deliverables. The ideal candidate will understand that technology and data transformation serves a wider business need, and that sustained transformation requires a change in culture and operations.

Candidates will have worked on multi-workstream consulting programmes and will thrive on finding solutions to complex marketing challenges. They will enjoy working collaboratively with colleagues and clients. They will be curious, quick to absorb information, happy to immerse themselves in new industries and always stay informed about martech and data vendors and their products. You will act as a digitally-focused data consultant, to spot and grow opportunities and help our clients build world-class data-driven communications and experiences for their customers.

VML specifically need a digitally savvy data expert, with experience across multi-channel integrated customer experiences. Developing journeys across paid, owned and earned channels; such as search, social, crm, web, app, ecom and B2B leads & sales. You will lead on data planning, targeting, personalisation, measurement and optimisation, collaborating with agency experts across a range of clients and verticals to get to the right overall communications solution.

You must be a confident self-starter, full of enthusiasm, highly collaborative and searching for the next challenge. Working with and influencing senior stakeholders and clients should come as second nature to you.

What you’ll be doing

Client Growth

• Build relationships with client stakeholders and internal VML teams to promote, develop and manage data consultancy projects.
• Building on these relationships, you will need to follow up on leads, determining the prioritisation of all opportunities and communicate with internal teams and clients in order to get new projects and opportunities off the ground.
• Present frequently to clients, new and existing, to sell in and deliver projects. This will extend to presenting at client meetings and QBRs as well as new business pitches.

Client Engagements and Growth

• Work collaboratively with teams across the VML & WPP network to deliver excellent quality advice, identify and convert opportunities, acting as the data consulting lead, including engagements which involve multiple WPP teams and/or multiple suppliers
• Shape programme vision, goals and deliverables, tailored to client business goals and value
• Deliver and oversee other consultants’ work ensuring high standard delivery levels where first-class methodologies are executed. Deliverables can include but are not limited to marketing transformation and marketing data strategies, business cases, measurement frameworks, maturity models, organisation architecture, business processes, transformation and change management plans and artefacts, procurement plans and RFPs, business requirements, stakeholder interview plans and analysis, and reviews of technical and data architecture.

New Business

• Direct lead consultants, or act as lead, on new business work such as RFP responses, pitches, and client proposals.
• Lead or co-develop the response story or solution, bespoke to the client’s challenge and considering the capabilities of VML and the wider VML offering.
• Produce RFP and pitch collateral.
• Lead or present in pitches.
• Work with the Project Manager and Client Lead to define deliverables and activities and estimate project resources and timelines.

Proposition development and promotion

• Lead the development of the VML consulting propositions, identifying potential new propositions, developing consulting artefacts, training colleagues, developing GTM plans and marketing materials with the marketing department, and launching the proposition within VML and WPP.
• Develop PR and thought leadership white papers to strengthen VML’s industry reputation.
• Actively develop a robust network across VML and WPP, using client engagements, SME communities, training programmes and other initiatives to grow contacts.
• Represent VML and explain our capabilities within VML and WPP – e.g. delivering presentations, participating in events.

Team leadership & Management

• Lead your team, developing a strong and supportive culture focussed on the highest standard of work.
• Work with Project Management with responsibility for overseeing to ensure effective resourcing and managing team workload management.
• Line management and career development of a team of business, data and technology 3-4 data consultants
• Develop the skills and knowledge of your team and wider agency colleagues, creating and sustaining a learning culture.

Experience

Essential skills and experience (knowledge of):

• 8+ years’ experience in marketing data and technology consulting and/or leading large-scale marketing transformation projects.
• Demonstrable skills in communication, presentation, and influencing with credibility at mid to senior client level
• 8+ years in a data function/role, preferably within an agency environment or similar with transferable experience.
• Demonstrable success at leading teams and major clients in the UK or Globally.
• Excellent communication, organisation, proposal writing and presentation skills.
• Excellent written and numeracy skills.
• Strong understanding of the marketing business, specifically digital marketing and advertising and the commercial, marketing and political realities of large organisations, especially multi-nationals.
• Experience working in multiple industries either client side or as a consultant.
• Strong operational understanding of the marketing lifecycle and the data management lifecycle
• Strong understanding of the marketing technology ecosystem, for example:
• Ability to explain the technical details of data and analytics in a non-technical way to people outside the discipline.
• High level numeracy and analysis skills.

Not essential but nice to have (knowledge/understanding of):

• Campaign Experience Management tools technologies (e.g. Adobe Campaign Experience Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud)
• Data Management PlatformsCDPs (e.g. Krux, Adobe Audience ManagerTealium, mParticle)
• Digital Marketing Platforms technologies (e.g. SA360, DCM, DV360, FB Ads Manager, Linkedin, Twitter, TikTok)
• Website analytics & personalisation/testing tools (e.g. Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics & Target)
• Media marketing
• Social analytics tools (e.g. Sysomos, Radian 6)
• Data visualisation tools (e.g. Qlikview, PowerBI, Tableau)
• Data analysis tools including Cloud platforms (e.g. SAS, SQL, SPSS, Faststats, AWS, Google Cloud, MSGCP, Azure)
• Latest developments in Data Science, AI, Ad tech and Mar tech

At VML, we are committed to fostering an all-inclusive work environment that is both rewarding and career-forward. Our Inclusion, Equity & Belonging initiatives, alongside the VML Foundation, reflect our dedication to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities and beyond. Our people are the heartbeat of our organization-creators, doers, innovators, makers, and thinkers-who drive not just marketing, but meaningful experiences that resonate in every action and interaction.

VML is a WPP Agency. For more information, please visit our website, and follow VML on our social channels via Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

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