Chief Information Officer for Business Solutions

WPP stands as a leader in creative transformation, harnessing the power of innovation to foster better futures for our workforce, environment, clients, and communities.

Being part of WPP means joining a global network of over 115,000 skilled professionals across 110 countries, with headquarters located in major cities worldwide.

We deliver transformative ideas and results for our clients through a comprehensive offering that integrates communications, experience, commerce, and technology.

Our award-winning agencies collaborate with some of the largest corporations and organizations globally, including Ford, Unilever, P&G, Google, HSBC, and the UN. WPP proudly serves 61 of the FTSE 100, 307 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30, and 62 of the NASDAQ 100. We are recognized as a leader in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and rank 20th in the FTSE 100 for Women on Boards.

Currently, WPP is spearheading the most extensive business transformation within the marketing and advertising industry. With the recent appointment of Dominic Shine as our Global CIO, we are advancing a significant overhaul of our Enterprise Technology capabilities across the organization. A crucial aspect of this transformation involves enhancing the Global Enterprise Technology Leadership Team and implementing a new operational model that unites over 2,500 technology professionals into a cohesive global team, dedicated to supporting and facilitating the ongoing evolution of our agencies and functions. We seek a distinctive c-suite level candidate to assume a pivotal role with a dual focus at the highest tier of our organization.

This position will serve as the CIO of Business Platforms, responsible for steering the strategic roadmap and promoting the adoption of global enterprise platforms and applications in close collaboration with our WPP executive committee, which includes leaders from our agencies. The role entails leading a team of business platform leaders across our three agency clusters: Creative, Media and Production, and PR and Specialist. This position holds substantial end-to-end accountability for the development, management, and transformation of enterprise platforms, as well as tailoring technology solutions specific to each agency cluster to drive business growth (including Workday, Maconomy, Dynamics, Salesforce, Wrike, and Monday).

Additionally, this role will function as the Corporate CIO and strategic technology partner to the WPP executive team and leaders of group functions, including the CEO, CFO, CPO, COO, and Chief Marketing and Growth Officer, to drive business transformation throughout the organization. This position will closely collaborate to define and integrate enterprise technology into our broader global operating model, working alongside our Chief Transformation Officer and key stakeholders to revamp the WPP back-office operating model and associated processes.

The ideal candidate will be an experienced leader capable of influencing and advising c-suite executives on their technology strategies and decisions, while also addressing and transforming a highly fragmented legacy system (e.g., over 300 ERP instances) and rationalizing thousands of applications within a FTSE 100 company. The role requires driving consistency and securing enterprise-wide buy-in and adoption, while continuing to develop platforms tailored to each agency cluster that will facilitate business growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate in developing the Enterprise Technology strategy aligned with WPP's overall business objectives, translating it into long-term (3-5 years) and short-term (1-2 years) plans for the Corporate CIO division.
• Provide insights into Corporate/HQ/Functional strategies and proactively drive technology insights and recommendations aligned with the overall Technology Roadmap for respective functions.
• Oversee annual financial planning and budgeting for Enterprise Technology and the Corporate CIO division, establishing financial KPIs and milestones linked to broader Enterprise Technology targets.
• Establish and monitor success metrics and KPIs to measure the strategic impact and value of Enterprise Technology across the organization.
• Co-develop the Enterprise Technology Investment Roadmap, monitoring investment impact and value across the organization.
• Promote the adoption of Enterprise Platforms across agencies and markets, collaborating closely with respective Agency CIOs and TechOps Leads.
• Align Corporate strategy with Enterprise Technology strategy through the development of Enterprise/Business/Corporate platforms, supporting the adoption of inter-agency and service platforms.

Enterprise/Business/Corporate Platforms and Enterprise Architecture

• Manage and oversee an enterprise-level perspective of the platforms (enterprise, corporate/agency & business), services, and applications landscape across Enterprise Technology.
• Maintain an enterprise platform roadmap to address Agency and Corporate enterprise technology demands.
• Collaborate with Agency CIOs to devise strategies that encourage the adoption of enterprise and business platforms across agencies.
• Establish standards and best practices for product/platform development across Agencies, Corporate, and TechOps.
• Develop standards, best practices, policies, and processes to enable Enterprise Technology and respective teams to create and implement a coherent and consistent enterprise-wide technology architecture.
• Work with respective CIOs and TechOps to identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions.
• Manage risks associated with information and Enterprise Technology assets through the establishment and implementation of architectural standards and processes.
• Advocate for and educate peers, subordinates, and senior management on architectural strategies, principles, and standards.

Relationship Management & Programme Oversight

• Manage key stakeholders (including Corporate Leaders, Regional Leads, and Functional leads in TechOps, other CIOs, core and enabling functions) across WPP, driving the Enterprise Technology strategy and proactively managing demand.
• Collaborate with Agency CIOs, Tech Ops, and the Transformation team to identify the impact of initiatives on Corporate/HQ and respective regions, including benefits, risks, context, insights, and feedback.

Financial Planning & Management

• Conduct annual financial planning for the Corporate enterprise technology expenditure, balancing global and functional targets with demand and supply.
• Forecast, plan, submit, and monitor the WPP Enterprise Technology Corporate Budget, providing support and insights for the Corporate Enterprise Technology Annual Budget.
• Oversee business case expenditures and manage financial targets, driving value realization from respective platforms/projects/initiatives within the division.

TechOps & Operational Service Assurance

• Oversee service assurance and address Corporate/HQ service demand, ensuring effective collaboration with TechOps to establish robust service delivery and conflict resolution mechanisms.
• Ensure compliance and risk management for Corporate Enterprise Technology.

Technology Demand Management

• Address Corporate demand through stakeholder relationship management, proactive technology advisory/engagement, and end-to-end ownership of Enterprise Technology delivery through respective capabilities within the CIO division; Platforms, Service, Portfolio & Transformation, Risk, and Security.
• Oversee the development of technology business cases for new enterprise technology demands across regions and markets, ensuring savings are achieved and actions are taken to resolve issues regarding value creation.
• Manage Corporate Enterprise Technology demand forecasting, planning, and management in accordance with governance requirements.
• Monitor and report on Corporate Enterprise Technology demand performance, risk, and impact.
• Address ad hoc Corporate/Functional demand conflicts, collaborating with key stakeholders to find resolutions.

People Management

• Ensure the Corporate CIO division possesses the necessary skills and capabilities aligned with the strategic direction of Enterprise Technology, developing a workforce plan to attract, recruit, retain, and develop global business partners.
• Provide line-management support for Platform Leads, Corporate Transformation & Portfolio Leads, Corporate Service Leads, Corporate Architecture Lead, and Risk & Compliance/Security Partner, including oversight of talent management and development activities.
• Collaborate closely with Finance, HR, and Procurement Partners to achieve organizational and financial outcomes.

Experience

• Proven experience in deploying enterprise-wide platforms across large, complex organizations.
• Successful track record of working with other leaders within a highly matrixed structure, ensuring close alignment and accountability through direct reports (business platform leads) and agency CIOs to achieve outcomes.
• Expert knowledge and experience with key platforms currently utilized across WPP, such as Microsoft, Maconomy, Workday, and UHub.
• Ability to build diverse, augmented teams with the right mix of permanent, fixed-term, and third-party resources to deliver program outcomes while maintaining a focus on value and cost.
• Strong portfolio management skills across multiple enterprise technology platform programs, considering value, timing, and rollout of these enterprise solutions.
• Experience in designing enterprise target state architecture, operating models, and technology choices in a large, FTSE 100-equivalent organization.

Skills

• Extensive experience in the large-scale implementation of back-office technologies in major global organizations related to functions such as HR, Finance, and ERPs.
• Proficient in operating model design and organizational transformation, with a strong ability to define target state organizational structures and implement a matrix structure of business platform leads across each CIO organization.
• Strong capability to guide corporate and agency senior stakeholders in balancing group and agency objectives concerning platform decisions.
• Ability to effectively communicate the value of enterprise platforms while encouraging agencies to adopt enterprise solutions over localized alternatives.
• Exceptional executive stakeholder management skills, with the ability to forge key technology partnerships and present to board-level and c-suite stakeholders, reviewing requirements and acting as an escalation point.

Behaviours

• Experience in executive c-suite business partnering, assisting senior stakeholders in defining and refining their technology and product strategy and roadmap.
• Strong understanding of the WPP/advertising business model and end users, with deep knowledge of how technology, particularly Enterprise Technology infrastructure, supports and enables that model.
• Global perspective and experience in delivering platform rollouts on a global scale, including an understanding of the challenges and nuances of international operations.
• Strong commercial acumen and a drive to negotiate favorable contractual terms alongside procurement with key partners, while ensuring efficiency from current teams (both internal and external) to achieve cost-effective outcomes.

WPP is committed to equal opportunity employment and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical or mental disability. We strive to create a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion, actively seeking a diverse slate of candidates to help us achieve this goal.

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