Department: Client & Business Leadership Location: Chicago, IL , United States Last Updated: 7/31/2025 Requisition ID: R-2490Who 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.

Read on to find out what you will need to succeed in this position, including skills, qualifications, and experience. 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 are looking for: VML is seeking an Executive Director, Delivery to lead delivery across our portfolio of leading CPG clients at VML and WPP. This role requires a strong understanding of commerce principles and practices. You will be responsible for the management and continuous improvement of the Delivery function, ensuring our work is scoped accurately, delivered on time, and within budget. You are skilled in operational excellence, ruthlessly process-driven, organized, analytical, and able to manage teams with diverse objectives. You are commercially minded, comfortable driving revenue projections, managing resource requirements and utilization, and supporting scope development and budget allocation. What you’ll do: Lead | Oversee delivery of multiple concurrent projects for global CPG clients, from initiation to completion. Develop the required governance of the Delivery function to ensure best practices and proactively improve the program and project management tools, systems, and processes used by the team. Support the development of career and succession plans for the Delivery team. Pursue | Govern the adoption and application of business and operational processes and policies to optimize real-time insights into current delivery and performance, pipelining potential needs. Ensure the full portfolio of project plans is correctly phased and planned to provide sufficient insight into forward-looking capacity and resource requirements. These plans also inform our business revenue forecasts. Workflow | Review and regroup at the required cadence to ensure the teams deliver as per scope for the full portfolio of projects managed by the North American Delivery team. Escalate any major risks or resourcing constraints early and to the relevant stakeholders. Develop | Build and socialize reports that inform performance and drive adoption across the relevant stakeholders. Ensure that programs are properly scoped, resourced, and delivered upon, and that client expectations are managed and met across all programs. Communicate | Support the business development and client teams with Delivery input when completing business development activities by assisting with scope definition, project plans, costing, and providing insight into resources and availability. For large joint delivery across VML and other WPP operating companies, you must interface between internal and the external teams. Collaboration | Client-facing role, requiring close collaboration with commerce, finance, resource management, operations to ensure effective project delivery. Experience working with international teams and collaborating with media agencies is highly desirable. Who you are: A builder and unifier: Entrepreneurial attitude coupled with a strong business acumen. Ability and appetite to bring people together. Trains, mentors, and grows teams with versatile backgrounds and skillsets. A self-starter with sound foresight and insight. Open and collaborative: Our team is close-knit and supportive and we’re working with a lot of unknowns. You must champion a team, creating an environment that is comfortable and encouraging, but focused on a high level of performance. Optimistic and resilient: A can-do attitude and an entrepreneurial approach, balancing rigor and process with the need to create the best work for our clients. Ego-less Player/Coach Mentality: We all wear the hats that need wearing. You are willing to take on tasks that may seem too junior to your role from time to time in the interest of the team and the business. You are passionate about developing others and experienced at leading cross-functional teams. A Lead: Acts as a practice lead, digging in and figuring out challenge areas. You are a go-getter who takes initiative. What you’ll need: 12-15+ years of experience working in a Creative agency, preferably within the Shopper/Commerce arm of an agency. Leadership experience within a Delivery function at scale, with strong commercial understanding. Global client experience a plus. Aptitude to cast and manage a large team for a CPG client in a Commerce environment. Prior experience working within inter-agency team structures is considered a valuable asset. Experience working with international teams and collaborating with media agencies is highly desirable. Demonstrated practice leadership in Delivery Management in comparably sized markets, with proven experience with industry best practices of workflow implementations across project scoping, revenue forecasting, resource, budget, and risk management. Proven experience leading Agile and hybrid-Agile project teams with ability to train those new to Agile. Credible leader who wins the confidence of employees and pioneers new ways of thinking for our clients and our organization. Holds a recognized project/program management certification or has completed formal training in project/program management (preferred but not required). The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details. _ $125,000 — $295,000 USD 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 an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process. WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to 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. When you click "Submit Application", this will send any information you add below to VML. Before you do this, we think it's a good idea to read through ourRecruitment Privacy Policy . California residents should read ourCalifornia Recruitment Privacy Notice . This explains what we do with your personal data when you apply for a role with us, and, how you can update the information you have provided us with or how to remove it. Apply for this job * indicates a required field First Name * Last Name * Preferred First Name Email * Phone Resume/CV Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf LinkedIn Profile Website / Link to portfolio Website Password (if applicable) How did you hear about us? * Select... What is your desired salary? * Are you authorized to work in the country where this job is located? * Select... When you click "Submit Application", this will send any information you add below to VML. Before you do this, we think it's a good idea to read through our Recruitment Privacy Policy . California residents should read our California Recruitment Privacy Notice . This explains what we do with your personal data when you apply for a role with us, and, how you can update the information you have provided us with or how to remove it.

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