Director of Media Excellence

Omnicom Group · London

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Omnicom Media

Director of Media Excellence, UK Media Operations

job description

Role holder

TBC

Location

Bankside Office: London

Reporting

Head of Operational Excellence (Amaia Las Heras)

Manages

Operational Excellence Manager

The role

The UK Media Ops team is being built at a critical point of transformation. The business needs clearer media operating standards, stronger operational discipline, better adoption of common processes and a practical way of turning governance into improved delivery across agencies and client teams.

Reporting to the Head of Operational Excellence, the Director of Media Excellence will lead the day-to-day media excellence agenda across UK Media Operations. The role is accountable for making best practice practical: translating operating standards into clear workflows, playbooks, training, adoption tracking and governance outputs that teams can use.

This role will manage the Operational Excellence Manager and provide leadership across process excellence, documentation, training, operational issue management, stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement. It will also work closely with Finance, Commercial, Activation, Analytics, agency operations and client teams to improve financial hygiene and reduce avoidable billing, debt and Mediaocean balance risks.

Key collaborators

• Head of Operational Excellence
• UK Head of Media Operations
• Media Operational Excellence Manager
• Business Operations Lead
• Central OM Operations Team
• Agency COOs, agency operations leads and client teams
• Discipline operational leads and discipline teams
• Finance, Commercial, Billing and Credit Control teams
• Activation, Investment, Analytics, Data and Technology teams
• EMEA Operations teams
• Omni, Mediaocean and other platform owners
• OGS/GCC and offshore/nearshore delivery teams

Vision

To build one joined-up discipline that works smarter, moves faster and delivers consistently high standards, giving teams and clients a better experience and the business a stronger platform for growth through automation, AI, data, operational discipline and clear governance.

Media Operations should be the operating backbone of the business: clearer standards, smarter workflows, stronger governance and better use of Omni, automation and AI to improve delivery at scale and remove friction across all agencies and disciplines.

Summary of the role

• Lead the Media Excellence agenda across UK Media Operations, ensuring standards, playbooks, training and governance are clearly defined, maintained and adopted.
• Manage the Media Operational Excellence Manager, setting priorities, expectations and development focus.
• Translate Media Operating Standards into practical ways of working across planning, activation, analytics, finance and delivery workflows.
• Own the structured approach to documentation, adoption, feedback, issue tracking and continuous improvement across priority media operations processes.
• Work with Finance, Commercial, Billing and agency/client teams to improve financial hygiene, reduce billing and debt queries, and keep Mediaocean balances at minimal risk to the business.
• Investigate recurring financial and billing issues, identify root causes and work with the right teams to prevent repeat problems.
• Support the Head of Operational Excellence in embedding UK governance, compliance, CLM/Operational Foundations, Omni-related process controls and agency adoption.
• Be the ultimate SME for financial systems, data and processes within Media Operations, setting strategic direction, owning complex diagnosis of root causes and working with stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

Media excellence, process and best practice

• Lead the creation, maintenance and continuous improvement of practical Media Operating Standards across priority workflows.
• Translate complex processes into clear playbooks, handoff guidance, process maps, decision frameworks and training materials.
• Ensure process guidance is simple enough to use, strong enough to manage risk and aligned to the wider UK Media Ops governance model.
• Review legacy and agency-specific ways of working to identify duplication, friction, gaps, rework and inconsistent delivery.
• Work with agency and discipline leads to test standards and playbooks before wider rollout, making sure they work in practice.

Documentation, knowledge management and adoption

• Own the single source of truth for media excellence documentation, playbooks, guidelines and training materials through the agreed repository.
• Govern version control, publication standards and review cycles so teams can trust that materials are current and accurate.
• Remove outdated, duplicated or conflicting guidance and ensure updates are communicated clearly to relevant teams.
• Track adoption of new and existing standards, capturing agency feedback and turning it into improvement actions rather than simply reporting non-compliance.
• Build a practical rhythm for launch communications, refreshers, process reminders and targeted support for teams with low adherence.

Training, capability and community

• Design and oversee structured onboarding, refresher and targeted training programmes that improve adoption and confidence across agencies and disciplines.
• Build role-specific training journeys for priority workflows, making sure training reflects current process documentation and agreed standards.
• Partner with agency operations leads and discipline leads to embed process adherence through capability, not enforcement alone.
• Track training effectiveness through adoption, feedback, process adherence and operational performance indicators.
• Support the development of a media operations community that shares best practice, surfaces issues early and builds stronger operational discipline across agencies.

Financial hygiene, billing and Mediaocean risk control

• Work closely with Finance, Commercial, Billing, Credit Control, Activation and agency/client teams to ensure financial hygiene is understood, followed and visible.
• Help ensure agencies and client teams are adhering to agreed processes for booking accuracy, reconciliation, billing readiness, query resolution and debt prevention.
• Investigate and diagnosing complex financial and billing issues, either owning the exercises or through the managed teams. Example issues will include recurring billing queries, debt blockers, aged items, missing or late bookings, not-vouched costs and unreconciled media balances.
• Work with relevant teams to understand the root cause of financial hygiene issues, identify whether the problem is process, ownership, data quality, training or system behaviour, and agree actions to stop repeats.
• Maintain visibility of Mediaocean balances and related risk areas, ensuring aged or unexplained balances are escalated early and do not build into material commercial exposure.
• Partner with relevant Mediaocean workstream owners to move Mediaocean improvement activity forward where it supports feature enablement, cleaner process control or reduced balance risk, with minor setup or feature-enablement work routed to the right platform specialists, including Harvey where appropriate.
• Support regular reviews with Finance and agency teams to keep billing and debt queries to a minimum and make sure issues have clear owners, actions and resolution dates.
• Provide clear reporting to the Head of Operational Excellence on financial hygiene themes, risk exposure, recurring issues and improvements needed across agencies and client teams.

Governance, risk and issue management

• Support the UK Media Ops governance model by surfacing issues, identifying patterns and turning risks into clear actions.
• Maintain structured visibility of process feedback, risks, adoption gaps and operational issues across agencies and disciplines.
• Contribute to governance forums with insight, trends, recommendations and clear status updates.
• Identify recurring issues and systemic failures, not just individual problems, and work with senior stakeholders to resolve root causes.
• Support the Head of Operational Excellence with decision logs, risk/dependency tracking, escalation routes and follow-up discipline.

Omni, CLM / Operational Foundations and platform alignment

• Support the embedding of CLM, Operational Foundations and Omni-enabled workflows from a media excellence and process adoption perspective.
• Work with relevant system and platform owners, including Omni, Mediaocean and other operational tools, to ensure process guidance, training, controls and reporting are joined up.
• Ensure Omni-supported and non-Omni workflows are documented, owned and governed, so teams have a clear model regardless of platform maturity.
• Identify where existing agency processes need to be simplified, codified or cleaned up before they can be supported effectively through platforms or automation.
• Feed recurring process and data quality issues into the automation and business information agenda where technology can remove friction or reduce risk.

Team leadership and stakeholder management

• Line manage the Media Operational Excellence Manager, setting clear objectives, priorities, delivery expectations and development plans.
• Coach and support the manager to deliver high-quality documentation, training, issue tracking, adoption reporting and governance support.
• Upskill team to ensure they become SMEs in the discipline overtime and own issue diagnosis, data analysis, best practice standards and documentation.
• Build trusted relationships with agency COOs, agency operations leads, Finance, Commercial, Activation, Analytics, EMEA Ops, platform owners and offshore/nearshore teams.
• Lead through influence across teams where there is no direct reporting line, using clarity, credibility and practical problem-solving to move work forward.
• Support the Head of Operational Excellence by driving delivery, preparing clear updates, escalating blockers and helping maintain momentum across the process and governance agenda.

What you will bring

• Strong media operations, process excellence, governance or business operations experience, ideally within a complex agency or media environment.
• Proven ability to turn complex operational processes into clear, usable standards, playbooks, training and management information.
• Strong understanding of financial hygiene in a media environment, including booking, billing, reconciliation, debt queries, Mediaocean balances and commercial risk management.
• Ideally has experience in either biddable channels or planning, with a practical understanding of finance hygiene best practice gained through hands-on media delivery.
• Comfortable working in fast-paced environments and able to handle rapid organisational change, ambiguity and shifting priorities without losing delivery discipline.
• Strong data analysis skills, with the ability to interrogate issues, spot patterns, validate assumptions and turn operational data into clear recommendations.
• Experience reducing day-to-day repetitive work and making teams more effective through automation, better tooling or practical use of basic AI.
• Confidence working with Finance, Commercial, agency leadership, Activation, Analytics, Data, Technology and platform teams.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence teams and drive progress without relying on hierarchy.
• Pragmatic, detail-oriented and commercially aware, with a focus on adoption and impact rather than process for process sake.
• A strong manager who can set direction, coach others and raise the quality of team outputs.

Success measures

• Media Operating Standards: priority workflows documented, current, accessible and actively used by agencies and disciplines.
• Process adoption: measurable improvement in adherence, consistency and execution quality across priority workflows.
• Training effectiveness: onboarding, refresher and targeted training delivered, with evidence of improved confidence and reduced repeat issues.
• Financial hygiene: reduced billing queries, debt blockers, late bookings, not-vouched items, unresolved Mediaocean balances and aged commercial risk areas over time.
• Mediaocean workstream support: relevant Mediaocean risks, feature-enablement needs and balance-control issues are tracked with platform/workstream owners, with clear actions and fewer unresolved blockers.
• Issue investigation: financial, billing and process issues are investigated properly, root causes are identified and actions are tracked through to closure.
• Governance effectiveness: risks, dependencies, actions and escalations are visible, with fewer unresolved blockers and clearer ownership.
• Documentation quality: the agreed repository is accurate, current and trusted, with no material gaps, duplication or outdated guidance.
• Stakeholder confidence: Finance, agency operations, discipline leads and leadership see Media Excellence as practical, responsive and useful.
• Team delivery: the Media Operational Excellence Manager has clear priorities, visible progress, strong outputs and meaningful development support.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at OM - our vision is to be an agency where difference is valued and everyone is able to thrive in a culture of equality, inclusion and belonging. We are committed to providing a truly inclusive environment that reflects today’s society, where everyone is able to bring their true selves to work, and where diverse voices and backgrounds are valued, heard, and well-represented.

Omnicom’s policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week, unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager. Our objective is to increase this requirement over time, and many of our agencies as well as Omnicom’s corporate group already require five days of in-office attendance.

Omnicom is committed to hiring and developing exceptional talent. We agree that talent is uniquely distributed, and we’re focused on developing inclusive teams that can bring the best solutions to everything we do. We strongly believe that celebrating what makes us different makes us better together. Join us—we look forward to getting to know you. We will process your personal data in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice.

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