Associate Director - AEP Martech Technology Strategy
VML · Chicago, Kansas City, New York City · $75,000–$180,000 (stated in the posting)
Who We Are
VML is a global creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce to create connected brands that drive growth. Guided by a Human First philosophy, VML is known for its innovative work for brands and consistently ranks among the world’s leading creative companies, including the WARC Creative 100. VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.
VML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.
For more information, please visit www.vml.com and follow along on LinkedIn #WeAreVML.
Job Summary
The Associate Director, Martech Technology Strategy is a client-facing role responsible for supporting and advancing Mazda North America Operations’ enterprise Martech roadmap under the direction of senior Technology Strategy leadership. This role sits within Technology Strategy and helps connect Mazda’s business goals to the technology, data, platform, governance, and operating model decisions needed to drive measurable growth.
This role helps manage the integrated Martech picture across CDP, CRM, personalization, content operations, taxonomy, media activation, analytics, and data engineering. They translate strategic direction into clear use cases, requirements, workstream plans, governance inputs, and decision support that cross-functional teams and partners can build, operate, and measure.
The role supports Mazda’s audience, segmentation, and taxonomy governance agenda, including the use of Claravine as the operational system of record for naming, metadata, campaign classification, and audience definitions across the Martech ecosystem.
At the Associate Director level, this person is expected to be a strong day-to-day strategy partner to Mazda stakeholders and internal delivery teams, helping shape recommendations, clarify trade-offs, and prepare decisions for senior client and agency leadership.
This role requires a minimum of four days per week in-office presence, with travel to Mazda and key partner locations as needed.
Key Responsibilities
Technology strategy and roadmap ownership
- Support the end-to-end Mazda Martech roadmap across CDP, CRM, personalization, content operations, taxonomy, analytics, media activation, and data engineering.
- Translate Mazda’s business priorities and customer experience goals into workstream plans, requirements, roadmap inputs, and fundable use case detail.
- Develop analysis and recommendation materials to support build, buy, partner, defer, or stop decisions across the Martech ecosystem.
- Identify risks, dependencies, trade-offs, and decision points early, and escalate them with clear context and recommended paths forward.
CDP strategy, segmentation, and audience orchestration
- Support strategy and ongoing optimization for Mazda’s Adobe Experience Platform and Real-Time CDP program.
- Define audience frameworks, lifecycle segmentation, suppression logic, activation requirements, and measurement expectations.
- Ensure audience definitions are consistent across CRM, paid media, personalization, analytics, and reporting.
- Partner with data engineering and platform teams to validate feasibility, data readiness, identity logic, and activation dependencies.
Enterprise taxonomy and governance
- Support Mazda’s enterprise taxonomy program, with Claravine serving as the system of record for naming, metadata, campaign classification, and audience definitions.
- Help define and maintain governance standards across Claravine, Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP, AJO, AEM, CJA, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, media platforms, WPP Open, Domo, and reporting tools.
- Establish naming conventions, metadata standards, decision rights, approval processes, versioning, and change management for taxonomy and audience governance.
- Ensure taxonomy supports activation, reporting, measurement, personalization, AI classification, and long-term scalability.
CRM, personalization, and journey orchestration
- Support the strategic direction for Mazda’s CRM and personalization roadmap across owned channels and customer journeys.
- Translate priority moments into use cases with clear owners, dependencies, triggers, suppression rules, success metrics, and platform implications.
- Connect segmentation strategy to measurable outcomes such as lead quality, conversion, service engagement, loyalty, retention, and sales lift.
Cross-agency orchestration and stakeholder leadership
- Serve as a Martech Technology Strategy partner across Mazda Marketing, Digital, IT, Legal, Data Privacy, Analytics, Media, and related stakeholder groups.
- Coordinate work across VML, WPP Media, WPP Choreograph, Shift Digital, Adobe, TransUnion, Salesforce, and other ecosystem partners.
- Partner with client, strategy, and delivery leadership to support roadmap decisions, maintain alignment, and build trust across teams.
- Facilitate workshops, roadmap reviews, retrospectives, and executive alignment sessions that turn complex inputs into a clear plan.
Measurement, value realization, and business impact
- Define the measurement framework for CDP, CRM, personalization, media activation, taxonomy, and content orchestration.
- Partner with analytics and reporting leads to connect platform activity to business outcomes.
- Support value-realization narratives for executive forums, steering committees, quarterly business reviews, and roadmap funding conversations.
- Identify opportunities for influenced revenue, expanded scope, reusable assets, partner motion, and broader WPP Enterprise Solutions value creation for review with senior leadership.
Practice contribution and team support
- Provide day-to-day guidance and support to Martech Technology Strategy resources across CDP, CRM, personalization, taxonomy, content pipeline, and orchestration as assigned.
- Help maintain the quality bar for roadmaps, use case maps, operating models, taxonomy frameworks, business requirements, recommendations, and points of view.
- Mentor supporting team members in business analysis quality, stakeholder communication, platform context, and client-facing delivery practices.
- Contribute reusable frameworks, account learnings, and thought leadership to the broader Technology Strategy practice.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Marketing, Business, Strategy, or a related field.
- 6+ years of experience in technology strategy, marketing technology strategy, digital transformation, business analysis, consulting, or enterprise platform delivery.
- Experience supporting or shaping enterprise technology roadmaps across multiple teams, platforms, and stakeholders.
- Strong knowledge of Martech ecosystems, including CDP, CRM, personalization, analytics, customer journey orchestration, media activation, content operations, and data governance.
- Experience with Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP, Adobe Journey Optimizer, Customer Journey Analytics, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Target, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
- Experience defining audience frameworks, segmentation logic, taxonomy standards, journey triggers, suppression rules, activation requirements, and measurement expectations.
- Proven ability to support cross-functional or multi-partner programs, facilitate working sessions, and influence through clear analysis and communication.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technology considerations into clear business-facing materials.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in automotive, retail, financial services, or another multi-tier, data-intensive industry.
- Experience with Mazda, MNAO, or automotive manufacturer / dealer ecosystem operating models.
- Adobe certification or equivalent expertise across AEP, RT-CDP, AJO, CJA, AEM, or Adobe Target.
- Experience with Claravine, Domo, TransUnion, LiveRamp, The Trade Desk, DV360, Meta, Google Ads, Salesforce CRM, or WPP Open.
- Experience designing taxonomy councils, governance models, change management processes, and platform adoption frameworks.
- Working knowledge of privacy, consent, profile stitching, deletion chain, and audience activation considerations.
- Experience with content supply chain or creative automation platforms such as Adobe Workfront, GenStudio, Frame.io, Bynder, or Brandfolder.
- Advanced degree in a related field.
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.
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.
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