Media Systems Director

About Us 

IPG Mediabrands is the media and marketing solutions division of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). Mediabrands manages approximately $40 billion in marketing investment globally on behalf of its clients and provides strategic services and solutions across its award-winning, full-service agency networks UM and Initiative and through its innovative marketing specialist companies Reprise, Magna, Orion, Rapport, Healix, Mediabrands Content Studio and the IPG Media Lab. Mediabrands clients include many of the world’s most recognizable and iconic brands from a broad portfolio of industry sectors. The company employs more than 13,000 marketing experts in more than 130 countries representing the full diversity of humanity. For more information, please visit our website: www.ipgmediabrands.com. 

Role Description 

We are seeking an experienced Media Systems Platform Lead with a strong finance background to oversee and manage our media systems platforms. This role is critical in ensuring seamless integration between media operations and financial management, optimizing the efficiency and accuracy of our media buying and financial processes.

This role requires high technical proficiency in MediaOcean to address business requirements. Required skills include: knowledge of appropriate technical set up, data management leadership, experience leading effective feature rollout, and a deep understanding of media systems landscape governance (e.g. roles & responsibilities across all media systems in Mediabrands UK).

This role will work closely with Media Operations, IT and Finance to ensure any new systems and changes to processes are documented and governed appropriately.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform strategy: Partner with Media Ops to develop and implement a strategic roadmap for continuous optimisation of MediaOcean’s (and other media systems’) technical infrastructure and data capabilities
• Integration Oversight: Manage the integration of media systems with financial systems, ensuring accurate data flow and synchronization.
• Process Automation: Lead efforts to automate financial processes related to media buying and planning, reducing manual work and enhancing efficiency.
• Data Accuracy and Reporting: Ensure the accuracy of financial data within media systems, providing reliable data for financial reporting and analysis.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Work closely with finance, media buying, and IT teams to understand requirements, address issues, and implement solutions.
• Vendor relationship management: Partner with the business to manage vendor relationships (e.g. MediaOcean) in order to understand and leverage industry best practice
• Training and Support: Provide training and support to users of media systems platforms, ensuring they are equipped to utilize the systems effectively.
• Technical leadership: Be the subject matter expert and technical owner across all media systems in Mediabrands UK, guiding cross-functional teams involved in data management and platform management to ensure alignment with business objectives, such as streamlining of business operations and processes
• Data management: Oversee the end-to-end data lifecycle, including the audit, standardisation and management of access rights, data inputs (e.g. booking categories) and overall data architecture across MediaOcean
• Feature adoption and platform enhancement: Partner with the business to identify and roll out key features and functions that improve efficiencies across the business
• Security and compliance: Partner with IT and Legal to ensure robust security measures and compliance regulations are in place to safeguard sensitive client data and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements

Desired Skills & Experience

• Proven track record in a similar role, preferably within a UK media group
• Demonstrable experience of technical platform ownership and successful delivery of initiatives
• Media systems experience, including knowledge of Prisma, MediaOcean & MX suite of programmes
• Finance systems experience particularly with respect to integration with MediaOcean
• Experience of working with Finance teams and knowledge of accounting for media spend
• Strong data management and analysis skills; experience with using HARP, the MediaOcean SQL database is desirable
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• Proven track record in project management (including risk/ issue management), experience with agile development practices and project management tools (e.g. JIRA) is desirable
• Strong stakeholder engagement and management skills
• Detail-oriented, organised, conscientious, with the ability to multi-task and work well under tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Some experience in coding desirable