Senior Vice President, Project Management

SVP, Operations & PM Lead

Publicis Groupe is now searching for an experienced leader for the Walmart business across our network.

The SVP, Operations & PM Lead —in close partnership with our Global Client Lead—will help push the Power of One agenda that is essential for driving growth. Understanding and leading our clients' transformation through delivering the true scale of our agencies' capabilities. All with a deep commitment to excellence. They will lead operations for key client engagements, which encompasses the governing of processes, communications, tools and best practices across Publicis Groupe agency teams to ensure delivery against client objectives, including monitoring performance and augmenting the efficiency of the company's operations to facilitate long-term success.

Walmart is one of Publicis Groupe's key global clients with engagement across Creative (Dept W) and Media (PubW).

Dept W is the Publicis Groupe Walmart Power of One agency team – a collective of Publicis Groupe creative agencies and partners working together on behalf of Walmart.

The current remit of creative work is U.S. based, but Global opportunities continue to build across Canada, Mexico and China with potential for more on the horizon. There is also a need to drive integration with ways of working, processes, and timelines between Creative and Media both internally at Publicis Groupe and with Walmart.

Responsibilities

GCL Partner: working side-by-side with Global Client Lead (GCL) to make decisions for operational activities, set strategic goals, and org structure to support the work that aligns with client expectations.

Transformational Leadership: Walmart is transforming from a physical retailer to an omni-channel retailer and technology company, underpinned by AI, and as such is transforming their marketing organization. Strategy and Operations are inextricably linked and this role needs to be able to interface with Walmart leadership in this capability and help extend their evolution to ours.

• Deliver the Power of One by expanding our Groupe capabilities to Unlock Growth.
• Client Relationships: build and maintain relationships with client-side Agency Relations/Procurement, and Marketing Operations leads.
• Drive change management: Lead initiatives to evolve how we scale, curate and transform the business leveraging best-in-class tools and processes for and ever-changing and retail-paced business.

Global Network / Po1 Connectivity

• Build and maintain cross-Groupe connectivity and a network of connected experts through a defined process
• Lead the development of detailed operating & governance models with input from stakeholders
• Connect with business leads across each agency to align internal operations according to Client objectives and apply improvements
• Partner with global finance lead to develop key performance metrics and the associated reporting & tracking mechanisms to measure agency activity, performance and savings.
• Partner with Client Leads in tracking & reporting of business development activity across Publicis business units (pipeline, active opportunities and pitch performance) and the platforms to drive collaboration (Salesforce, Business Intelligence Portal, etc.)
• Deliver all Groupe level reporting required by the clients, including the annual representation survey and supplier diversity reporting
• ClientAgency Performance Reviews: set and run process for agency Pulse Survey, and client, performance reviews—including distribution, collection, analysis, and tracking local action plans in partnership with CLs.
• Scaling Efficiencies: Work closely with agency leads to identify scalable efficiency opportunities & shareable use cases to support business KPIs.

Program Management Leadership

• Serve as department lead for Dept W PM team
• Oversee the facilitation, tracking & monitoring of programs, activities, roadmaps and scope
• Project Management with leadership teams in response to new business / growth opportunities and cross-Groupe engagement meetings
• Demonstrate strong written and oral presentation skills
• Develop processes to support deck frameworks and templates to support the business
• Manage multiple direct reports and set career and capability goals with them
• Enforce team compliance to high company standards and professionalism
• Participate in team and cross-capability recruiting, interviewing and staffing
• Problem-solving program and project issues; assisting teams in resolution and successfully leading large teams to develop risk mitigation plans
• Work with capability leads to understand business needs and help identify and solve staffing-mix issues to meet business goals (curate the best, most efficient team structure)
• Work with clients to establish best practice processes that meet client business needs
• Demonstrate the ability to deliver constructive feedback while outlining and facilitating development plans where needed

Qualifications

A Transformation Leader

Energetic, persuasive and authentic. A magnet who inspires those around them to crave future-facing evolution, and uses positive influence to affect the change to help us all get there.

An Integrator

Understands different collaboration principles, and models, and can architect and implement them based on the needs of the business. Able to connect and bring the best of our organisation together to activate meaningful transformation through relevant and purposeful integration.

Thinks big, acts small

Sees the bigger picture, and thinks strategically about how to our goals. But understands that it's our collective daily actions that will get us there, and isn't afraid to roll up their sleeves.

Growth and commercially minded

A proven track record for driving growth. Including a good understanding of business models and trends, as well as the ability to identify and seize opportunities that move the business towards strategic goals as well as realise easy wins.

Agile and Resilient

Is action oriented and full of energy for new challenges. Leans in to change and is a nimble leader. Pushes self and others to be the best they can be and drives change with resilience whilst not sweating the small stuff. Sets a tone of integrity during times of pressure and is collaborative in their solutions.

Collaborative Mindset

A proven collaborator within a large business, who can coordinate and influence a collective team-based client relationship across complex matrix structures, organisations and different cultures. Adept at managing significant stakeholders across agency teams and able / willing to travel as required.

Key Qualifications:

• A four-year degree
• 15-20 years of Project Management, Marketing, or related experience
• Mastery of large-level projects and programs
• Working knowledge of enterprise tools (JIRA, MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint, Slack, Trello)
• Familiarity with prompt-based interaction and commonly used generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, DALL·E, Midjourney) is a plus, especially for tasks like ideation, research, or content generation