Head of Delivery- MENA

Our Vision:

Our vision is to inspire brands and people to impact the world. To create big ideas that make a significant contribution to the planet, society, and the bottom line. We believe in today’s world this is the best way for our clients to achieve sustainable growth.   

We achieve this by breaking down the barriers that restrict talent and ideas, we call this Borderless Creativity.        

Which is why our teams work fluidly across 5 capabilities Advertising, Experience, PR, Consulting and Health . This allows us to not only operate but innovate at the intersection of capabilities and talent.  We believe impact and magic lies at this intersection.   Ogilvy scales this by seamlessly connecting and accessing the deep cultural expertise of 132 offices in 83 countries.   

Our mission : We inspire brands and people to impact the world

How we do it : We innovate and operate at the intersection of people and capabilities

What we do : Borderless creativity

Today, Ogilvy is recognized as the world’s leading creative agency. We are also one of the most effective networks globally.

About Memac Ogilvy:

Memac Ogilvy is one of the leading creative networks in MENA with its flagship office in the UAE and a strong local footprint in the GCC and North Africa. It is part of the formidable worldwide WPP & Ogilvy network. It’s the only truly integrated comms network – with Consulting, Advertising- Brand & Content, PR, Experience & Health under 1 P&L and under single leadership. Memac Ogilvy is the most integrated modern creative and effective partner for client growth in MENA. We inspire brands and people to impact the world. We deliver on this by combining expert and new capabilities for modern marketing solutions, with solid project management expertise for agile and effective delivery as well as a thorough and passionate People agenda.

The agency is the most awarded Middle Eastern agency in Cannes as well as a big winner at the local award show Lynx. It counts around 500 staff members.

What we're looking for:

Ogilvy Delivery sits at the heart of our transformation into a modern marketing company. As Head of Delivery you are a strategic leader and trusted advisor who drives the art of making: from client brief to post-mortem, all the while greasing the wheels, maximizing efficiencies and weeding out operational inefficiencies throughout MEMAC Ogilvy’s largest accounts and the entire group of Agencies. You will partner with Client Servicing to deliver operational discipline & delivery excellence, speed to market, bottom line growth, resource optimization, and profitability management for their clients. You will analyze, solve and present viable new processes/solutions that lead to client growth by collaborating with and drawing on the expertise of Ogilvy’s vast resources and capabilities. You advise and partner with senior clients and Agency leaders. You champion and deliver flawless creative execution, time and again. You are an agile, results-oriented leader who inspires others to perform with excellence and act courageously. You will partner with MENA CEO and MENA Group President as well as the in-market MD’s to help achieve margin targets through a combination of executional prowess and commercial competency.

To Succeed in This Role, You Need To:

• Starting with the UAE, a review of the agency way of working, procedures and systems is required to put recommendations and ways of working in place.
• Evaluate PMO structure and advise and deliver a ‘fit for purpose’ structure across all markets in the most efficient way.
• Reducing scope creep across the groups key clients.
• Reviewing time sheets system and work on improving completion % and accuracy of data.
• Provides oversight of all resource allocation against client deliverables, provides guidance on SOW development and tracking, client and internal performance metrics reporting for the Group
• Maintaining deep understanding of client business needs and ensuring heavy interface with creative, strategy and production teams
• Working with client leads to ensure right resource allocation and management on any given client program/project
• Understanding Ogilvy’s portfolio of offerings and tools and activating them on complex client business challenges as needed
• Demonstrating strong cross-capability and cross-functional collaborations skills with internal agency team and key external partners, including your account’s commercial partner and all internal studios
• Working with the CEO on Qauantum and clients profitability and margin improvement plans.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of Delivery, Production or Program Management experience working in an agency, consulting or IT industry, ideally with experience in Change Management
• A creative and strategic thinker with the ability to influence and build trusted relationships with clients and team members
• Proven track record of delivering great, modern, multi-channel creative work and of maintaining strong relationships with creative, strategy and delivery leadership
• Demonstrates world class ability to manage and solve complex business challenges
• Able to build confidence, stability and trust with the Agency Board level
• Provides exceptional clarity in communicating operational issues and resolutions to non-operations personnel
• A confident leader of diverse teams (e.g. multiple domains, across geographies etc.) to deliver integrated client solutions that achieve measurable business results for our clients
• Deep understanding of creative culture
• Able to lead from the front regarding escalations and team issues
• Demonstrates a deep understanding of the implementation and management of agency operations tools i.e. ERP, project management tools
• Ability to communicate complex or difficult exception issues along with the ability to negotiate and influence others to adopt different points of view that are in the best interest of the firm
• Experience in leading sales efforts such as writing proposals, RFP responses and other sales related activities
• Deep knowledge and the ability to coach and train the team in agile and iterative PM methodology (Scrum, or other new PM methodology)
• Excellent communications skills at all levels, including presentation skills – formal and informal to differing audiences
• A deep understanding of client business needs
• Masterful cross-capability and -function collaboration skills
• Innovative mindset and change agent who is never satisfied with the status quo
• Arabic language an advantage

Memac Ogilvy inspires brands and people to impact the world. We exist to create iconic, culture-changing, value-driven ideas for our clients.

Borderless Creativity is our lifeblood. We operate, innovate, and create at the intersection of our talented people, across advertising disciplines such as strategic thinking and distinctive idea creation, through a social-first approach — alongside our wider Memac Ogilvy family of Advertising, Experience, Health, Consulting and PR. Never have there been more opportunities available to communicate incredible ideas, impact culture, and influence consumer behavior. Paid advertising is a consistent, regular and controllable way of getting a business and brand’s core message in front of consumers in a way that no other medium can. Creativity is our greatest differentiator as we transcend the status quo and shift culture.

How We’ll Support You Memac Ogilvy celebrates its people. Fully. Enthusiastically. Unhesitatingly. We’ll empower you with the tools you’ll need to succeed. We’ll give you the autonomy to seek out new paths and better ways of doing things. We’ll support you with colleagues who are experts in their disciplines, drawn from across the Ogilvy network. And we’ll provide opportunities for you to do work of which you’ll be proud, with people you’ll be proud to call your teammates.

Ogilvy is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability. We believe in creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion and strives to recruit a diverse slate of candidates to help us achieve that goal