Senior Directo/avp, Media Activation

**About Essence**
EssenceMediacom, part of GroupM, is a data-driven global agency that blends data science, objective media and captivating experiences to build valuable connections between brands and consumers. Clients include Google, Mars, Airbnb, Financial Times to name just a few. The agency is more than 10,000 people strong, manages over $2B in media spend and deploys campaigns in 125 markets via its global offices throughout North America, EMEA and APAC.

Essence is looking for a Head of Programmatic. APAC. This role is dedicated to the Google Account.

The Media Activation team is responsible for collaborating with the Planning Team to create media plans for Google Digital Marketing campaigns. The Media Activation team leverages their mastery of each channel and platform knowledge to deliver recommendations that are consistently excellent and innovative, and that in-channel performance and data integrity is maximized.

**About the role**

The Media Activation team is responsible for collaborating closely with Media Planning to activate across Search, Social and Programmatic digital platforms across the APAC region for and on behalf of our Client, Google. This role is specifically dedicated to Programmatic.

Activation Teams are based in Singapore, Japan, India and Australia activating campaigns across APAC. As a leader within the business, this role is an exciting opportunity to be part of a progressive and expanding team. We look to this role to build and create a team that can manage and support a growing Client who expects best in class activation of their Digital Marketing across Programmatic platforms. This lead should feel comfortable with managing a large client and being a thought leader. The role also provides an opportunity to work with global peers to improve and scale our APAC Activation Team and Digital Spends in the region.

Role responsibilities include but are not limited to:

- Leading, managing and developing a growing team of Programmatic Practitioners across multiple locations
- Responsible for the development of the 'Programmatic Craft' in the APAC region through training programmes and enhancing best practice
- Accountable for the quality of Programmatic Campaigns running out of the APAC region in accordance to best practices and campaign KPIs
- Close collaboration with Planning, Client Services,Analytics and Data & Tech teams to drive channel innovation and overall account growth
- Close collaboration with other paid media channel teams to deliver effective cross channel digital campaigns
- Senior Stakeholder and Client Management
- Resource Management
- Programmatic Platform knowledge (DV360 / Google Ads preferred). However other programmatic platform knowledge and experience are also beneficial (The Trade Desk / Xander / Amazon DSP)
- Clear understanding of different ways of buying such as Programmatic / PMP / Direct Buys
- Demonstrable understanding of First Party Data / Privacy and impacts to media planning and buying
- Demonstrable understanding of measurement and targeting challenges and considerations such as Ad Operations / Tagging Requirements / First Party Data / ABM /B2B audiences.
- Partner with APAC publisher/vendors to drive value for both client and agency
- Represent APAC programmatic to global stakeholders internal/external to Essence.
- Lead by example, create and maintain a positive atmosphere for the team.
- Collaboration with other GroupM & Essence Programmatic Leads to drive Digital Maturity across Display and Programmatic
- Driving innovation and thought leadership of the channel and an understanding of the Channel in Region and the challenges that come with this as a growing medium in APAC
- Future-proof practice by anticipating industry trends and developing practices that enable Essence to be leaders in that industry
- Develop/maintain an active industry presence by way of contributing POVs, thought leadership, conference appearances, etc. to raise industry profile for personal, team and Essence

Desired background experience_:_

Required
- 8-10 years work experience on the programmatic/ad-tech buy-side (e.g. agency, trading desk, DSP company)
- Excellent proficiency planning and deploying campaigns using enterprise level DSPs (e.g. DV360, The Trade Desk, MediaMath)
- Experience planning and executing campaigns delivering against both Brand and Direct Response objectives
- Experience deploying campaigns across multiple environments/devices via both direct and open buying leveraging audience and/or contextual data as needed
- Outstanding knowledge of the APAC publisher/vendor landscape at regional and market levels
- High attention to detail, and good organizational skills, with an understanding of optimization levers & testing approaches across programmatic platforms
- Experience directly managing multiple reports, with demonstrable skills in guiding the professional development of direct reports
- Highly developed interpersonal, team building and rela