Regional Operations Director

Role: Regional Operations Director (EMEA)

Location: London, United Kingdom (3 days a week from our London offices)

About the role: 

The Regional Operations Director is accountable for the operational effectiveness of the EMEA region. Reporting to the Global Chief Transformation and Operations Officer, you'll translate the global operating model into practical, market-specific execution — building the structure, governance and performance focus needed to strengthen operational control and support scalable growth.

You'll lead a regional operations team, partner closely with regional and global leadership, and act as the key connector between regional execution and global capability. The role calls for a leader equally comfortable setting strategic direction and solving complex operational problems hands-on — someone who turns data into action, builds high-performing teams, and keeps commercial performance firmly in focus.

What you will be doing: 

Regional operational leadership

• Set clear priorities, accountabilities and ways of working for the EMEA Regional Operations function.
• Build the structure, rhythm and capability needed to improve client delivery, business performance and regional growth.
• Act as the senior operational partner to Regional Leadership on risks, performance, capacity and improvement priorities.

Client delivery operations

• Own the operational run model for EMEA clients — including cadence, governance, issue resolution and escalation management.
• Partner with Account Leadership to ensure delivery risks are visible, blockers are resolved quickly and client teams are set up to deliver effectively.
• Ensure regional clients are mobilised and supported through consistent operating standards and reliable delivery controls.

Governance, cadence and decision management

• Own the regional governance rhythm: forums, communications, decision-making and performance reviews.
• Ensure decisions are made at the right level, escalations are routed effectively and regional context is represented in relevant global and regional forums.
• Drive clear actions, accountability and follow-through across the function.

Operating model execution

• Embed the global operating model across EMEA, ensuring standards, processes, tools and governance expectations are adopted consistently.
• Translate enterprise-level standards into practical, market-specific ways of working.

Resource and capacity management

• Own the regional view of demand, supply, utilisation, resource mix and capacity gaps.
• Partner with Global Capacity Management, Account Teams, Delivery Leads and Offshore Operations to optimise deployment, resolve constraints and improve utilisation.
• Provide regional input into enterprise workforce planning and future capacity needs.

Business and client enablement

• Ensure regional client teams have the operational foundations needed to mobilise and deliver work effectively.
• Coordinate core business processes including client onboarding, timesheeting, billing readiness, interagency set-ups, compliance and headcount approvals.
• Act as the regional operational point of coordination for enablement issues, working across Finance, HR, Technology and Implementation to unblock dependencies.

Commercial performance and margin management

• Manage the operational levers that affect cost-to-serve across the region, including scope leakage, resource efficiency, rework and avoidable cost.
• Partner with Account Leadership and Finance to improve margin visibility and ensure practical actions are in place to protect profitable delivery.
• Oversee regional budget performance and present financial outcomes to regional and global stakeholders.

Regional insight and continuous improvement

• Use performance data to identify risks, issues and improvement opportunities across the region.
• Translate insight into action — ensuring key issues have clear owners, measurable outcomes and appropriate escalation routes.
• Identify recurring operational bottlenecks and lead remediation, including regional adoption of global improvement initiatives.

Cross-functional partnership

• Act as the key operational connector between EMEA and global operations capabilities.
• Partner across Sales, Account, Implementation, Finance, HR, Technology and Offshore functions to drive client outcomes and operational consistency.
• Provide regional operational input into sales pursuits, client mobilisation, scope expansions and solution design — ensuring proposed models are deliverable and scalable.
• Interface with Global Programme Directors where regional and global client contexts intersect, aligning on dependencies, escalations and capacity impacts.

Team leadership and development

• Lead, coach and develop the Regional Operations team, building a high-performing function with clear roles, standards and ways of working.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, operational discipline and continuous improvement.
• Ensure the team has the skills, confidence and behaviours needed to support a more mature, insight-led and scalable delivery model. 

What you need to be great in this role: 

Essential

• Senior operations leadership experience within, advertising, consulting, creative production, media agency or professional services.
• Deep understanding of agency operating models — including client delivery, workflow, resource planning, utilisation, scopes of work, billing, compliance and margin management.
• Proven experience leading regional or multi-market operations teams in a people-led, fast-paced environment.
• Strong commercial acumen, with confidence managing the operational levers that affect profitability.
• Experience owning or improving resource and capacity management, including demand and supply visibility, workforce mix and deployment planning.
• Ability to use operational data, KPIs and reporting to identify risks, drive action and improve performance.
• Track record embedding governance, process discipline and ways of working across complex teams or markets.
• Strong cross-functional stakeholder skills — with experience partnering across regional and global functions including Finance, HR, Technology, Account and Delivery.
• Proven people leadership: building capable teams, strengthening operational performance and creating a culture of accountability.
• Comfortable moving between strategic direction and hands-on operational problem-solving.

Desirable

• Experience in a global matrix organisation with regional, global and offshore delivery models.
• Background in an in-house agency, embedded agency, creative production or complex marketing ecosystem.
• Exposure to client mobilisation, implementation, transition or new operating model design.
• Experience contributing to RFPs, commercial modelling, solution design or delivery model development.
• Exposure to automation, AI-enabled operations, workflow optimisation or digital transformation in a marketing or agency environment.

Commercial and budget accountability

• Experience overseeing regional or annual operational budgets and presenting financial performance to senior stakeholders.
• Track record of driving margin discipline — reducing leakage, rework and avoidable cost across complex delivery environments.
• Ability to connect operational decisions to commercial outcomes and communicate financial performance clearly to leadership.
• Strategic integration of AI tools to improve operational efficiency, insight and reporting across a regional function.
• Experience setting AI governance standards and embedding AI-assisted workflows within a team or function.
• Agentic leadership approach: systematic, outcome-oriented problem-solving across complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Confidence driving AI adoption and sharing best practice across a broader operations network.
• Strong judgment in evaluating AI outputs and maintaining rigorous human oversight.

Req ID: 18558

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