Head of Commercial Operations

BRAND: Starcom
Job Function: Operations
Location: London, United Kingdom
Experience Level: Management
Workplace Type: Hybrid

Company description

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the centre of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, we are the flagship Publicis Media agency that uses our 'Power of One' business model, with teams that span multiple disciplines across clients such as Aldi, P&G, Primark, Samsung, Stellantis, and Visa.

We place a huge focus on our People, and have driven flagship D&I and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential, and we encourage everyone to make "Brave Plays" in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign's Best Places to Work for five years in a row, Media Week's Agency of the Year 2025 and one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025.

Overview

What will you be doing?

Our global ops team is responsible for managing the commercial & operational infrastructure that connects our people, process and technology. Publicis has spent the last 10 years honing our capabilities in the operations area, which now have become foundational to how we deliver excellence across client business.

The opportunity is to lead the Global Commercial & Operations team for Publicis One and lead the commercial process directly with the procurement team at The Lego Group, developing our strategy for how we will connect our people, process and technology from strategy through to activation/ delivery and reporting.

The role reports directly into the Managing Partner and has ownership of the workstreams to direct end to end operations, connection and commercials for our client globally.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support a global team through scoping, staffing, PRIP and management of multi-million-dollar business covering large scale operational projects and multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Own the commercial relationship with The Lego Group, ensuring we drive informed negotiations, work within scope and have fair remuneration
• Maintain a comprehensive view of account health, pressure points and areas of opportunity across all LOBs and EMEA markets
• Develop and cost any incremental scope asks with the finance lead to ensure consistency and value is delivered to Disney
• Support team to cost any incremental scope ensuring compliance to the MSA

Qualifications

What are we looking for?

• Solid commercial, media, operations, or program management experience
• Experience in aligning optimal staffing structure for local and global team, and negotiating with procurement team at The LEGO Group
• Experience driving alignment and adoption of process with local markets, working to global deadlines and providing progress reports to internal and client stakeholders
• Ability to understand business pain points from C-Level stakeholders - and develop a strategy to address the issues through application of improved operational process, people and / or technology
• Clear accountability to evolve the business to become a more operationally functional team, ready for the future
• Experience developing C-level stakeholder presentations and presenting your thoughts and ideas
• Proactive, brave voice who will suggest new ideas and challenge the status quo, but can also help carry out the smart ideas of others
• Ability to anticipate problems before they arise

#LI-MP1

Additional information

Publicis Media has fantastic benefits on offer to all of our employees, full details of which are shared when you join. This includes the classics like Pension, Life Assurance, Private Medical, as well as Reflection Days, Shared Parental Leave, and spans other initiatives like:

Please check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG's (Employee Action Groups).

At Publicis Media , we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.

We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We'll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.

Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.