Operations and Program Lead - NatWest

About Us 

IPG Mediabrands is the media and marketing solutions division of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). Mediabrands manages approximately $40 billion in marketing investment globally on behalf of its clients and provides strategic services and solutions across its award-winning, full-service agency networks UM, Initiative and Mediahub and through its innovative marketing specialist companies Kinesso, Magna, Orion, Rapport and Mediabrands Content Studio. Mediabrands clients include many of the world’s most recognisable and iconic brands from a broad portfolio of industry sectors. The company employs more than 13,000 marketing experts in more than 130 countries, representing the full diversity of humanity. For more information, please visit our website: www.ipgmediabrands.com.

Role Description 

Operations & Program Management Lead, EMEA 

Location:  London, UK 
Reports to:  Operations Lead (primary) and Integrated Business Lead (secondary) 

Team UTD is the dedicated, integrated agency solution by Omnicom for NatWest Group. It is made up of primarily media and creative talent from Omnicom Media (Initiative) and Omnicom Creative (TBWA\adam&eve) and services all brands and franchises of NatWest Group. The fundamental defining characteristic is that Team UTD is a truly integrated agency team, meaning that all work (campaign strategy, planning and execution) is delivered by specialists from media and creative disciplines working connected and to one common process. No silos or handoff points, just integrated deliverables, responses and campaign execution for NatWest Group. 

Responsibilities 

1) Program orchestration & connectivity 

• Work closely with business/franchise leads and understand the briefs and projects across Team UTD; support the business/franchise leads to “connect the dots” across briefs and disciplines 

• Maintain a holistic view of all major initiatives and deliverables across the account (media and creative), identifying dependencies, sequencing needs, and cross-workstream impacts 

• Chair key integrated forums (e.g., weekly delivery leadership, monthly integrated planning, quarterly roadmap reviews), ensuring clear actions, owners, and follow-up 

• Work alongside media and creative teams on key Tier 1/2 campaigns/projects and ensure that opportunities for cross-project collaboration are realised  

2) Operational standards & ways of working (PM excellence) 

• Partner with the OM/OC Operations teams and Team UTD project managers to establish and evolve a best-in-class project management office (PMO) approach for NatWest, including templates, documentation, training and immersions 

• Ensure that Team UTD staff (especially account/business leadership roles) are fully immersed into team UTD PMO and ways of working, including the role of Workfront as the single source of truth for all project and status information 

• Oversee Team UTD project managers and ensure that day-to-day project management supports the objective of working as an integrated team and  

3) Stakeholder management & communication 

• Build a strong relationship with NWG marketing operations, process and governance teams and actively contribute to ongoing work to enhance the way Team UTD and NWG collaborate  

• Proactively identify areas for improving collaboration across Team UTD and between NWG and OMC, and work with Team UTD and NWG stakeholders to implement initiatives that address these opportunities 

• Translate complexity (of client, projects or cross-project) into clear requirements for Team UTD: what’s happening, what’s changing, what’s needed, and by when. 

4) Planning, risk & delivery management 

• Own the integrated roadmap and milestone plan (supported by PMO execution), ensuring it is current, realistic, and widely understood 

• Drive proactive risk management, surfacing issues early, shaping mitigation plans, and escalating appropriately 

• Ensure delivery health is visible: progress against milestones, key risks/issues, resourcing pressure points, and critical path items 

Required experience 

• Proven program management experience in an agency, consultancy, or complex marketing organisation 

• Experience and confidence to manage multiple concurrent workstreams and handle multiple complex groups of stakeholders 

• Strong integration mindset: able to connect media and creative delivery and align cross-functional teams 

• Excellent stakeholder management: confident with senior stakeholders; able to influence without direct authority 

• Practical PM mastery: planning, dependency mapping, RAID, governance, change control, and delivery assurance 

• Experience working with and alongside a project management office (PMO), confident with knowing what best PM practices look like and able to influence the development and future-proofing of the PMO setup 

• Strong communication: clear written and verbal updates; can simplify complexity and drive action 

• Demonstrates composure and effectiveness in high-pressure client situations, and operates effectively in complex situations 

• Experience with Workfront an advantage