Sydney Head of Investment
At Wavemaker, we believe there always is a better way to grow. By Positively Provoking Growth for our clients, our people and our partners, we shape decisions and experiences through media, content and technology. We are part of GroupM and WPP; the largest media buying alliance and marketing communications group ranked #1 in the world. In Australia and New Zealand, we have over 250 people working across six offices: Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Auckland.
Winner of Agency of the Year 2023, Wavemaker empowers our people to bring 100% of themselves 100% of the time. Our culture of Positive Provocation unites us and makes us stronger as individuals and collectively. We push boundaries through positive provocation and delivering impactful results for our clients.
About the role
The role of Sydney Head of Investment is to lead a high functioning agency team who deliver the highest excellence in Investment Strategy, Implementation Planning, Negotiations and Buying, ensuring client campaigns are planned and executed in an effective, efficient, and future facing way.
You provide thought leadership and lead key senior client and publisher engagement, helping to unlock transformational growth for our people, our clients and our agency.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:
People
- Collaborate closely with the agency MD, to shape the direction of the Sydney agency, building solves for today and influencing change for the future.
- Ensuring we have the right structure for the team and that we are retaining and attracting the best talent for a future fit agency.
- Motivate team to achieve individual, team and organisational goals.
- Lead and coach team to ensure they reach their potential.
- Empower team members with skills to improve their confidence, product knowledge, and communication skills.
- Set the rhythm and lead regular team meetings.
- Oversee the workflow of the team to ensure that SOX controls, SLAs and KPIs are adhered to.
- Oversee leave and team absences to ensure coverage for team responsibilities and minimal impact to remaining team members.
- Conduct fortnightly 1:1 check-ins, annual Career Conversations and Annual Performance Reviews with direct reports through Culture Amp.
- Liaise with the People Team to resolve any team disputes to ensure a safe and productive team environment.
- Create and foster a cohesive team environment through team activities and cultural moments.
- Continuously champion agency values that build strong and trusted connections, solution-oriented perspectives and demonstrate that you genuinely care for collective team success.
- Foster knowledge sharing, and continuous learning around point of views, trends, and relevant skills to continue nurturing a high-performing team.
- Lead teams while adapting to fast changing priorities.
Clients
- A senior Investment consultant for your client.
- Deliver innovative strategic insights by acting as an expert on the client's business, industry, and competitors. Exceptional understanding of client challenges, objectives & initiatives, and be able to clearly articulate these to your team and your media partners.
- Seek out reformist ways to keep clients informed on relevant developments and changes to media landscape. Lead communication of market trends, developments or any changes that will impact any buying performance. Provide expertise and knowledge of economic, market, vendor, and audience dynamics.
- Regularly meet with senior vendors and partners to drive your client's agenda, identifying opportunities to fuel transformational growth for clients.
- A leading role in building the agency's reputation for outstanding client service.
- Build strong, trusted, and enduring client relationships at a senior level.
- Robust understanding of the in-scope services of your clients and the process for completing work above and beyond. Product
- Collaborate closely with the National Head of Investment and the Chief Investment & Operations Officer, to shape the future Investment offering for Wavemaker, and to define the success metrics for the team.
- Serve as a leadership voice internally and externally, with a strong focus on developing and rolling out best in class implementation planning and buying product for our clients.
- Oversee the construction and presentation of effective, bespoke, and future fit implementation planning and investment strategies for clients.
- Fosters a culture of innovative thinking and creativity, leveraging your senior relationships with publishers to bring insights and case studies from across the market and more broadly, to the agency to inspire client strategies.
- Lean into new Investment models, tools, services, and measurement, forming a point of view and case studies to share with the team, and the broader agency. Play a leading role in the development, trial and roll-out of new models, tools, services, and measurement.
- Accurate forecasting and visibility of client expenditure across all media, for the market.
- Benchmark agency cost and quality metrics internally and utilise this data to maximise value extraction for clients.
- Exceptional knowledge of the media landscape, able to confidently articulate and train others on core media principles and the how each media touchpoint can fuel growth for clients. Exceptional ability to utilise agency and industry planning and buying tools to enhance value for clients.
- Senior consultant on GroupM proprietary product and services, maintaining an exceptional understanding about their offerings and relevance to our clients, can clearly articulate their benefits of their inclusion, overseeing the conversion of growth opportunities that can help transform client media plans.
- Lead initiatives to improve both agency and client capabilities, working across vendors and partners to achieve success. Seek to find, communicate, and implement improvements in all aspects of the role.
- Oversee client media audit meetings, media negotiations and the development and execution of client growth and transformation plans.
- Ensure your team are delivering on time and with accuracy.
- Pivotal role in new business development and pitching when required.
- Responsible for the overall delivery of client trading KPI’s across the agency.
- Deliver an expert POV in every meeting, providing innovative strategic insights by acting as an expert in your craft.
Growth & Marketing
- Identify, collate, and showcase examples of great work from within the team, both internally and externally.
- Build the agency’s reputation by contributing to entries for awards and competitions and by contributing to industry thought leadership.
- Be a positive face of the agency at industry events, either related to clients’ category or our media partners.
- Be an agency spokesperson on industry subjects with a strong, high profile and positive reputation and personality in the market.
- Share relevant and insightful commentary internally, for the broader agency.
Skills & Experience:
- Passion for our industry, with extensive agency and client service experience.
- Proven capability in leading a large diverse team and embedding a values-based culture.
- Collaborative and astute - able to build trust and respect within a network and capable of influencing through persuasion and leadership.
- Strong, up to date, media landscape knowledge (confidently able to articulate macroeconomic and audience trends and forecast challenges and opportunities for clients).
- Inspiring communicator, with exceptional presentation skills.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the patience to examine detail and create solutions.
- First class negotiation skills.
- Results Driven. Passionate about delivering business results for clients, with the ability to identify and clearly articulate what’s working and why.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE:
In 3 months:
- Have grasped the strategic priorities for the agency, engaged agency and other business stakeholders in fully understanding their needs and put in place the foundations for a collaborative relationship.
- A strong understanding of and can clearly articulate the agency and group proposition, core processes and our way of working.
- Immersed yourself in the team with an understanding of current Investment strategies for clients.
In 6 months:
- Demonstrated your ability to deliver on all aspects of the role in an efficient, effective, and proactive way.
- Strengthened your key stakeholder relationships to deliver great team work consistently.
In 12 months:
- Taking on greater ownership of your role – responsibility and volume.
- Building strong relationships with publishers, representing the agency appropriately and ensuring that campaigns are delivered to the highest quality.
- Elevating your impact and influence within the business, with demonstrable benefits for the agency and our clients. Working at Wavemaker
Inclusive policies
- Flexible work environment
- Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents and carers throughout their parenting and caring journey.
- Discounts and corporate benefits
- Continuous training and development opportunities
Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often don't apply for roles if they don't meet all the criteria. Here, we strongly encourage you to apply if you’re interested: we'd love to know how you can positively impact our team with your experience!
We believe that diversity is vital and positively influences the environment in which we operate. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment that is free of discrimination, harassment or bullying. Race, colour, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or veteran status have no bearing on our hiring decisions, we encourage all applicants.
Apply now and send your CV via the link!
#LI-POST
