Associate Director, Client Operations

Company description

As the traditional marketing funnel collapses and fragmentation increases, clients rely on Publicis Collective to connect media, data, technology, and teams by what matters most – business outcomes. We’re a full-service media agency where nearly half our experts focus on data, research, analytics, technology, or strategy. At Publicis Collective, 100% of our 2,200 global practitioners can access advanced insights and scale media with precision through our proprietary OS, powering marketing that drives measurable business performance and transformation.

Overview

The Client Operations department manages client-specific operational tasks across practice area within the agency, working closely with Strategy, Investment, HR, Finance, Invoice Reconciliation, and Agency Administration & Compliance. We centralize and standardize fundamental work required across all pieces of business, as well as bring tactical and detail-oriented work streams together to find smarter, faster ways of working. We create a space for those whose strengths include being highly organized problem-solvers. We help differentiate Collective from our competitors and provide a critical foundation for the agency.

The Associate Director, Client Operations will be part of a growing Client Operations team on a well-known client. This position has tremendous learning potential and provides the opportunity to work on a high-energy, highly visible account.

The Associate Director is responsible for training and developing individuals on the necessary media systems and relative processes within Budgets and Compliance to drive company and client goals. This includes the ability to work on high profile client business while successfully owning tasks related to forecasting, accruing, data QAs and overseeing the processing of client billing. They are masters in the use of current media systems and have complete understanding of overall processes, policies, and procedures related to Budgets & Compliance. This individual has experience and proven success in this area to qualify for this position.

Responsibilities

• Work with Director on team roles and responsibilities, prioritizing key projects across the team, and with special requests or projects as needed
• Manage Supervisor and Sr. Associate’s workload; ensuring all tasks are completed within required timelines and client-specific billing procedures work within system expectations to meet client needs
• Confirm accuracy of work completed by Supervisor/ Sr. Associates
• Lead Supervisor and Sr. Associate’s career development via teaching tasks and coaching skills
• Maintain positive relationships with agency contacts, system contacts, and clients
• Lead and steward key processes such as monthly billing and financials reporting, which involve multiple agency teams
• Periodically check emails to respond to urgent issues after close of business
• Create, enforce, and refine processes related to billing verification, financially reporting, and audit compliance
• Lead team responsible delivering various financial documents such as authorizations, billing & budget files, and ordered vs approved reporting
• Assist with global reporting, if needed by client
• Attend Agency system trainings/meetings (i.e. MediaOcean, MediaTools, etc.)
• Participate in system enhancement testing and training
• Collaborate with Analytics, Strategy and Investment peers on account-specific requests
• Handle high-profile or sensitive client requests
• Act as the point of contact for the internal brand teams for all Budgets & Compliance related questions to ensure consistency and accuracy across the brands

Qualifications

• 5+ years previous experience in Financials, project management, and/or Budgets & Compliance
• Proficiency in making progress/completing work, even with overlapping deadlines
• Strong Microsoft Office suite skills, particularly PPT and Excel (where filtering, pivoting, vlookups, and charts/graphs building are key)
• Experienced in MediaTools, Prisma, and MediaOcean
• Quantitative and analytical skills, combined with openness to a role that requires a mix of art and science.
• Ability to work independently, troubleshoot and determine efficient next steps to improve processes across all teams
• Eager to be a leader when working