IPG MediaBrands

SVP, Client Ops

IPG MediaBrands$190K — $230K *
Business Services
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years in client or agency operations with a focus on delivery governance
  • 7+ years in operational leadership within US media or marketing services
  • Expertise in media workflows, financial operations, and delivery models
  • Proven track record in designing scalable operational processes
  • Experience in financial tracking modernization and budget governance
  • Strong ability in media operations process redesign and SLA management
  • Effective decision-maker in complex, multi-stakeholder environments

Responsibilities

  • Ensure operational integrity for key clients with a focus on confidence and accuracy
  • Lead best practices in operational delivery and reporting
  • Act as a senior escalation point for complex operational issues
  • Collaborate with finance to manage scope, resources, and budgets
  • Establish robust operational controls and compliance processes
  • Drive automation of financial reporting to improve efficiency
  • Optimize client media operations for clarity and performance

Benefits

  • Medical and dental coverage
  • 401(k) plans and flex spending
  • Life insurance and disability support
  • Employee discount program
  • Employee stock purchase program
  • Paid family benefits
Full Job Description
Overview

The Client Operations Lead is accountable for driving operational excellence that strengthens client relationships, improves responsiveness, and delivers a scalable, high-quality client experience across key accounts. This role leads the operational system that underpins delivery - spanning budget stewardship, controls and governance, tools and workflow discipline, and the practical ways of working that ensure campaigns and programs execute with accuracy and confidence.

Responsibilities

1. Client Operations Excellence & Delivery Integrity
• Own the operational integrity for a key client, ensuring our operating model is delivered with accuracy, consistency and confidence across all teams.
• Lead best practice approaches to operational delivery, embedding rigor across workflows, controls, reporting and escalation.
• Act as a senior operational escalation point for complex delivery, governance or execution issues, ensuring swift resolution and minimal client impact.
• Partner with Client Leaders and Finance to support scope development, staffing models, resource governance and labor tracking.

2. Scoping, Budget, Financial Operations & Governance
• Establish and maintain robust operational controls and audit-ready processes to ensure compliance, transparency, accountability, and effective risk management across delivery activities.
• Lead the scoping and QBR processes, ensuring accurate scope definition, ongoing tracking, budget oversight, and alignment between delivery commitments, financial performance, and business objectives.
• Partner closely with Finance to drive commercial accuracy, forecasting, budgeting, and financial reporting, enabling informed decision-making and strong governance.

3. Tooling Adoption, Change Management & Financial Tracking

This role plays a critical part in modernizing how the team manages financial tracking and workflow operations - moving from manual, fragmented processes to integrated, accountable systems.

Financial Tracking Modernization
• Establish a single source of truth for budget pacing, reconciliation and spend accountability across all campaigns.
• Partner with Finance and Client Leaders to automate recurring financial reporting and reduce manual reconciliation burden.

Workflow Management Tool Adoption
• Identify and resolve workflow gaps and duplication, ensuring tools function as an integrated operational system rather than isolated point solutions.
• Develop and maintain workflow documentation, SOPs and training materials to support sustained tool adoption.

Change Management
• Design and execute a structured change management approach for all new tool and process rollouts, covering communications, training, adoption tracking and feedback loops.
• Build stakeholder buy-in at all levels, from exec sponsors to day-to-day practitioners, ensuring changes land with clarity and minimal disruption.
• Proactively monitor adoption metrics and address non-compliance or usage gaps with targeted enablement, not just enforcement.
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement - gathering user feedback, iterating on tools and processes, and sharing lessons learned across the team.

4. Media Operations Process Redesign

A core focus of this role is redesigning and optimizing the client's end-to-end media operations model to improve clarity, accountability and delivery performance across the full campaign lifecycle.

Optimized Operating Model
• Lead and optimize operations for purposes of enhanced client integration, alignment and work product - including campaign lifecycle mapping and workflow standardization.
• Conduct automation assessments leveraging OMC capabilities and resources to identify opportunities to reduce manual lift and accelerate delivery.
• Establish a harmonized set of operating protocols across media channels, ensuring consistent standards for trafficking, quality control and delivery governance.

SLA Performance & Accountability
• Conduct a deep-dive assessment of performance against the current SLA structure, with particular focus on Core SLA obligations.
• Identify key friction points, bottlenecks and systemic delivery risks - translating findings into actionable process improvements and governance updates.
• Define and implement an ongoing SLA monitoring cadence, including clear escalation paths, resolution timelines and client-facing reporting.

5. Process Optimization & Operational Solutions
• Partner with clients and agency teams to design and deliver operational solutions that meet specific client requirements while aligning to Omnicom standards.
• Analyze complex and competing requirements, translating them into practical, scalable operational solutions.
• Resolve conflicting stakeholder input by making clear decisions that prioritize standardization, delivery integrity and client satisfaction.

6. Client Operations Community & Capability
• Play a key role in the Client Operations community.
• Steward best practice assets, playbooks, templates and toolkits to support operational excellence at scale.

Skills and Qualifications
• 10+ years of experience in client operations, agency operations, delivery governance or operational leadership.
• 7+ years of leadership experience in operations or client operations within a US-based media or marketing services environment.
• Strong understanding of media workflows, financial operations and delivery models.
• Proven ability to design, embed and govern operational processes at scale, including tool adoption and change management programs.
• Experience leading financial tracking modernization efforts - including workflow tool implementation, reconciliation process improvement and budget governance.
• Demonstrated success in media operations process redesign, including campaign lifecycle mapping, SLA management and trafficking workflow optimization.
• Comfortable making decisions in ambiguous, multi-stakeholder environments with competing priorities.
• Strong client credibility and calm executive presence; able to operate confidently at senior client and leadership levels.
• Pragmatic, outcome-focused mindset with a bias toward simplification, automation and clarity.

Wage and Benefits

We offer a Total Rewards package that includes medical and dental coverage, 401(k) plans, flex spending, life insurance, disability, employee discount program, employee stock purchase program and paid family benefits to support you and your family.

The salary range for this position is posted below. Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position, market considerations, budgetary considerations, tenure and standing with the Company (applicable to current employees), as well as the employee's/applicant's skill set, level of experience, and qualifications.

Salary Range

$190,000-$230,000 USD

About IPG MediaBrands

The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. is an American publicly traded advertising company. The company consists of five major networks: FCB, IPG Mediabrands, McCann Worldgroup, MullenLowe Group, and Marketing Specialists, as well as a number of independent specialty agencies in the areas of public relations, sports marketing, talent representation, and healthcare. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside WPP, Publicis and Omnicom. Phillippe Krakowsky became the company's CEO on January 1, 2021.
Learn more about IPG MediaBrands
Size
13,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2009

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