The posting
Who We Are
VML is a global creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce to create connected brands that drive growth. Guided by a Human First philosophy, VML is known for its innovative work for brands and consistently ranks among the world’s leading creative companies, including the WARC Creative 100. VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.
VML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.
For more information, please visit www.vml.com and follow along on LinkedIn #WeAreVML.
The Role
As the Growth Group Director, you will be a senior hands-on growth operator whose value is measured in progress: moving live opportunities forward, giving early signals the structure and commercial credibility they need to become real ES pursuits, and keeping momentum alive when it would otherwise stall.
You will be client-facing, independently capable and expected to shape work. You will develop opportunity materials, run disciplined triage, accelerate live pursuits and connect client needs directly to ES capabilities. You will work with MDs, EDs, GCLs, agencies, client teams and ES capability leaders not as an internal resource to be directed, but as a skilled growth operator who can manage senior stakeholder interactions, build opportunity narratives and hold your own in the conversations that determine whether an opportunity moves or dies.
This role is a strong fit for experienced operators who bring a blend of consulting, technology, agency, client services, strategic account, sales or transformation experience.
Core Responsibilities
Find & Filter:
- Work with senior growth leaders to identify ES growth signals across priority accounts, WPP relationships, client teams, market triggers and direct enterprise opportunities, bringing your own initiative and commercial instinct to the search rather than simply following direction
- Assess whether an opportunity has a clear client need, ES relevance, value potential, stakeholder access, urgency, winnability and a credible next action. You bring enough commercial judgement to give an honest, well-reasoned recommendation rather than a neutral summary
- Develop opportunity briefs, problem statements, stakeholder maps, account views, discovery questions, value hypotheses and pursuit narratives, producing materials that are precise, client-ready and immediately usable by the senior leaders and client stakeholders who need them
Shape & Accelerate:
- Support discovery meetings, workshops, pitch preparation, proposal direction, client-ready points of view and immediate follow-up actions, keeping pursuits moving at the pace they require and ensuring nothing loses momentum in the gaps between conversations
- Apply knowledge across one or more of media, creative, CRM, commerce, CX, content, data, AI, platforms, marketing technology, managed services or operating model transformation, with enough depth to add genuine value in client conversations rather than simply providing context
- Work with ES capability leaders, solution experts, commercial leads, partner teams and delivery SMEs to clarify the opportunity and define the required activation path, knowing who to bring in, when to bring them and how to brief them well
Clarify & Build:
- Turn ambiguous inputs into clear, high-quality material that can support senior client and internal conversations. The standard is not that the material exists, but that it is good enough to use without revision
- Capture patterns, proof points, cases and market themes that help the broader team move faster on similar opportunities, contributing to a growth system that gets sharper with everything you learn and produce
- Maintain a clear, current view of opportunity value, stage, next action, conversion risk and required decision points, treating commercial discipline not as reporting overhead but as the operating standard of the role
Who you are
- You are an experienced client-facing operator with the maturity to work directly with senior internal and client stakeholders. You are not the most junior person in the room seeking guidance; you are someone whose perspective and output are expected to move the conversation forward
- You are comfortable in ambiguity and able to structure problems and move work forward without waiting for full instruction. At this level, the brief is rarely complete, the path is rarely clear, and the value you add is precisely your ability to create order from that uncertainty
- You are commercially minded and outcome-focused, with a genuine instinct for what has real revenue potential and what should be qualified out before it consumes energy it will not justify
- You are a strong writer and thinker who can translate complex transformation topics into sharp, usable opportunity materials. In this role, the quality of your thinking is visible in everything you produce, and the standard is whether a senior client or leader can pick it up and use it
- You are collaborative, practical and proactive, able to work across GCLs, agencies, consulting, technology, platform and ES capability teams without needing a formal authority structure to create momentum or a complete brief to begin
What you'll need
- You typically bring 10 to 12 or more years of experience across strategic account management, growth, consulting, technology transformation, digital transformation, client services, business development, enterprise sales, media, creative, data, CRM, commerce or CX, with a track record that reflects genuine contribution to commercial outcomes rather than simply proximity to them
- You have direct experience supporting or leading client conversations, opportunity qualification, discovery, proposal development, pitch preparation or pursuit acceleration. You understand what separates a conversation that progresses from one that politely goes nowhere
- You understand how large organisations identify, fund and buy transformation, technology, marketing or customer experience work. This is not a theoretical framework for you; it is a practical reality you have navigated with real clients making real decisions
- You can move across complex internal organisations and connect multiple capabilities around one client opportunity, working through ambiguity of structure and authority without losing sight of the commercial objective
- A background in a consulting firm, agency network, technology business, systems integrator, digital transformation firm, media network, WPP operating company or enterprise client environment gives you relevant and valuable context. What matters most is whether that background sharpened your ability to spot opportunity, qualify it honestly, produce high-quality materials and create the momentum that moves a pursuit forward
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.
WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
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