Optimisation Principal at VML in London, England, United Kingdom

Who We Are VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML’s specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world’s largest and most awarded health agencies. VML’s global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney. About WPP WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com. We are seeking an experienced and visionary leader to spearhead our clients experimentation led growth initiatives. The Optimisation Principal will be responsible for defining and driving the overall growth strategy in partnership with our client, cultivating a culture of rapid learning, and ensuring sustainable business impact through a rigorous, data-driven approach. What you’ll be doing: Principal lead for all global Optimisation activity: Serve as the Principal lead for all global Optimisation activities, overseeing daily operations and strategic direction for the client. Develop a deep understanding of the client's business landscape and challenges to identify and drive high-impact, growth-focused solutions. Manage program resources, budgets, and timelines, ensuring the successful, on-schedule, and in-scope delivery of both tactical and strategic initiatives. Leverage a strong commercial acumen to optimise resource allocation, monitor throughput, and rigorously track Return on Investment (ROI). Contribute to strategic forecasting and provide comprehensive performance reporting. Cultivate and maintain robust, strategic relationships with all client stakeholders across global regions. Optimisation strategy: Champion Experimentation-Led Growth (ELG) across the organisation, fostering a mindset that moves beyond mere 'optimisation' to establish robust, evidence-driven operating systems. Define and implement a comprehensive ELG framework, methodologies, and best practices. Lead cross-functional teams to design, execute, and analyse experiments that drive key business metrics. Develop and scale an infrastructure for continuous testing, learning, and iteration. Translate complex data insights into actionable strategies that ensure sustained business impact. Technical planning and delivery: Lead the technical planning and execution of all optimisation programs, leveraging in-depth knowledge of the underlying technology stack. This includes, but is not limited to, advanced experimentation platforms, comprehensive analytics suites, Content Management Systems (CMSs), Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), and sophisticated recommendation and personalisation engines. Architect integrated solutions by understanding the capabilities, limitations, and interoperability of these technologies, ensuring they are strategically deployed to maximise impact and deliver against growth objectives. What we want from you: This is a pivotal role demanding a unique blend of leadership, strategic thinking, deep technical grounding, and exceptional relationship-building. Visionary Leadership & Strategic Thinking: Lead strategically: Transform complex business challenges into growth-focused optimisation strategies; set ambitious goals, build roadmaps, and understand the market. Inspire teams: Act as an influencer, fostering experimentation and continuous improvement; adept at leading, mentoring, communicating across levels, and driving change. Champion ELG: Instil an Experimentation-Led Growth mindset, moving beyond basic A/B testing to a systemic, evidence-driven approach with scientific rigor and strong hypothesis generation. Global perspective: Navigate diverse market needs, cultural nuances, and regional complexities to implement effective global strategies. Deep Technical Expertise & Architectural Acumen: Profound knowledge of optimisation technologies and their integration for growth initiatives, including: Experimentation Platforms (e.g., Adobe Target, Optimizely): Advanced features, server/client-side, statistical interpretation. Analytics Suites (e.g., GA4, Adobe Analytics, Amplitude): Advanced segmentation, custom reporting, event tracking. Content Management Systems (CMSs) (e.g., AEM, Sitecore): Personalisation & content delivery support. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) (e.g., Segment, Tealium): Data ingestion, unification, segmentation, activation. Recommendation & Personalisation Engines (e.g., Dynamic Yield, Braze): Algorithm types, real-time personalisation, integration. Design integrated solutions, demonstrating how platforms work together seamlessly for business outcomes. Strong understanding of data infrastructure (pipelines, warehousing, governance) related to experimentation Flawless Execution & Program Management: Manage large-scale global programs: Meticulous planning, execution, and oversight, ensuring on-time, on-budget delivery. Proficiency in agile/waterfall methodologies, resource allocation, and risk management. Define and implement efficient processes and repeatable frameworks for experimentation, technical delivery, and reporting Data-Driven Acumen & Commercial Focus: Drive data-driven decisions: Leverage insights to identify opportunities, validate hypotheses, measure impact, and recommend strategy. Strong analytical skills, statistical understanding for A/B testing, and complex dataset interpretation. Sharp commercial acumen: Understand financial implications, tie initiatives to measurable ROI, and proficiency in forecasting & budgeting. Excel at performance reporting and compelling storytelling for diverse audiences (technical to executive) Exceptional Client & Stakeholder Partnership: Build strong global client relationships: Act as a trusted advisor, practicing active listening and expert expectation management. Collaborate seamlessly: Work across product, engineering, marketing, and data science teams, influencing without direct authority. What we can offer you: Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we’ll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We’ll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are. Permanent only: We offer a great benefits package including a discretionary bonus scheme, training opportunities, competitive pension, medical insurance, life assurance, social events, opportunities to buy and sell holidays, family friendly policies, discounts with hundreds of retailers and much more. Our culture thrives on our core values, designed for impact-driven individuals: Heart, Brains and Courage. We lead with Heart, fostering empathy and trust where genuine connections and human-centric work flourish. We empower your Brains for innovation, valuing relentless curiosity and collaborative intelligence to solve complex challenges. And we champion Courage, inspiring you to speak up, embrace experimentation, and advocate for bold solutions that push our thinking to be better than yesterday. AT VML Enterprise Solutions Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world’s leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands. We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges, Shell and Tiffany & Co. We’ve built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business. As our business grows internationally, we’re looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client’s successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team. #LI-EMEA #LI-AS1 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. VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information, please visit www.vml.com, and follow along on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X. When you click "Submit Application", this will send any information you add below to VML. Before you do this, we think it's a good idea to read through our Recruitment Privacy Policy. California residents should read our California Recruitment Privacy Notice. This explains what we do with your personal data when you apply for a role with us, and, how you can update the information you have provided us with or how to remove it.