Company Description
With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the centre of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, we are the flagship Publicis Media agency that uses our ‘Power of One’ business model, with teams that span multiple disciplines across clients such as Aldi, P&G, P&O Ferries, Primark, Samsung, Stellantis, and Visa.
We place a huge focus on our People and have driven flagship D&I and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential and we encourage everyone to make “Brave Plays” in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work for three years in a row (2021, 2022 and 2023) and most excitingly, Media Week's Agency of the Year 2023!
Job Description
As the Client Operations Senior Executive, you will assist the team and the team’s Manager/Director to drive efficiencies by evolving and streamlining processes through automation, simplification, de-duplication, and standardisation. You will promote and police the Samsung best practice model and offer process guidance & support to the wider teams.
What will I be doing?
You will liaise closely with all levels of staff internally and externally, including the UK Client Finance team, US Ops team, Starcom Finance, as well Resources (AP and Billing) to align on best practice and ensure admin deadlines are met for the Samsung team. You will work closely on a day-to-day basis with both the Planning and Activation teams at Starcom in the UK, Globally, local market teams across the EU region, as well as with our creative agency counterparts to ensure that all teams are adhering to correct processes, templates, and taxonomy.
In addition, you will:
Pro-actively work with Planning & Activation teams to monitor budget vs spend on Media Ocean trackers and maintain PO closure tracker ensuring MSA deadlines are adhered to.
Track and assist Client Ops Manager/Director in providing regular updates to leadership for invoice rejections, outstanding DCs, write-offs, late/missed bookings, booking reconciliation status, IPS queries exceeding set SLA, aged debt and unbilled.
Update and analyse key financial and operational reports as necessary with the team to assist with preparing monthly/weekly reports and other data as required by the client/internal teams.
Cross-check all billing evidence submitted by Activation team to ensure accuracy, and identify and escalate error trends, offering guidance and detailed solutions.
Work directly with the other team members to make sure the data presented to senior management is accurate and completed within deadline.
Qualifications
What are we looking for?
In this role, we’re looking for someone who is a pro-active thinker, with key attention to detail and numbers, and the ability to see the bigger picture when problem solving. They will need to be an effective communicator, both written and verbal, ensuring they identify what is required, and ensuring the financial process is strongly adhered to by all parties. They will need to have strong organisation and time management skills. They will need to be able to take control of day-to-day operations, whilst keeping the Client Operations Manager/Director up to date with issues that may need more senior involvement.
In addition, you’ll have:
Experience, or awareness of MediaOcean suite of apps; (not essential but a big plus)
Ability to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment and complete tasks accurately
Strong team player, showing relevant initiative and pro-activity. Be confident in the financial process and provide accurate support and advice to the planning/activation team when required.
Good working knowledge of Excel, including pivot tables, vlookups and basic formulae.
Media Industry experience a plus
Finance or Operations experience a plus.
What can we offer?
Starcom works differently to most agencies; we base many of our models on consultancy ways of working to build a more agile workforce in this hybrid world. We complement our account teams with Squads – small teams that work for a short period to solve a specific brief. We hold cross discipline Sprints to crack client briefs at speed. These processes are designed to fuel high performance and fast results through collaboration and naturally mean that our people learn and develop incredibly quickly.
In addition, we have a variety of more typical benefits to working here including 25 days of annual leave (plus bank holidays and your birthday off), a generous pension scheme, lots of Employee Action Groups to join and lots of discounts across Westfield.
Additional Information
Publicis Groupe operates a hybrid working pattern with employees being office-based on Mondays and two other days during the working week.
If you have any adjustment needs arising from a disability or medical condition to fully participate in the recruitment process, please discuss this with the recruiter who contacts you.
#LI-Hybrid
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