Planning & Connections Partner

Publicis Groupe; Sydney; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wholeself program

Publicis Liberté flexibility

Marcel AI platform access

Extensive learning & development

Job summary

Publicis Groupe ANZ. Join the founding team behind Publicis Plus+ for PepsiCo, leading media planning and turning growth priorities into connected experiences that drive brand performance across markets.

You’ll work with senior stakeholders, blend data, creativity and science, and mentor other planners while shaping an ambitious agenda across PepsiCo brands.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in connections planning or integrated media planning.
• Strong knowledge of marketing science and ability to translate it into practical planning decisions.
• Experience with audience-led, channel-neutral planning and consumer insight.
• Experience solving media planning challenges for large/complex clients; FMCG experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Raise the standard and rigour of communications planning across PepsiCo, with decisions grounded in evidence and marketing science.
• Connect analytics, strategy, media and specialist expertise into one cohesive planning approach.
• Build strong client and partner relationships while understanding business objectives.
• Translate strategy into detailed, actionable communications plans grounded in marketing science and consumer insight.
• Mentor and raise planning capability across the broader agency.

Skills

Connections planning

Marketing science

Audience-led planning

Strategy development

Tools

Syndicated planning tools

Proprietary planning solutions

Job description

Company description

Welcome to Publicis Groupe ANZ.

Here you will get an inside look at life within our network, including the brilliant people working across our agency brands. Publicis Groupe is a world leader in marketing communication and digital business transformation, driven through the alchemy of data, creativity, media, and technology.

Our connected platform of companies and capabilities is more than an operational framework.

It’s a cultural model we've built to unite our people in a collaborative way of thinking and working. Publicis Groupe offers its clients seamless access to the expertise of its 110,000+ talents across 100 countries globally.

In Australia, our powerhouse of marketing capabilities stretches across creative agencies (Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo, Publicis Worldwide), media agencies (Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Performics, Atomic 212), Razorfish, Digitas, Epsilon, Arc, Prodigious, PXP, PMX, and PR (Herd MSL). We also have Publicis Sapient driving digital business transformation for our clients.

Overview

Join the founding team behind Publicis Plus+, PepsiCo's dedicated team.

Working across some of the world's most loved food and beverage brands, you'll help bring smiles to consumers with every sip and bite through iconic brands including Pepsi Max, Doritos, Smith's Chips, Gatorade, Red Rock Deli and many more.

This is an opportunity to work on household names with scale, ambition and cultural relevance. From major brand-building initiatives and high-profile strategic partnerships through to a fast-paced, highly progressive media, digital and data transformation agenda, as part of the Publicis Plus+ team you'll build new capabilities, create real impact, and help shape something from day one.

If you're curious, entrepreneurial, and excited about shaping the future of marketing, Publicis PLUS+ is where you'll thrive.

What makes Publicis PLUS+ different?

• Work Beyond Borders: Shape business outcomes across multiple markets, brands, and disciplines, not just a single campaign or country.
• Learn at the Speed of Change: From social commerce and AI to data analytics and connected experiences, you'll work on the capabilities defining the future of marketing.
• Create Real Impact: Help power growth for one of the world's most iconic consumer brands through work that influences business performance, not just media metrics.
• Grow Without Limits: Build expertise across a proven framework, while learning from some of the industry's leading specialists.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Planning & Connections Partner to lead and elevate media planning across the PepsiCo portfolio, bringing together marketing science, data, research and creative thinking, and turning strategy into rigorous, connected and actionable communications plans.

You’ll turn PepsiCo’s growth priorities and audiences into connected experiences across brands, channels and touchpoints, bringing together audience understanding, category insight, brand ambition, culture and media into a clear pathway for growth.

Your impact will be visible in stronger briefs, more audience-led thinking, better-connected recommendations and continuity from annual and portfolio planning through to campaign implementation and learning.

You’ll stay close to the tools and deep in the planning, interrogating briefs, applying evidence, connecting channels and challenging conventional thinking. You’ll also play an important role in raising the standard of planning craft around you, sharing knowledge, developing planners and bringing fresh research and innovative thinking.

If you’ve reached a senior level but the craft is the part of the job you love most, this is an opportunity to have real influence without moving away from the work.

What You'll Be Doing

• Raise the standard and rigour of communications planning across PepsiCo, with decisions grounded in evidence and marketing science.
• Connect analytics, strategy, media and specialist expertise into one cohesive planning approach.
• Build strong client and partner relationships while maintaining a deep understanding of business objectives.
• Translate marketing science, research and emerging industry thinking into useful, practical planning decisions.
• Raise planning capability across the broader agency through mentoring and knowledge sharing, setting a consistently high standard for planning quality and effectiveness.
• Translate strategy into detailed, actionable communications plans grounded in marketing science, evidence-based decision-making and consumer insight.
• Stay hands-on with planning and use syndicated and proprietary tools to bring greater rigour to recommendations.
• Connect thinking across channels and touchpoints rather than treating individual disciplines in isolation.
• Work collaboratively with clients, agency teams, external agency partners and media partners to solve complex communications challenges.
• Build cohesive planning narratives that turn specialist expertise into tangible client and business outcomes.
• Bring curiosity and constructive problem-solving to briefs rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

Who We're Looking For

• 10+ years’ experience in connections planning, communications strategy or integrated media planning.
• Strong working knowledge of marketing science and the ability to turn its principles into practical planning decisions.
• Deep capability in audience-led, channel-neutral planning and consumer insight.
• Evidence of turning business and brand challenges into distinctive, actionable connections strategies.
• Experience connecting strategy, analytics, content, partnerships, media and activation disciplines.
• Strong analytical capability and experience using data and analytics to inform planning.
• Hands-on experience with media and communications planning tools, including syndicated and/or proprietary planning solutions.
• Experience solving media planning challenges for large and/or complex clients (FMCG category experience is a nice to have, though not essential). Major CPG or consumer-brand experience strongly preferred.
• Strong collaboration and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work effectively across internal specialists, clients, agency partners and media partners.
• A genuine appetite to share knowledge, mentor others and lift planning capability around you.
• Strong facilitation, storytelling and senior client-influencing capability.
• Curiosity about culture, consumers, technology and changing media behaviour.
• Comfort building and embedding new planning practices at pace.

Additional information

Publicis Groupe benefits: Be a part of the Publicis Groupe family, recent winner of the Employer of Choice Awards and one of the world's most progressive and dynamic modern communications businesses. You can learn more about us at www.publicisgroupeanz.com.

Enjoy all the perks that come with our network offering:

• A comprehensive Wholeself program supporting physical, mindful, and financial wellbeing.
• A creative, lively, and rewarding office environment where people love working with each other, supported by our Publicis Liberté flexibility approach — "working your way with us."
• Access to our Global AI Platform Marcel, connecting Publicis Groupe employees with opportunities for career mobility and collaboration across our global network.
• Extensive Learning & Development opportunities including more than 15,000 learning programs via our online learning platform, Marcel Classes.
• A culture of open feedback and support to reach your goals through our Career Conversations program.
• A committed Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion strategy driven through our Viva Women, Égalité, enABLE, EmbRACE, and Écologique committees.
• Leave benefits including Birthday Leave, Flexible Public Holidays, and an additional 5 days of leave after 2 years of service.
• Work Your World program enabling employees the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world for up to 6 weeks per year.
• Parental leave policy with up to 18 weeks based on tenure, paid primary carer leave, secondary carer swap, and Cub Care leave.
• Access to counsellors, psychologists, and professionals through Sonder, an all-in-one digital wellbeing technology platform designed to support psychological, medical & safety needs.
• A workplace that stands together to provide a more open, supportive, and recovery-forward culture for all employees with life-threatening illnesses. Read more about our Working With Cancer Pledge: https://workingwithcancerpledge.com/
• Proud partners of Diversity Council Australia, Pride in Diversity, Family Friendly Workplaces, Supply Nation, and the Australian Disability Network.

If you don't tick every box in this ad, please don't rule yourself out. Research suggests that women and other people in underrepresented groups tend to only apply if they meet every requirement. We focus on hiring people who share our values of inclusion, collaboration, adaptability, fearlessness, and integrity rather than ticking boxes — so if this role resonates with you, please apply.

Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. More than just words; these are part of our DNA. At Publicis Groupe, we are committed to the inclusion and recognition of all people regardless of race, age, culture, ability, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, and religious affiliation. We believe that to deliver the best solutions to our clients, our people need to reflect the diverse communities in which our clients operate. We value diversity and the skills, knowledge, and experience that difference brings to our culture and solutions.

Uniqueness is powerful; without it, we wouldn't be where we are today. So be you — we like it that way.

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for people with disability or those that require additional support throughout the application process. If you need any assistance or adjustments, please contact us via [e-mail]; your personal information will be kept confidential.