Commercial WIP Manager

Ogilvy UK; London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Bupa Healthcare

Flexible working hours

Life Assurance

Wellbeing and health incentives

Job summary

A leading global marketing agency in London seeks a Commercial WIP Manager for a full-time position. This role involves managing client job lifecycles, ensuring timely billing, and collaborating with teams across the business. Candidates should have experience in commercial finance, familiarity with billing processes, and strong skills in Excel. The position offers a hybrid working model and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• Experience in a media or service-oriented business with a strong commercial focus.
• Familiarity with Billing, WIP, and Net Working Capital management.
• Excellent organisation and attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the entire job lifecycle from opening to closing.
• Regularly meeting with client teams to review open jobs.
• Preparing reports on time value vs. fee invoiced.
• Managing Credit Notes and advising Senior Commercial Accountants.
• Ensuring compliance with ICFR regulations.

Skills

Commercial focus

Billing management

WIP management

Excel proficiency

Problem-solving

Stakeholder management

Tools

Workday

Job description

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Department: Finance

Location: London - hybrid working

Contract Type: Fixed-Term (12 months)

Full Time/Part Time: Full Time 35 hours per week

About Ogilvy

Our vision is to inspire brands and people to impact the world. To create big ideas that make a significant contribution to the planet, society, and the bottom line. We believe in today’s world this is the best way for our clients to achieve sustainable growth. We achieve this by breaking down the barriers that restrict talent and ideas.

Which is why our teams work fluidly across 5 capabilities: Advertising, Consulting, Experience, PR & Influencer, and Health. This allows us to not only operate but innovate at the intersection of capabilities and talent. We believe impact and magic lies at this intersection. Ogilvy scales this by seamlessly connecting and accessing the deep cultural expertise of 132 offices in 83 countries.

The result is multifaceted ideas for our clients that drive impact and are born from the intersection of platform x culture x technology. We call this Borderless Creativity.

Ogilvy was ranked the number one UK agency at D&AD and was the only UK agency to win a Glass Lions at Cannes. Ogilvy was also nominated network of the year in Cannes Lions, Campaign, Effie Awards EMEA, London International Awards, The One Show and WARC Rankings.

About The Role

Are you our next Commercial WIP Manager? This isn't just a billing role; it's a dynamic position at the heart of our Commercial Finance team, where you'll act as the gatekeeper of our client jobs from inception to closure. You'll be instrumental in ensuring best commercial practice across a diverse portfolio of clients, ranging from large annual accounts (up to £1-2 million in value) to smaller, project-based work.

You'll join a close-knit, supportive Commercial Finance team that prides itself on looking out for each other, and tackling challenges collaboratively. We've recently transitioned to Workday, so you'll be joining peers who are on the same journey, actively contributing to process improvements and problem-solving in a fast-paced agency environment. This 12-month fixed-term contract offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact, refine processes, and build strong relationships across the business.

What You’ll Do

Responsibilities

As a Commercial WIP Manager, you will be responsible for the billing and Work In Progress (WIP) management for a portfolio of clients. Your typical day will involve:

• Job Lifecycle Management: Overseeing the entire job lifecycle, from opening and setup (ensuring adherence to Commercial Control guidelines and documentation) to timely closing.
• Client & Team Collaboration: Regularly meeting with client teams to review open jobs, explaining financial processes, and ensuring timely billing in line with client and internal procedures. You'll be a key liaison, not just a back-office function.
• Financial Control & Reporting: Preparing reports on time value vs. fee invoiced, reviewing open Purchase Orders, managing Credit Notes, and advising Senior Commercial Accountants on process adherence.
• Net Working Capital (NWC) Management: Proactively reviewing WIP to resolve issues and escalate concerns, helping to avoid NWC provisions and liaising with Debtors to resolve issues.
• Compliance & Audit: Ensuring compliance with ICFR regulations, assisting with internal and client audits, and adhering to all internal procedures and policies, including the Purchase Order policy.
• System Utilisation: Utilising Workday for client setup, master data management, WIP allocation, and running ad-hoc reports for brand teams. You'll also play a role in ensuring best practice use of Workday and potentially assisting in training new client team joiners.
• Problem Solving: Actively getting stuck in to solve challenges and bottlenecks, contributing to a more efficient and effective finance operation.
  
  

What You'll Need

• Experience: Preferred experience in a media or service-oriented business with a strong commercial focus. Familiarity with Billing, WIP, and Net Working Capital management is essential.
• System Proficiency: Experience with Workday is highly desirable. Strong Excel skills (sumifs, vlookups, etc.) are a must.
• Mindset: You'll be an agile, fast learner who is proactive, self-motivated, open-minded, and ready to roll up your sleeves and learn. A desire to identify and improve processes is key.
• Communication & Collaboration: Confident and enthusiastic communicator (written and verbal) with proven stakeholder management skills. You'll thrive on building close working relationships with SCAs, CAs, other WIP Managers, and agency client teams.
• Organisation: Excellent organisation and attention to detail, with strong time management skills to handle multiple deadlines and priorities.
• Problem-Solving: A natural inclination to identify and solve challenges, contributing to a dynamic and evolving environment.
  
  

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave + 1 Volunteer Day, plus, the option to purchase up to 5 additional days leave each year
• Bupa Healthcare
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave
• We have a Flexible Working Model with core working hours: 10am – 4pm
• A 1.5:1 Matching Pension Structure
• Wellbeing and Health: Up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests and development budgets and Wellbeing incentives and activities throughout the year
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Scheme
• Life Assurance
  
  

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they’re here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone who wants to work at Ogilvy. For us, diversity, equity and inclusion is integrated into everything that we do. We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ethnic, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, have no bearing on our hiring decisions, but we encourage everyone to feel free to express their true selves in an environment we are consistently striving to make as inclusive as possible.

We aim to facilitate an accessible and positive application experience for all candidates. If you require any adjustments from us to support you through the process or expect to require any adjustments to working conditions to be able to best perform in the role, please let us know. We are happy to consider all reasonable adjustments.

If you live with a disability and you would like to take advantage of our offer of a guaranteed interview under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure you fill out our voluntary Equal Opportunities Questionnaire when applying.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Not Applicable

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Industries

  Software Development

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