Associate Director Resource Management

VML South Africa; Kansas City (MO); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

VML South Africa is seeking an experienced Resource Manager for their Kansas City office. In this role, you will be responsible for optimizing talent alignment across projects, ensuring effective resource allocation, and fostering a dynamic work environment. The ideal candidate has 7-10 years of experience in the advertising industry and excels in communication and data analysis. This is a hybrid position offering a competitive salary and benefits.

Qualifications

• 7-10 years of resource management experience in advertising/marketing.
• Firm grasp of agency processes.
• Excellent communication skills, able to influence at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Develop relationships with talent and provide staffing recommendations.
• Maintain knowledge of current and upcoming projects.
• Lead weekly resourcing meetings and manage workforce optimization.

Skills

Resource management

Interpersonal communication

Data analysis

Problem-solving

Job description

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

The Resource Management function is the connective tissues across the department. They are passionate about building highly effective teams, and creating an environment where people come to do their best work. Their focus is to ensure the right talent is working on the right project, in service of creating world class experiences for our clients. This is all achieved by balancing the priorities of the business alongside the career aspirations of the creatives, in a very dynamic landscape.

Responsibilities

• Develops relationships with talent at all levels and works as trusted partner to departmental leadership, making staffing recommendations based on skillset and career aspirations, not just availability
• Maintains knowledge of current and upcoming projects across the agency, building strong relationships with client engagement, Operations, Delivery and new business teams
• Has a pulse on the overall health and happiness of the department, ensuring any talent concerns are escalated to leadership through the appropriate channels
• Alerts capability leads of any potential concerns or issues in meeting key client deliverables due to resourcing and makes recommendations to resolve
• Leads weekly resourcing meetings, to ensure talent is properly utilized and works to resolve any conflictsor balance workloads.
• When internal options have been exhausted, identifies needs for freelance talent, creates the business case to hire and works with TA to secure the proper temporary support.
• Partners with operations to review monthly utilization reports and share insights and action plan with leadership
• Works with the Talent Acquisition & Human Resources teams to on-board department new hires and freelancers
• Works with project management functions to ensure internal resourcing platforms are maintained
• Overall focus on optimizing talent in balance with constant changes to organizational priorities
• Understands and maintains a knowledge database of team skillsets and career ambitions to be able to properly assign resources and retain top talent
• Is actively working to maintain a balance between agency margin goals, employee’s ability to do their best work all while being a profitable organization
• Actively work with department leads and HR to ensure mobility of talent within the agency and network
• Proactively strategize department staffing needs, identifying peaks/valleys, core competency gaps/redundancies based on client forecasts and trends
• Continuously strategizes new ideas for process improvements and better ways to foster a connected and inclusivecreative department culture

Required Skills & Experience:

• 7-10 years of resource management experience in advertising/marketing industry
• Firm grasp of the processes within an agency environment and a love of creating order in the chaos
• Deep understanding of the functional skills and responsibilities of various departmental roles
• Successful experience leading large departments with resources across North America.
• Independent thinker that can take departmental and agency needs and translate into resource management strategies for departmental leads.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills with the ability to motivate and influence across all levels of seniority
• Strong acumen for translating data into trends, insights and actionable steps.
• Comfortable working in an environment of constant change and doing so with a positive attitude
• Proactive and confident in prioritizing competing demands in a fast-paced environment

The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details.

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$75,000 — $180,000 USD

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.

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