About this Associate Programme Director role at AKQA

AKQA · Onsite · Amsterdam

At AKQA (part of WPP), we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create ideas, products, and services that shape culture and drive meaningful outcomes. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative spirit, we design adaptive digital experiences that combine creativity, technology, and craft.

The Delivery team sits at the heart of everything we do, ensuring work is delivered with precision, care, and commercial clarity. As Associate Programme Director for the Amsterdam office, you will lead a portfolio of complex, technology-led production programmes, including work shaped by AI and advanced CGI techniques.

You will steward programme health end-to-end, balancing client ambition with agency capability, and building delivery models that are efficient, scalable, and future-facing. A key part of your role is helping evolve how AI-enabled workflows and modern production methods are applied across creative output.

You will partner with clients as a trusted advisor, helping them navigate opportunity, complexity, and change - while leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver work of exceptional quality. In doing so, you will help shape how emerging technologies are meaningfully integrated into delivery practice.

Based in central Amsterdam, you will collaborate across AKQA’s European studios in a culture built on ownership, curiosity, and craft, working alongside specialists who push the boundaries of creative technology and production.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

Oversee a portfolio of projects (up to €2M), ensuring delivery on time, within budget, and aligned with AKQA standards across modern production and technology-enabled workflows.
Act as primary client interface, building trusted senior relationships and advising on delivery strategy, including the effective use of AI and CGI where relevant.
Lead end-to-end delivery of complex digital programmes, ensuring excellence in execution, strong coordination across teams, and resolution of delivery challenges.
Own project financial performance, including budgeting, forecasting, and risk of overrun. Understand key cost drivers such as compute, tooling, and rendering, and contribute to portfolio-level planning.
Define delivery approaches (fixed-price and T&M), leading scoping, estimation, scheduling, and SoW creation for complex programmes. Work closely with resource managers to ensure the right blend of specialist capability is applied.
Partner with internal teams and clients to shape solutions and support new business opportunities, contributing to growth in AI-enabled production and advanced CGI work.
Identify and mitigate delivery risks, including ethical considerations, data usage, and production complexity. Maintain high standards through structured reviews and continuous improvement of tools and ways of working.
Coach and develop delivery teams, strengthening capability in modern production pipelines and emerging technologies, while fostering a high-performance, collaborative culture.

QUALITIES & CHARACTERISTICS

Extensive experience delivering complex digital production programmes in fast-moving, technology-led environments.
Strong grounding in CGI, animation, real-time, or generative production workflows.
Expert understanding of programme and project management across Agile, Hybrid, and Waterfall approaches.
Proven ability to manage budgets, forecasting, and commercial delivery with strong attention to value and efficiency.
Confident in working with business metrics, forecasting models, and financial principles.
Strong commercial awareness with a focus on ROI, delivery effectiveness, and long-term value creation.
Excellent stakeholder management skills, including engagement at senior and executive level.
Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling business narratives.
Experience mentoring and developing multidisciplinary teams.
Strong understanding of emerging technologies, ethical considerations, and modern production models.
Strong alignment with human-centred design, creative craft, and outcome-driven delivery.
Strong understanding of creative technology, AI ethics, and emerging production models
High affinity with human-centred design, creative craft, emerging technologies, and OKR-driven outcomes

AKQA is committed to developing wellbeing and supporting life choices for our team. We provide an extensive range of benefits. To find out more click here

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular 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.

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.

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About AKQA

CORE VALUES

Our founding values guide our work and the philosophy of our firm:

Innovation – pioneering ideas combined with the application of technology, to achieve lasting improvements in performance for our clients.

Service – outstanding service to our clients and colleagues, so we retain exceptional people and create trust-based relationships with clients.

Quality – adhere to the highest professional standards and superior quality.

Thought – recommending the best solutions through the most rigorous thinking process.

TEAMWORK

AKQA provides the highest quality ideas and innovation services to clients around the world. Our consistent track-record of results achieved for clients have set our firm apart. Through our focus on our core values, thought-leadership, rigorous delivery, and industry initiatives, AKQA is today one of the world’s most influential companies. Our goal is to become a high-performance environment where the most talented people flourish. With our perfectionist approach, people join AKQA for the opportunity to do the best work of their careers.

We create digital products, services and immersive experiences that are useful, usable, delightful and enjoyed by millions. We employ a rapid ideation and prototyping process that focuses on getting pilots into market quickly, helping clients make a sustained impact, increase their relevance and expand their connection. By embracing a pioneering approach that continues to lead and define the industry, we deliver cohesive blueprints that fulfil audience needs and surpass business goals.

LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

AKQA is committed to helping our team develop into the best possible practitioners and to providing them with an unparalleled foundation for their career. We help develop well-rounded professionals acquire leadership skills more quickly than at other organisations. Our employees benefit from the trusted long-term nature of our client relationships as well as the cultural alignment between the client and our own organisation, creating an optimum environment to deliver the work without any compromises.

ORGANISED TO SUCCEED

The core motivation at AKQA is product excellence. Although we are part of WPP, AKQA operates as an independent firm. Organically grown, our team works as a single firm, without geographic division. This means we can bring the best resources from our network to provide solutions for our clients.

In addition to our own Future Lions initiative, we have formed partnerships with many of the world’s leading universities so we can hire their best graduates. We combine youth and energy with maturity and experience to form a community that has a unique diversity of knowledge and exceptional professional judgement.

DEVELOPMENT

In addition to on-the-job training, AKQA offers a menu of training through the AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development. This comprehensive curriculum of formal training is designed to equip our team with the substantive creative, engineering, business acumen, communications, management and analytical skills required to have professionally rewarding careers. AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development courses are taught by leaders in their fields including AKQA’s own senior team and respected external experts.

To maintain the continuous focus on our core values, and provide a clear career path for our team, all of our Managing Directors and Executive Partners are promoted from within AKQA.

All AKQA employees and clients are invited to participate in the AKQA Insight and AKQA Tech.Insight thought leadership programmes. These comprise a series of informative lectures and Q&A sessions with authors, artists, athletes, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs who are recognised leaders in their respective disciplines.

DIVERSITY

We believe that diversity is vital to AKQA’s ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. We provide our employees with the canvas, tools and confidence to help them advance their careers in a way that best suits them.

SUSTAINABILITY

At AKQA we believe everything a company does should be about taking the responsibility to be respectful towards the community and the environment. We consider community and pro-bono work to be an important commitment of our employees. We encourage our team to devote their skills to a broad range of pro-bono and community activities, working with myriad charitable and not-for-profit organisations. AKQA is part of WPP’s Sustainability initiatives. WPP is ranked no. 49 in an annual round-up of the World’s Greenest Companies.