Senior Director of Product Innovation, WPP Innovation

Why we’re hiring:

We're looking for a Senior Director of Product Innovation to define and drive the next generation of innovative technology across the WPP network, combining an innovative mindset and creative excellence with deep technical fluency across AI systems, data architecture, and modern product engineering. This is a senior builder's role: someone who prototypes and ships at the frontier, sets the technical and creative bar for WPP Innovation, and uses that credibility to shape strategy, elevate other innovators across the network, and bring clients and colleagues into genuinely new territory.

You'll operate with significant autonomy, own the direction of key innovation products and R&D programmes, and act as a senior voice for WPP Innovation both internally and externally. We are looking for someone who can take an idea and elevate it into territory that changes the conversation, then build it.

What you’ll do:

Key Responsibilities:

Product Innovation & R&D:

• Own and drive the product innovation direction for WPP Innovation. Identifying frontier opportunities, setting the quality bar, and personally building the solutions that demonstrate what's possible.
• Lead hands-on prototyping and exploration of emerging technologies, including agentic engineering, applied AI, and novel interaction paradigms. Translating experiments into product features, client narratives, and strategic recommendations.
• Work as part of a small, autonomous team on the frontier; contribute at every level from architecture to execution.
• Elevate the work of other Product & Innovation teams across the WPP network, ensuring their solutions meet the highest bar for quality, deliverability, and innovation thinking.

Strategic Direction & Innovation Enablement:

• Define and architect technical strategies and programmes that enable innovators across WPP. Acting as a connective force, removing organisational blockers that impede innovation.
• Contribute to WPP Innovation's broader programme direction, bringing senior technical and product judgement to roadmap decisions, investment priorities, and innovation partnerships.
• Build and maintain relationships with key innovators, technical leads, and product owners across the global WPP network.

External Presence & Client Engagement:

• Represent WPP Innovation at key industry conferences, client engagements, and senior internal forums — with credibility rooted in work you've actually built.
• Present innovation work, run live demos, and participate in client workshops to shape requirements and demonstrate WPP's frontier capabilities.
• Contribute to internal L&D sessions to build innovation capability and foster understanding of WPP Innovation's products and thinking.

Leadership:

• Lead by example and expertise. A senior IC who sets standards others build toward and inspires others to better outputs.
• Mentor and technically guide colleagues and innovators across the network.

What you’ll need:

• Progressive experience in creative technology, ideally within an agency environment.
• Proven track record of successfully conceiving, building, and launching innovative technology solutions for agency clients and agency teams, with a data and AI component.
• Deep understanding of the advertising, marketing, creative or media industry is highly desirable. Experience working within a large, global organisation is a significant plus.
• Deep hands-on technical expertise: Able to architect, build, and ship across AI/ML systems, agentic engineering, data pipelines, and modern software development across multiple platforms
• Exceptional strategic thinking and problem-solving skills: Ability to break down complex problems, develop clear strategies, and drive execution.
• Experience with Agentic Engineering and building AI product and innovations
• Demonstrable portfolio of built work: prototypes, products, or tools that have shipped into real use and measurable traction.

What We Offer:

• A senior IC role with genuine cross-functional influence across product, engineering, creative, data, and client disciplines.
• Direct visibility into WPP's global strategy and the relationships that come with it.
• The autonomy to pursue the ideas you believe in, backed by the scale to make them matter.
• Collaboration with world-class talent across creative, technology, and data disciplines.