Search Lead, Media Management and delivery

Job Specification: Global Search Lead

Reports to: Global Digital Lead

The Role

The Global Search Lead is a senior client and capability-focused role that sits at the intersection of our performance, channels, and solutions functions within WPP. This role will have direct responsibility for evolving our clients' search growth plans — spanning paid search, SEO, and the rapidly emerging landscape of AI-driven and generative search — blending deep technical expertise with carefully articulated development plans that advance client maturity and deliver against growth objectives.

We operate to the principle that 'performance is everything', and it is the lead role to dissect client goals into both the core search capabilities required (paid, organic, visual/voice, generative AI surfaces) and the solutions WPP has to support those ambitions — from technology and automation, to project-based analysis, to consulting on how and where organisational change is the solution. The role will be pivotal to thinking laterally across problems where search is both a discipline and a signal layer that informs the wider media ecosystem.

The successful candidate will work horizontally across search platforms (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, TikTok, Meta, emerging AI search engines such as ChatGPT, Anthropic and Gemini) and vertically in integrating supporting capabilities from analytics, feed and tech development, consumer and data strategy, and the broader worlds of commerce, content, and influencer-led discovery. The role will partner with strategists, activation teams, and the wider agency and WPP functions to bring an integrated search view to our clients, aligning plans back into the overarching direction of the business.

You will be a senior member of the leadership team and expected to inspire, guide, and develop search knowledge across the business to fully leverage team skills whilst also setting the foundation of decisioning and strategy for our choices in search investment. As a member of the client management team, the role will actively contribute to developing long-term strategy in line with other leadership leads.

The Ideal Candidate

As a leader, you will be responsible for inspiring and directing our clients in close partnership with the client and digital lead. You will have a strong background in leading global search accounts and managing stakeholders at the most senior level, up to C-level where required. You will have a proven track record in managing, leading, inspiring, and integrating fast-paced, dynamic search and performance teams — both across the agency and within the client.

You will have worked with inter-agency solutions and clients that operate across borders and who are looking to accelerate their search maturity across services, measurement, automation, and strategy.

You will be expected to demonstrate search expertise covering paid search, SEO, retail/commerce search, and the emerging field of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and AI answer engines. You should have a working knowledge of adjacent performance disciplines (social, programmatic, affiliates) from an integration point of view, and be able to inspire a team to build upon the strategic model you have developed. You will be expected to fluently engage on topics such as first-party data activation, attribution, incrementality testing, feed management, content and creative impact on discovery, and measurement models as they evolve within the search and marketing ecosystem.

The ideal candidate will have the passion to power client growth, the tenacity to push ideas, and the agility to adapt within an evolving organisation.

Role Responsibilities

• Leading clients through an advancing search agenda with a broad understanding of the whole discovery and media ecosystem
• Creating and developing a sophisticated and leading global search team operating model across paid, organic, retail, and AI-driven search
• Integrating all WPP capabilities, solutions, and search disciplines linked to growth
• Leading growth for clients and crafting compelling narratives that connect client ambitions to practical search solutions and strategy
• Leading direct and indirect agency teams in global search growth plans across global, regional, and local markets
• Supporting performance and client growth through the WPP framework of thinking
• Driving the evolution of search strategy in response to generative AI, zero-click search, and changing consumer discovery behaviours
• Implementing ways of working that enhance our practice — including results, decision-making, team structures, and group initiative deployment
• Setting client and team KPIs, including search-specific performance benchmarks and maturity roadmaps

Key Requirements

• Substantial and demonstrable success in managing and leading the global search agenda for major brands
• Deep expertise across paid search and SEO, with strong working knowledge of emerging AI/generative search surfaces
• Track record of senior client management up to and including C-level where required
• Proven success in stakeholder management and ability to build relationships with all agency leads
• Proven track record of managing and inspiring large, distributed search capability teams across multiple markets
• Proven track record in understanding and operating in media ecosystems beyond search
• Strong technology understanding (search platforms, bid management, SEO tooling, AdTech and MarTech stacks) as well as attribution models, cross-channel planning and buying, and search automation/AI tooling
• Experience building and scaling search measurement frameworks including incrementality, MMM integration, and first-party data strategies