Associate Director, Search, GCS

About WPP Media WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.  WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working. For more information, visit wppmedia.com . 3826 - Associate Director, Search, GCS Role Summary and Impact About OpenMind : A Leading WPP Media Brand OpenMind by WPP is an integrated agency model drawing on talent from across WPP. It has been created to accelerate the European transformation for Nestlé’s media function. Core to the solution is the advanced best data and technology capabilities, fuelled by WPP’s investment in AI, to maximise the impact of Nestlé media investment. Role Summary and Impact OpenMind oversees Nestle's media activity in Zone Europe. With dozens of countries, +450 team members, and regular new product launches, the account is looking for a ZEUR SEO Lead to provide strong SEO experience and leadership for in-scope Nestle categories, supporting the ZEUR Search Leads. Being above market, the role offers plenty of variety, with an enjoyable balance between driving growth for brands, strategic consultancy and laying the framework for excellence, ensuring we’re delivering change at scale. We have a clear plan to create something special with Nestlé’s SEO and we’d love you to be a part of it. We have a unique opportunity to raise the bar for SEO across ZEUR, working with some of the biggest brands on the planet eager to showcase their supremacy online. As the SEO Lead in the Above Market Zone team, you’d be leading a group of Search specialists holding authority across the Zone. You will be partnering with brands to ensure they have a clear strategy in place to maximize on the organic opportunity available, which will include working with brands at varied stages of digital maturity. A key part of this role is developing your sizeable supporting team of SEO specialists who will be practically involved at every level, crawling sites, assessing data and developing solutions to achieve SEO success. You will help drive the education of the wider Local Market teams on your approach to ensure the same principles ring true across the region, driving SEO excellence further still. As such, excellent operational team management is essential to ensure all European stakeholders are working in unison towards your strategic vision. Responsibilities: • Build operational SEO excellence across ZEUR, managing varied stakeholders to ensure the successful running of a significant total client budget across above-market and in-market teams. • High-level SEO KPI management and market governance to effectively track performance across Zone. • Spearhead the delivery of best in-class organic search strategies at a zone level to maximise the SEO performance across Nestle Europe. These strategies then need to be adapted and rolled out for specific business units. It is vital we’re taking advantage of the short-term opportunities for Nestle whilst laying strong foundations for future changes in search. • Work closely with the ZEUR Nestle Search Leads to ensure the SEO strategic focuses align with those of the specific business units. • Effective, positive management of a few direct reports and a wider team of SEO specialists. • Build up a constructive, positive rapport with senior client contacts and third-party enablers inclu