Director of Business Transformation & Operating Model Strategy

dentsu•Chicago, IL

8d•$113,000 - $158,000

About The Position

We're seeking a Director of Business Transformation & Operating Model Strategy. Reporting into the Sr. Director, Business Strategy, you'll join a team of talented and experienced consultants and marketers focused on helping Merkle clients accelerate their level of marketing maturity through data-driven, customer centric programs, people/processes and technology platforms. This role brings specialized focus on organizational transformation, change enablement, workflow and operational design. You will operate as an important member of our Transformation & Consulting team, bringing hands on, client-facing expertise around organizational design, cross-functional ways of working, operational effectiveness, and change management execution to help clients navigate complex transformations. In this role, you'll leverage your experience with operating model design, organizational change management, process redesign, and capability development to deliver meaningful impact across our core vertical markets including Financial Services & Wealth Management, Healthcare, B2B, High Tech, Retail, Travel, Media and Entertainment. You'll combine analytical rigor with creative problem-solving to build trusted advisor relationships with clients and internal Merkle teams, guiding them through organizational readiness and change adoption challenges. The ideal candidate brings a practitioner's passion for problem-solving and a sophisticated understanding of how businesses, brands, and customers interact — and how data and technology continue to reshape that relationship. This candidate combines deep expertise in organizational design and change management with a strong command of operational process and workflow, with the strategic instincts to identify client growth opportunities and translate them into actionable recommendations that drive measurable impact.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree required; MBA or Master's degree in Organizational Development, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Business Administration, or related field preferred.
7+ years of cross-industry consulting experience in digital transformation roles, organizational change management, business process reengineering, integrated marketing strategy.
5+ years working in a top tier consulting firm and/or digital marketing agency.
Demonstrated experience with end-to-end consulting approaches to solving client problems - from organizational assessment and design through execution and change adoption
Understanding of marketing technologies to orchestrate and activate customer experience, and how organizational design enables technology adoption and CX transformation.
Prior experience in marketing operations or change management (preferred)
Experience in leading and delivering complex projects by providing actionable solutions for clients.
Ability to craft compelling customer-driven transformation narratives and vision stories that create buy-in and alignment across stakeholder groups, translating complex organizational change into meaningful business outcomes.
Hands-on skills using data and research to drive decisions.
Some knowledge of data and analytics strategy.
Strong writing, presentation and client facing communication skills.
Experience translating data analysis into actionable marketing recommendations and presentations – proficiency in PowerPoint required.
Ability to leverage business experience / acumen to identify new business and marketing opportunities.
Self-starter high intellectual curiosity, drive, determination, and persuasion skills.
Problem solving mindset and thrives in ambiguous and fast-moving environments, and in informal, loosely structured and creative work environments.
Comfort and experience working within a highly matrixed organization in roles with a wide degree of latitude.
Average 20%-30% travel (contingent on comfort level of client)

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with the application of agile methodologies to marketing (preferred)

Responsibilities

Lead change management and organizational design consulting engagements, often in coordination with Merkle technology teams.
Design and implement organizational change strategies, operating models, and process frameworks to support marketing transformation initiatives
Develop and refine operating model artifacts — including operating model visualizations, capability maps, decision-rights (RACI / RAPID) — tailored to client context and industry.
Plan and facilitate organizational readiness assessments, change impact analyses, and operating model prioritization workshops leveraging a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods
Support discovery, prioritization, and development of customer use cases in alignment with client’s strategic priorities and objectives
Identify and define new processes to support marketing transformation initiatives
Facilitate stakeholder discovery and working sessions that generate cross-functional alignment, surface organizational dynamics, and produce actionable outputs
Develop executive-level presentations, synthesizing discovery findings into common themes that drive client recommendations and decision-making
Create multi-year roadmaps to guide client implementation, in consultation with data, technology, and operational teams, to identify key dependencies and sequencing of recommendations
Ensure meaningful client value is delivered through a mix of best-practice solutions, skills, capabilities, and original thinking.
Develop and communicate transformation vision and roadmaps that articulate the customer and business value of organizational change, securing executive sponsorship and stakeholder commitment throughout the transformation journey.
Identify key data points and measurements to show the impact of our approach and strategy on the client’s business.
Support business development activities including identification, proposal development, and other pursuit activities.
Collaborate and develop relationships with internal Merkle teams (account management, operations, technology, analytics etc.), and partner agencies to understand the feasibility of cross-practice area recommendations/plans.