Director of Resource Management, North America
About The Position
The Director of Resource Management, North America is a strategic leadership role responsible for building and championing a unified resource management ecosystem across the US and Canada. The role connects Operations, Studio, Origination, and Delivery in a cohesive workflow, evolving staffing from a reactive process into a forward-looking, data-informed capacity engine. It establishes operating frameworks, governance, and cross-functional alignment to link pipeline demand with multidisciplinary talent across client delivery, shoot origination, studio, and post-production. Acting as an objective partner to Delivery, Operations, Finance, and Client Leadership, the Director leads change and resource intelligence to support effective team casting, healthy margins, optimized utilization, and strong creative work. The position reports directly to the Managing Director, North America and partners closely with the Regional Talent Lead, Studio Leadership, and Head of Client Delivery. It is a hybrid role, with teams generally in the office around four days a week; accommodations or flexibility may be discussed with the hiring team.
Requirements
- 8–10+ years of progressive resource management, creative operations, or production management experience within an advertising agency, production company, or global content studio network.
- In-depth working knowledge of the modern production lifecycle across Origination (live action, stills, and social shoots), Studio (versioning, localization, retouching, and dynamic content creation), and Post-Production (editorial, CGI, motion, and audio).
- Proficiency in modern operations and exposure to resource-planning tools.
- Understanding of how resourcing and financial tools work together for commercial decision-making.
- Demonstrated success managing multi-office, cross-discipline talent pools across North America, including experience with budgets, SOW alignment, and utilization targets.
- Proficiency with modern operations platforms such as Smartsheet and Monday.com.
- Exceptional emotional intelligence, persuasive communication, dispute-resolution abilities, and composure in fast-moving, high-volume production environments.
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with enterprise AI/agentic platforms.
Responsibilities
- Oversee resource allocation across North America, partnering to deploy talent across WPP Production.
- Forecast bandwidth, identify capacity bottlenecks, resolve project and client resource clashes, and rebalance staffing across offices and hubs in real time.
- Design and implement the enterprise capacity operating model; define responsibilities between Resource Management, Discipline Leads, Talent, and Delivery; and drive behavioral change across teams.
- Partner with Growth and Client Leadership to translate new-business pipeline and organic-growth forecasts into actionable resource demand.
- Coordinate with offshore capabilities across the global network, establish cross-capability deployment and aligned resource processes, and partner with Production Operations to integrate offshore capacity cost-effectively.
- Partner with Operations, Studio, and Production Leadership to build, roll out, and maintain a standardized resourcing workflow across North American accounts and production centers.
- Work with the Head of Client Delivery to shape team structures, scope feasibility, phasing, and Statements of Work (SOWs).
- Facilitate talent mobility across WPP operating agencies and network production units.
- Work with the North America Talent Lead to align resource management and talent acquisition as cohesive organizational functions.
- Forecast freelance needs and proactively plan a streamlined process for last-minute requests.
- Partner with Talent Acquisition on freelance approvals, rate structures, contracts, NDAs, and onboarding workflows.
- Drive adoption and data hygiene across resource planning and tracking platforms, currently Xytech; define data architecture and workflows for effective tool use.
- Track operational metrics including bench time, billable utilization, burn rates, and freelance spend, and provide regular executive reporting.
- Resolve conflicts and negotiate diplomatically, balancing creative ambitions, delivery schedules, and client commercial realities.
Benefits
- Competitive benefits package; details are available via the employer's benefits link.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
No Education Listed
