Automation Support Manager

Why we're hiring:

WPP Enterprise Technology provides IT services for WPP. As the creative transformation company, WPP is helping its clients transform the future through extraordinary work. WPP ET is an integral part of that journey, and we are proud to provide technology for some of the world’s most creative brands.

At WPP, technology is at the heart of everything we do, and it is WPP ET’s mission to enable everyone to collaborate, create and thrive. WPP is undergoing a significant transformation to modernise ways of working, drive automation and elevate colleague and client experiences.

You will play a crucial role in solution delivery and day-to-day technology management of the Global Automation Operations Centre (AOC) program. Reporting to the Automation Operations Director and supporting Automation product, platform and delivery teams worldwide, you will ensure our automation projects are well managed and supported to deliver quantifiable returns.

The AOC is chartered to support automation products delivered by the Automation & AI product team, or projects delivered by Automation delivery teams from around WPP. Our support apparatus gives those teams confidence and freedom to hand over their existing successes and continue innovating.

The Support Manager (Automation) works closely with the Operations Director & Platform Leads/Specialists to manage, monitor, support and scale process automations for the business ensuring our automations are always robust and dependable.

You will manage multiple delivery teams (support engineers) involving internal and external engineering and technology partners. You will be accountable for the effective and efficient support for automations managed under AOC and will help transition new automations to AOC support.

You will have daily contact with business stakeholders from WPP Media and operating companies and must be comfortable working with business stakeholders directly. Our primary goal is to drive measurable business outcomes and grow our contribution, and we must earn our right to exist. This is a small, scrappy group. We all‘get our hands in the dirt’ and play multiple roles.

What you'll be doing:

• Project & Resource Management
  • Manage 10-15 support engineers (L2-L3)
  • Lead and manage automation support projects from ingestion to ongoing, ensuring they are supported as per AOC delivery model and framework.
  • Daily/weekly standups and operations metrics reviews with support, product and implementation teams
  • Weekly and monthly review meetings with stakeholders on current/future support pipeline
• Process Analysis and Improvement
  • Conduct thorough analysis of existing support processes to identify inefficiencies, instabilities, and areas for improvement.
  • Develop and define best practices in automation support, monitoring, maintenance and contribute to our knowledge base (wikis) and standards.
• Team Management
  • Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the support team.
  • Maintain Skill register for all resources, identify capabilities and training needs
  • Measure, Ensure and Report team member efficiency and productivity to ensure optimal staffing with redundancy in place.
• Collaboration and Communication
  • Proactively inform about any errors, outages or unexpected issues that may affect project outputs.
  • Notify the business in advance about planned automation upgrades or updates and follow up with completion details once they are done.
• Quality Assurance and Compliance
  • Ensure that automated processes adhere to organizational standards, policies, and compliance requirements.
  • Conduct regular audits and reviews to maintain the integrity and reliability of automated solutions.
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting
  • Monitor the performance of automated processes and systems, identifying and addressing any issues or bottlenecks.
  • Generate and present reports on the impact and benefits of automation initiatives.
• Incident Management and Support
  • Manage multi-tier support for automated systems, addressing any incidents or disruptions in a
  • timely manner using JIRA Service Desk.
  • Implement corrective actions and preventive measures to minimize future incidents.
  • Manage and maintain ITSM & DevOps tools: JSM, Wrike, SharePoint, GitHub

What you'll need:

• Deep understanding (7 years+) of automation operations and technology, tools, and techniques
• Effective communicator – Excellent writing and verbal communication skills
• Problem-solving – proven experience dealing with technical blockers.
• Proven experience in managing business systems or technology projects with diverse stakeholders
• (Sales/Media/Advertising, Finance, HR, specialist business units)
• Advanced capability (mid-level certified or equivalent experience) in our automation tech stack or alternatives:
  • Microsoft: Office365, Azure SQL, Azure Cloud, Power Platform: PowerApps, PowerAutomate,
  • Dataverse
  • ITSM: Jira Core, Jira Service Manager
  • UiPath: Orchestrator (Cloud), Studio, Robots, Insights, and other cloud services
  • ITSM/ITIL credentials and/or equivalent certification (Agile/Scrum/Lean Enterprise)
• Mandatory Certifications (must be achieved within first 90 days if not held):
  • CASM or CAISM – Certified in Agile Service Management
  • PL-900: Power Platform Fundamental
  • AZ-900: Azure Portal Fundamentals

Who you are:

You're open: we are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: we approach all that we do with confidence: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: We are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – we champion a culture of people that do extraordinary work

Scale and opportunity – we offer the opportunity to create, influence and deliver projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers.

#LI-Hybrid