About Merkle:

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specialises in the delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences across platforms and devices. We call it ‘Customer Experience Management’ (CXM) and with 25 years’ experience, we are proud to be recognised as a Global leader.

Merkle’s heritage in data, technology and analytics is the foundation for our understanding of consumer insights that drives our people-based marketing strategies. With our expertise, we can offer our clients content-driven, contextual and compelling customer journeys and experiences that drive business growth.

Merkle was recognized by Forrester as a leading Customer Database and Engagement Agency in their 2021 report. The following quote is taken directly from this report:

“Merkle has gone through a lot of change in the past five years, and its surprisingly stable leadership team has steered it with finesse. Four years after being acquired by dentsu, Merkle’s strategic vision and roadmap are laser-focused on connecting customer experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. At the same time, it still delivers operational excellence to those marketers who depend on it primarily for marketing and campaign management. As one reference told us, 'You can see their strategy coming to fruition; they play to the strengths of their network while keeping the management structure of the account really tight. They offer consistency and they offer new expertise at the same time.' 

"Marketers who want an agency partner that can help them flex into a future without cookies and help them deploy a data and mar-tech strategy that goes beyond marketing to permission-based 1:1 customer 'conversations' should put Merkle on their short list. But know that this agency will challenge you to rethink your status quo in ways you might not be ready for. We’ll be watching Merkle closely as they pivot once again to compete more with systems integrators and big 5 consultancies.”

The Decisioning practice is at the peak of much of what we do in the CXM space with projects skewing towards the largest and most transformative in the Merkle stable. We are considered a market leader in the PEGA Decisioning space with a great history to back our strategy to double our growth through sector and market diversification.

The role

We would like to appoint a market-facing leader who can help define the future path for the practice, ensuring that we continue to grow in existing and new EMEA geographies, and that we have a strategy for our decisioning clients to leverage the broader set of Merkle and dentsu capabilities.

Responsibilities of this role will include:

• Set and lead a technology agnostic go to market strategy for the decisioning capability in the EMEA region
• Provide market- and proposition-related leadership, internally and externally – setting a clear vision for the capability
• Articulate how decisioning fits within the overall Merkle and wider dentsu capability sets, and be an internal champion for this
• Build internal consensus around the commercial opportunity for decisioning in all clusters in the EMEA region and develop and execute a plan to deliver on this vision.
• Interact with clients (and prospective clients) at senior level to provide strategic support and direction
• Create a people first, high performance culture through visible and authentic people leadership
• Define and implement a mixed (on/near/off) shore delivery model that drives excellent client outcomes in an efficient and commercially sustainable way.
• Adopt a culture of continuous improvement through high engagement enablement programmes and define a set of Merkle standards, monitored and maintained by a centre of excellence, to ensure consistently high quality outcomes for clients
• Drive advocacy and lead engagement with all relevant alliance partners; co-create joint go to market propositions, agree joint account plans for target clients and own governance cadence
• Together with the Merkle and Alliance Partner marketing teams, develop and execute a plan to establish greater market presence and a clearer voice
• Collaborate with colleagues in the Americas and APAC regions to develop a single strategy for decisioning to support growth globally
• Work closely with other departments including Sales, Client Services, and other service lines

What we are looking for in you:

• Anticipate the appropriate candidate will have at least circa 10+ years experience in the decisioning space
• Demonstrable experience of partnering with the PEGA organisation, either client or agency side. Experience in a PEGA client advisory position desirable
• Knowledge of the broader Data and Martech industry, experience in implementation and activation
• A track record in delivering large scale technology implementation and act programmes
• Leadership experience in large teams and matrix organisations
• A growth mindset and a drive to succeed 
• Strong collaboration capabilities are critical to this role

A few of the benefits

• You’ll have a competitive salary, private health & dental insurance, corporate discounts and career development through Dentsu University, free access to LinkedIn learning and degree level training programs through Multiverse
• 29+ days of annual leave (25 days of regular holidays, Birthdays off and 3 additional wellness days) We also offer the opportunity to volunteer for up to 2 days per year and tend to close down the agency between Christmas and new years
• You’ll have a hybrid working schedule, with flexible start/end hours, and choosing yourself whether to work from home or our modern offices in central locations.
• We’re a friendly bunch! We host regular team socials and company-wide workshops

At the point of application, the candidate must have the legal right to work in the UK as we are unable to sponsor visas as this time.

Merkle does not discriminate against job applicants on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Experience stipulated in this job description serves as a guide only and all applications will be considered on their merits, irrespective of experience. 

As part of our Diversity and Inclusion agenda, and as an Equal Opportunities employer, if you require reasonable adjustments during the selection process please engage directly with your Recruiter.