Chief Operating Officer

Company Description

Powered locally and aligned globally, Publicis Production EMEA Hub forms the regional backbone of Publicis Production. With over 1.200 talented professionals based in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the UK, and Mauritius, we enable smarter, faster, and more connected content delivery for global brands. Our integrated capabilities include post and primary production, versioning, commerce, web development, CRM, and language services. As part of the global Publicis Production network, our mission is to transform production into a true growth driver. By combining tech, data, automation, and AI, we deliver intelligent content at scale. We are proud to power Publicis Groupe's ambition to build the world's best global integrated production offering.

Overview

The Chief Operating Officer is a key leadership position responsible for managing the entire service delivery lifecycle, from planning and design through execution and evaluation. The role facilitates effective collaboration with account management teams and delivery leads to maximise client satisfaction, revenue and margin performance. The COO works closely with business and account management leaders, delivery leads and on-site teams that support clients’ commerce and production needs.

This is a highly demanding and continuously evolving leadership role that requires extensive experience in managing diverse teams and key internal and external stakeholders, including clients. In-depth knowledge of commerce and production processes is essential, including an understanding of critical input timelines, risk mitigation, problem-solving and the delivery of brand consistency through collaboration with regional and global teams. The Chief Operating Officer is also responsible for maintaining a stable and motivated team.

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously improve the EMEA Hub operating model, ensuring that countries, capabilities and functional teams execute against one strategy, one set of priorities, one financial plan and one accountable delivery system.

• Own the EMEA Hub operating model, integrating countries, capabilities, technology, delivery and commercial priorities into one accountable system. Create and optimise processes and ways of working, supported by key metrics, to streamline operational activities, deliver scopes of work within budget and communicate risks or issues clearly to all stakeholders.

• Oversee the implementation of business plans and strategies by supported and managed teams, ensuring alignment with established long-term global objectives and priorities.

• Build the EMEA Hub into an AI-enabled orchestration layer that connects production, commerce, web, technology and language capabilities across locations and converts them into scalable client outcomes by combining human judgement, AI capabilities, automation and quality governance.

• Lead the transition from AI awareness and experimentation to measurable workflow adoption, redesigning roles, processes, controls and decision points so that human judgement and AI capability operate as one delivery system.

• Establish and govern a single Hub scorecard covering client performance, delivery quality, financial outcomes, utilisation, capability maturity, AI adoption, workforce transition and execution of strategic commitments.

• Lead the execution of the 2027 Commitment by translating strategic priorities into named ownership, milestones, KPIs and corrective actions. Develop a workforce transformation plan covering capability needs, role redesign, reskilling, succession, location mix, talent-to-task allocation and responsible transitions resulting from AI and automation.

• Act as the executive owner of the Hub’s strategy-execution system, identifying cross-functional dependencies, conflicting priorities, execution risks and corrective actions before they affect client, commercial or financial outcomes.

• Strengthen collective accountability across the Leadership Team, ensuring that functional ownership does not replace shared responsibility for the Hub’s overall commercial, operational, client and people outcomes.

• Drive workflow and role redesign, ensuring that AI adoption delivers measurable improvements in capacity, quality, speed, client value and economics.

• Scale Centres of Excellence and knowledge transfer, ensuring that proven capabilities and ways of working can be replicated across the EMEA and global network.

• Successfully deploy tools and technology to drive efficiencies and ensure that the Publicis Production EMEA Hub remains at the cutting edge of commerce and production development.

• Partner and align with the Leadership Team on financial models that maximise profitability and deliver budget and margin targets.

• Adhere to all risk management guidelines and proactively manage contractual risk.

• Nurture talent within the Hub, taking responsibility for rolling out training on new processes and setting growth goals for teams supporting key client work. Build and develop expertise, know-how and technological capabilities across supported and managed teams.

• Share knowledge across the organisation regarding ways of working and the services provided by supported and managed teams.

• Successfully implement new business, with a focus on continuously improving operational efficiency and maintaining high quality standards in partnership with account management teams and delivery leads.

• Contribute regularly to external events and serve as an ambassador for the Publicis Production EMEA Hub.

Qualifications

• Extensive senior leadership experience in complex, multi-country delivery or operations environments, ideally across production, commerce, web, technology or language services.

• Proven ability to design, implement and continuously improve operating models that align countries, capabilities and functional teams around shared priorities, financial plans and delivery accountability.

• Strong understanding of production and commerce processes, including key inputs, timelines, quality controls and brand consistency requirements.

• Demonstrated experience in AI-enabled transformation, automation and workflow redesign, with the ability to translate experimentation into measurable improvements in capacity, quality, speed, client value and economics.

• Strong strategic execution skills, including translating strategy into clear ownership, milestones, KPIs, governance routines and corrective actions.

• Commercial and financial acumen, including budget ownership, margin optimisation, profitability, utilisation, headcount planning and resource allocation.

• Proven capability in performance management and governance, including the development of integrated scorecards and a reliable management reporting rhythm.

• Experience leading workforce transformation, including capability planning, role redesign, reskilling, succession planning, location strategy and talent-to-task allocation.

• Excellent stakeholder and client management skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders, resolve cross-functional dependencies and build collective accountability.

• Strong risk management, problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to anticipate and mitigate operational, commercial, financial and contractual risks.

• Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate and develop diverse teams while fostering collaboration, innovation, ambition and a stable, engaged working environment.

• Experience scaling Centres of Excellence, transferring knowledge and implementing consistent ways of working across regional or global networks.

• Track record of successfully implementing new business, technology and process improvements while maintaining high delivery standards.

• Excellent communication and change-management skills, with the ability to clearly communicate priorities, risks, issues and decisions to internal and external stakeholders.
• Professional proficiency in English, with the ability to communicate effectively in complex business, client and leadership environments.

Additional Information

We offer the following:

• Opportunity to develop in a stable company with an established position in the market.
• Extensive range of online training courses in cooperation with reputable market partners.
• Opportunity to participate in international and local development projects and programmes.
• International working environment.
• Attractive package of non-wage benefits (medical care, the Nais benefit platform, life insurance program, recreation allowance, access to the Marcel international training platform, etc.).
• High working flexibility (we work in a hybrid model, with predominance of home office).
• Work Your World – opportunity to work from any place in the world for 6 weeks a year and access to the Home Swap Home internal platform.
• Friendly and casual working atmosphere in a close-knit team filled with positive energy.

At Publicis Groupe, we value diversity and invite all candidates to apply, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof, origin or disability.