Commercial WIP Manager

Job Title: Commercial WIP Manager
Location: London 
Contract Type: Fixed-Term (12 months) 
Reporting to: Commercial WIP Manager Lead

About Ogilvy: Impacting Brands & the World

At Ogilvy, our vision is to inspire brands and people to impact the world. We're driven to create big ideas that contribute significantly to the planet, society, and the bottom line. We believe this is how our clients achieve sustainable growth, and we achieve it by breaking down barriers that restrict talent and ideas.

Our teams work fluidly across five core capabilities: Advertising, Consulting, Experience, PR & Influencer, and Health. This unique approach allows us to innovate at the intersection of talent and expertise – what we call Borderless Creativity. With 132 offices in 83 countries, we seamlessly connect deep cultural insights to deliver multifaceted ideas that drive impact, born from the intersection of platform x culture x technology.

We're proud to be at the forefront of our industry, ranked as the number one UK agency at D&AD and the only UK agency to win a Glass Lion at Cannes. Ogilvy was also nominated 'Network of the Year' by Campaign, Effie Awards EMEA, London International Awards, The One Show, and WARC Rankings. Join a team that consistently pushes boundaries and delivers award-winning work!

The Opportunity

We're seeking a dedicated and proactive Commercial WIP Manager to join our Commercial Finance team in London on a 12-month fixed-term contract. Reporting directly to the Commercial WIP Manager Lead, you will play a critical role as a gatekeeper of billable projects, overseeing the billing and Work-In-Progress (WIP) management for a diverse portfolio of clients.

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a dynamic team committed to embedding best commercial practices throughout all agency business transactions. You will ensure best practice is applied to project management across the full project lifecycle, working closely with Commercial Managers, other WIP Managers, and agency client teams.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Project & Financial Management:
• Oversee the entire project lifecycle, ensuring adherence to Workday project opening processes, timely follow-up, and accurate project closure.
• Proactively manage WIP, hold regular review meetings with client teams, and ensure project profitability is reviewed and signed off.
• Ensure timely and accurate client invoicing, adhering to both client and internal Ogilvy processes.
• Manage credit notes, review open Purchase Orders, and allocate WIP and prebill balances.
• Monitor and manage FX gains/losses on projects.
• Client & Data Integrity:
• Set up new clients in Workday and maintain accurate master data.
• Ensure strict adherence to VAT rules and foreign currency policies for each client.
• Net Working Capital (NWC) Management:
• Proactively review WIP and collaborate with our Finance Plus (Shared Service Centre) Debtors Team to resolve any issues and prevent NWC provisions.
• Compliance & Best Practice:
• Ensure full compliance with ICFR (internal control) policies and regulations.
• Assist with internal and client audits, and champion adherence to all internal procedures and supplier PO policies.
• Promote best practice in the use of all systems, including supporting client teams with Workday training and ad hoc requests.

What You'll Bring:

• Experience:
• Preferred media industry experience, or a strong background in a service-oriented business with a clear commercial focus.
• Familiarity with Billing, WIP, and Net Working Capital (NWC) management is essential.
• Workday experience is advantageous.
• Skills & Attributes:
• Proactive, self-motivated, with a keen eye for process improvement.
• A confident, enthusiastic communicator (both written and verbal) with proven stakeholder management abilities.
• Exceptional attention to detail, coupled with strong organisational and time management skills to navigate multiple deadlines and priorities effectively.
• Strong Excel skills (e.g., SUMIFS, VLOOKUPS).

How We Help You Thrive:

We believe in supporting our people to do their best work and live their best lives.

•  25 days annual leave plus the option to buy up to 5 extra days leave + 1 volunteer day
• Bupa Healthcare
• Enhanced family friendly policies, including, adoption and shared parental leave
• Menopause support
• We have a Flexible Working Model with core working hours: 10am – 4pm
• A generous pension scheme - you pay in 4% we pay 6%, following probation contributions are matched up to 10.5% (17.5% in total
• A fantastic Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provided by Telus which offers brilliant support, expert advice and specialist counselling
• Help @ Hand - quick free access to a remote GP, mental health support, physio or a medical 2nd opinion

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they’re here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone who wants to work at Ogilvy. For us, diversity, equity and inclusion is integrated into everything that we do. We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ethnic, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, have no bearing on our hiring decisions, but we encourage everyone to feel free to express their true selves in an environment we are consistently striving to make as inclusive as possible.

We aim to facilitate an accessible and positive application experience for all candidates. If you require any adjustments from us to support you through the process or expect to require any adjustments to working conditions to be able to best perform in the role, please let us know. We are happy to consider all reasonable adjustments.

If you live with a disability and you would like to take advantage of our offer of a guaranteed interview under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure you fill out our voluntary Equal Opportunities Questionnaire when applying.