Senior Performance Director

Company Description

At Zenith, we are a connected team with purpose. We are driven to create new perspectives through modern media. We believe marketing is a powerful investment that can build and grow brands and increase business profitability. So we unlock opportunities for growth by placing consumer behavior, attitudes, and insights at the heart of everything we do. We pride ourselves on delivering return on investment, imagination, and insight.Central to this vision is the knowledge that we are only as good as our people. To grow our clients' business, we need to attract, retain, develop, and grow the brightest talent in the industry. We know it is not the sum of one but the sum of all of us that make us great. Our behaviors are: Be Bold, Be Kind, Be Better Together.We're determined to eradicate any barriers that prevent our people from achieving their fullest potential.We offer progressive flexible working options to everyone at all levels - it's not a policy. It's behavior-led and reinforced through our values.Mental health & wellbeing is something we consider a priority - it's championed by our own people internally and is a regular conversation.We have a lot of fun - we're constantly looking at reinventing how we're connecting with each other.

Job Description

About the role:

At Zenith, we believe performance isn't just a channel, it's a growth engine. As a Senior Performance Director, you will play a senior role in shaping how performance media delivers meaningful business outcomes across your client portfolio. You will set the ambition, direction and standard for performance media, ensuring a seamless connection between strategy, planning, activation and optimisation and driving measurable marketing growth.

This role sits at the intersection of client strategy and execution. You will translate complex business objectives into performance led solutions that create real commercial impact, while partnering closely with senior stakeholders to provide clear direction and confident leadership. With oversight across markets and teams, you'll ensure our performance capability consistently delivers strong market leading outcomes, while continuously evolving our approach through data, technology and innovation.

We're looking for a leader who combines deep expertise in performance media with strong strategic thinking and commercial acumen. Someone who is confident influencing at a senior level, inspiring teams to raise the bar, and bringing a clear point of view on what great looks like. If you're motivated by shaping the future of performance, driving meaningful client impact, and setting new standards in the industry, this is the opportunity to do exactly that.

What you will do with us:

• Develop and own overarching global performance strategy, activating with local nuance across key lead markets, ensuring alignment to business outcomes within a single performance measurement framework
• Lead a team that activates digital channels programmatic, search, and social in ensuring consistent quality and strategic coherence across all activity
• Provide thought leadership and guidance on effectiveness, consolidating results across markets into a unified performance measurement framework that connects media activity to business outcomes
• Act as the client's go to performance advertising expert and the figurehead for performance media within the team, always involved in upstream responses to briefs and larger strategic conversations
• Hold in depth knowledge across all performance media channels and platforms, with the ability to effectively plan and buy performance media and lead responses on key briefs and new business opportunities
• Work closely with digital client teams to lift planning outputs and capability across upskilling teams, sharing knowledge, and making performance excellence contagious across all markets
• Build and own a strong point of view on performance channels and market opportunities whilst staying curious, staying opinionated, and keeping Zenith ahead of where the industry is going
• Drive innovation through testing, learning, trialling betas, partnering closely with PMX, and turning new opportunities into real impact
• Lead and manage team outputs across planning, implementation, optimisation, reporting and billing
• Quality control implementation responses and plans, including look and feel, storytelling, logic, substantiation and attention to detail
• Ensure campaigns are optimised effectively and performance is monitored ongoing
• Be deeply familiar with systems and tools to support teams in both usage and interpretation of outputs
• Know systems well enough to directly solve issues where required, or quickly identify the appropriate escalation path
• Lead, manage, and develop high-performing teams, fostering a motivated, engaged, and effectively operating team culture
• Manage growth and development of team members, driving direct report reviews, their goal setting, and structured career development plans
• Onboarding new team members into team operational processes, goals, vision
• Allocating resource across competing workstreams without over-committing the team - maintain view of capacity at all times
• Train and mentor team members across performance planning, buying, optimisation, and reporting, presentation, client service skills, building capability at every level.
• Act as the figurehead for behaviour, standards, and ways of working, communicating direction clearly and consistently across clients, teams, and agency stakeholders
• Identify talent gaps, support hiring, and build succession plans

What You'll Bring:

• Proven experience leading performance media strategy across multiple markets or global clients
• Demonstrated ability to translate business objectives into performance-led strategies that drive measurable growth
• Experience setting direction, standards and frameworks for performance across planning, activation and optimisation
• Strong, hands on knowledge across Paid Search, Paid Social and Programmatic
• Preferably a background in activation with knowledge across SA360, Meta, DV360, TTD, Ad verification and Brand safety platforms.
• Experience overseeing end to end campaign delivery (planning, buying, optimisation, reporting)
• Ability to quality control strategy, execution and outputs across multiple channels and teams
• Strong understanding of performance measurement frameworks linking media to business outcomes
• Experience with advanced analytics, attribution and performance reporting tools
• Working knowledge of tracking, tagging and performance data interpretation
• A senior advisor to clients, contributing to strategic conversations and responses to briefs
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and lead performance conversations at a strategic level
• Proven track record leading and developing high performing teams across performance disciplines
• Experience in coaching, mentoring and building capability across teams and markets
• Experience managing direct reports, performance reviews and career development planning

You are:

• Performance, Analytical and Solutions focused.
• Commercially minded, with a focus on delivering measurable business outcomes and continuous improvement.
• A confident communicator who can simplify complexity.
• Collaborative, inclusive and team oriented.
• Adaptable and comfortable navigating change.
• Detail oriented, organised, and accountable.

#LI-DS1

What you're looking for:

• A supportive and collaborative culture.
• Clients who are encourage innovative thinking and are open to be challenged.
• Ambition to fulfil your career goals in a business large enough to accommodate them.

Additional Information

Publicis Groupe benefits: Be a part of the Publicis Groupe family, recent winner of the Employer of Choice Awards and one of the world's most progressive and dynamic modern communications businesses. You can learn more about us at www.publicisgroupeanz.com.

Enjoy all the perks that come with our network offering:

• A comprehensive Wholeself program supporting physical, mindful, and financial wellbeing.
• A creative, lively, and rewarding office environment where people love working with each other, supported by our Publicis Liberte flexibility approach - "working your way with us."
• Access to our Global AI Platform Marcel, connecting Publicis Groupe employees with opportunities for career mobility and collaboration across our global network.
• Extensive Learning & Development opportunities including more than 15,000 learning programs via our online learning platform, Marcel Classes.
• A culture of open feedback and support to reach your goals through our Career Conversations program.
• A committed Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion strategy driven through our Viva Women, Egalite, enABLE, EmbRACE, and Ecologique committees.
• Leave benefits including Birthday Leave, Flexible Public Holidays, and an additional 5 days of leave after 2 years of service.
• Work Your World program enabling employees the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world for up to 6 weeks per year.
• Parental leave policy with up to 18 weeks based on tenure, paid primary carer leave, secondary carer swap, and Cub Care leave.
• Access to counsellors, psychologists, and professionals through Sonder, an all-in-one digital wellbeing technology platform designed to support psychological, medical & safety needs.
• A workplace that stands together to provide a more open, supportive, and recovery-forward culture for all employees with life-threatening illnesses. Read more about our Working With Cancer Pledge: https://workingwithcancerpledge.com/
• Proud partners of Diversity Council Australia, Pride in Diversity, Family Friendly Workplaces, Supply Nation, and the Australian Disability Network.

If you don't tick every box in this ad, please don't rule yourself out. Research suggests that women and other people in underrepresented groups tend to only apply if they meet every requirement. We focus on hiring people who share our values of inclusion, collaboration, adaptability, fearlessness, and integrity rather than ticking boxes - so if this role resonates with you, please apply.

Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. More than just words; these are part of our DNA. At Publicis Groupe, we are committed to the inclusion and recognition of all people regardless of race, age, culture, ability, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, and religious affiliation. We believe that to deliver the best solutions to our clients, our people need to reflect the diverse communities in which our clients operate. We value diversity and the skills, knowledge, and experience that difference brings to our culture and solutions.

Uniqueness is powerful; without it, we wouldn't be where we are today. So be you - we like it that way.

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for people with disability or those that require additional support throughout the application process. If you need any assistance or adjustments, please contact us via recruitmentpublicisgroupe.com; your personal information will be kept confidential.