What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate Director, Commerce Operations (Amazon) position at Wunderman Thompson (DBA VML)?
WPP Enterprise Solutions designs, builds, and operates the growth systems that competitive businesses rely on. In a world where Al is reshaping how companies drive growth, we lead clients in business transformation and marketing modernization, connecting strategy directly to execution. Our 12,000 experts in engineering and platforms, commerce, consulting, content transformation, CRM, and CX work within a unified global operating unit across 40 markets. WPP Enterprise Solutions works alongside best-in-class partners including Adobe, AWS, Braze, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Shopify, as well as innovators in AI, to deliver growth solutions tailored to the needs of our clients' businesses. VML, part of WPP, supports WPP Enterprise Solutions by helping brands activate transformation through creativity and experience.
About the Role
We are seeking a versatile and highly analytical Associate Director, Commerce Operations to join our Amazon squad. In this pivotal role, you will sit between our Retail Services Lead (who drives high-level portfolio strategy) and our Commerce Managers (who execute day-to-day tactical operations).
This is a unique hybrid role that requires you to seamlessly flex between strategic planning and deep operational troubleshooting.You willcollaborate closely with theRetail ServicesLead intranslatingclient business performance into actionable recommendations, provide guidance on Amazon growth priorities, and consult on key initiatives such as promotion strategy, catalog optimization, retail readiness, and supply chain efficiencies.
Key Responsibilities
- Strategic Commerce Leadership
- Strategic & Commercial Advisory:Provide day-to-day strategic support, bringing commercial context and clarity to complex business results, marketplace trends, and operational issues.
- Retail Priorities & Planning:Advise onpriorities across promotions, content, catalog, availability, and retail execution, delivering proactive recommendations to drive performance and growth.
- Advanced Amazon Expertise
- Operational & Catalog Guidance:Guidebestpractices for catalog setup, product content (PDP optimization, A Content, imagery), variation structures, and retail readiness.
- Operational Audits & Commercial Health:Conduct holistic audits of marketplace operations, analyzing and presenting findings on in-stock availability, PO rejection rates, missed sales, and SKU-level profitability.
- Collaborative Troubleshooting:Partner with commerce managers to resolve complex operational scenarios, catalog errors, and suppressions,establishingclear escalation paths for platform hurdles.
- Performance Analysis
- Data Interpretation & Reporting:Review Amazon performance data to provide strategic interpretation of what is happening, why it matters, and what should happen next.
- Metric & Goal Synthesis:Connect core retail metrics-such as sales, traffic, conversion, share of search, and buy box performance-directly to broader client business goals.
- Risk & Driver Analysis:Proactivelyidentifyemerging risks and growth opportunities by evaluating retail drivers beyond raw data, including promotional support, content quality, and operational friction.
Key Qualifications & Skills
- Experience: 5-8 years of experience managing enterprise-level Amazon Vendor Central (1P) and Seller Central (3P) accounts, ideally within an agency setting.
- Commercial Acumen: ability to interpret complex data and turn performance trends into actionable recommendations,leveragingstrong commercial judgment to connect Amazon execution to business outcomes and present comfortably to client stakeholders.
- Technical Amazon Expertise:deep, practical knowledge of Amazon inventory templates, category templates, variation relationships, and the Amazon ticketing ecosystem.
- Advanced Excel Skills:youmust be highly proficient in Microsoft Excel (VLOOKUPs, Pivot Tables, Concatenate, Text-to-Columns) to manipulate large catalog data sets.
- Data Synthesis & Storytelling:abilityto pull raw data (Purchase Orders, Weeks of Cover, Traffic) and turn it into highly visual, executive-ready presentations that highlight "lost opportunities" and clear next steps.
The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details.
WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence and world-class partnerships - all united by our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open - we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.
WPP (VML/WPP Enterprise Solutions) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
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Wunderman Thompson is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability, or other protected group status. We believe in creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion and strives to recruit a diverse slate of candidates to help us achieve that goal.
Salary : $75,000 - $180,000