Adelphi Group
Head of Search (FTC)
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Agency:
Omd
Job Function:
Media
Job Subfunction:
Performance Media
Job Description:
About the Role:
MG OMD is looking for a Head of Search to join us on a fixed-term contract covering maternity leave. This is a senior leadership role within our Performance team, responsible for leading our Search capability across PPC and SEO, and ensuring clear strategy, strong delivery and commercial discipline throughout the contract. You’ll act as the senior Search lead for key clients, guide a high-performing team, and work closely with other media and strategy leaders to deliver integrated, effective solutions. This role suits an experienced Search leader who is confident operating at a senior level, calm under pressure, and focused on maintaining momentum, quality and team performance in a fast-moving agency environment.
- Lead MG OMD’s full Search capability across PPC and SEO, with real ownership and senior visibility
- Act as the trusted Search advisor for major clients, shaping strategy and performance at a leadership level
- Work alongside channel leads across Social, Programmatic, Affiliates and Digital Planning to deliver true cross-channel solutions
- Guide and support a high-performing team, keeping standards, culture and momentum strong during the contract
- Operate in a role that balances strategic thinking with hands-on leadership and commercial accountability
The Work:
- Set the strategic direction for PPC and SEO across the agency, ensuring strategies are aligned to client goals and integrated with the wider digital ecosystem
- Lead the development and evolution of Search craft, including innovation in automation, AI, measurement, technical excellence, content relevance and SERP experience
- Oversee best-in-class delivery standards for PPC and SEO across planning, activation, optimisation, testing and reporting
- Ensure Search is fully integrated into cross-channel planning with Programmatic, AV, Social, Digital Planning and Content
- Provide senior Search expertise for major strategic responses, pitches and agency initiatives
Communication & Collaboration:
- Act as the senior Search partner for key clients, internal stakeholders and OMG groups
- Confidently communicate complex PPC and SEO concepts to senior audiences, including boards and SLTs
- Work closely with Business Directors and Account Directors to ensure aligned, consistent communication across all Search accounts
- Collaborate with other channel leads to drive integrated solutions and shared performance outcomes
- Build strong relationships with major Search platforms, technology partners and measurement providers
Commerciality, Accountability & Operations:
- Own the commercial performance of the entire Search department, including forecasting, revenue delivery and profitability, and full P&L ownership across SEO and PPC
- Hold ultimate accountability for Search budgets, headcount planning and margin management
- Set, monitor and deliver Search audit targets with Business Directors accountable for execution within their respective client portfolios, ensuring governance, compliance and operational consistency
- Oversee processes, tooling, automation, QA and operational frameworks that ensure accuracy, consistency and efficiency
- Identify commercial opportunities for agency value and client growth across Search
- Proactively assess and manage risk, ensuring Search teams remain compliant with industry standards, regulation and platform requirements
- Define and own operational, governance and compliance frameworks for Search
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Client/Media Partner/Auditor Relationships and Servicing:
- Build and maintain senior client relationships at executive and escalation level as a trusted strategic advisor for all Search activity
- Ensure clients are informed of Search trends, algorithm shifts, platform developments and opportunities across PPC and SEO
- Champion integrated Search solutions that drive long-term, sustainable impact
- Lead relationships with major Search platforms and SEO tool providers to maintain MG OMD’s leadership position
- Represent Search in senior client forums, industry panels and thought leadership opportunities
Team Management, Training & Leadership:
- Lead and develop Business Directors, Account Directors, Managers and specialists across PPC and SEO
- Directly manage Business Directors and hold accountability for their commercial and operational performance
- Set clear expectations around performance, leadership standards and Search ways of working
- Provide coaching, development and succession planning to elevate Search leadership capability
- Foster a collaborative, high-performing, innovative team culture
- Shape long-term Search capability strategy, ensuring the team remains ahead of industry change and emerging Search technologies
About the Agency:
MG OMD was established in 1990 as a challenger media agency (Manning Gottlieb Media) that placed craft, trust and performance at the heart of media planning and buying. Since joining Omnicom network’s OMG (Omnicom Media Group) in 1998, we have continued to retain our founding ethos of providing clients with bespoke approaches, unprecedented insight, specialism, security and transparency; helping our clients to use media to unlock their competitive advantage and deliver innovative, effective and award-winning work and campaigns that create difference that matters.
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MG OMD is the second-largest media agency in the UK. We are the most awarded media agency in both the history of the IPA Effectiveness Awards and Thinkbox’s TV Planning Awards and have this year been named as Agency of the Year in The Media Leader UK awards, Campaign Global awards and Campaign UK awards.
With over 500 employees working across some of the UK’s leading brands including the John Lewis Partnership, Virgin Media O2, British Airways, Specsavers, HM Government, LNER, Sony Pictures and Age UK; it is our people who ultimately make the award-winning difference.
So, true to our ethos, we work hard at creating a spirit and atmosphere that inspires our people to be considerate, honest, and professional whilst also being stimulating, imaginative and inspirational.
We want people who are great to work with, fun to be with and who genuinely care; about each other, our clients, our media partners and doing great work.
In return, we provide an amazingly collaborative culture, where open communication and an unwavering commitment to diversity of thinking, diversity of background and diversity of skillsets runs through everything we do. All backed up by the highest standards of training, development and support in the industry; so much so, that we have attained IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) CPD Gold Accreditation for the 13th year running and maintained our CPD Platinum Accreditation for the 7th consecutive year, showcasing our commitment to continuous professional development. We were also featured in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work in both 2023 and 2024. Our being named is completely based on the opinions and perspectives of our employees which makes the accolade all that more special.
Omnicom’s policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week, unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager. Our objective is to increase this requirement over time, and many of our agencies as well as Omnicom’s corporate group already require five days of in-office attendance.
Omnicom is committed to hiring and developing exceptional talent. We agree that talent is uniquely distributed, and we’re focused on developing inclusive teams that can bring the best solutions to everything we do. We strongly believe that celebrating what makes us different makes us better together. Join us—we look forward to getting to know you. We will process your personal data in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice.
Link to Recruitment Privacy Notice: https://www.omc.com/privacy-notice/
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