Director of Business Transformation & Operating Model Strategy

Job Description:

We're seeking a Director of Business Transformation & Operating Model Strategy. Reporting into the Sr. Director, Business Strategy, you'll join a team of talented and experienced consultants and marketers focused on helping Merkle clients accelerate their level of marketing maturity through data-driven, customer centric programs, people/processes and technology platforms. This role brings specialized focus on organizational transformation, change enablement, workflow and operational design.

You will operate as an important member of our Transformation & Consulting team, bringing hands on, client-facing expertise around organizational design, cross-functional ways of working, operational effectiveness, and change management execution to help clients navigate complex transformations. In this role, you'll leverage your experience with operating model design, organizational change management, process redesign, and capability development to deliver meaningful impact across our core vertical markets including Financial Services & Wealth Management, Healthcare, B2B, High Tech, Retail, Travel, Media and Entertainment. You'll combine analytical rigor with creative problem-solving to build trusted advisor relationships with clients and internal Merkle teams, guiding them through organizational readiness and change adoption challenges.

The ideal candidate brings a practitioner's passion for problem-solving and a sophisticated understanding of how businesses, brands, and customers interact — and how data and technology continue to reshape that relationship. This candidate combines deep expertise in organizational design and change management with a strong command of operational process and workflow, with the strategic instincts to identify client growth opportunities and translate them into actionable recommendations that drive measurable impact.

You Will:

• Lead change management and organizational design consulting engagements, often in coordination with Merkle technology teams.

• Design and implement organizational change strategies, operating models, and process frameworks to support marketing transformation initiatives

• Develop and refine operating model artifacts — including operating model visualizations, capability maps, decision-rights (RACI / RAPID) — tailored to client context and industry.

• Plan and facilitate organizational readiness assessments, change impact analyses, and operating model prioritization workshops leveraging a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods

• Support discovery, prioritization, and development of customer use cases in alignment with client’s strategic priorities and objectives

• Identify and define new processes to support marketing transformation initiatives

• Facilitate stakeholder discovery and working sessions that generate cross-functional alignment, surface organizational dynamics, and produce actionable outputs

• Develop executive-level presentations, synthesizing discovery findings into common themes that drive client recommendations and decision-making

• Create multi-year roadmaps to guide client implementation, in consultation with data, technology, and operational teams, to identify key dependencies and sequencing of recommendations

• Ensure meaningful client value is delivered through a mix of best-practice solutions, skills, capabilities, and original thinking.

• Develop and communicate transformation vision and roadmaps that articulate the customer and business value of organizational change, securing executive sponsorship and stakeholder commitment throughout the transformation journey.

• Identify key data points and measurements to show the impact of our approach and strategy on the client’s business.

• Support business development activities including identification, proposal development, and other pursuit activities.

• Collaborate and develop relationships with internal Merkle teams (account management, operations, technology, analytics etc.), and partner agencies to understand the feasibility of cross-practice area recommendations/plans.

You Have:

• Bachelor's Degree required; MBA or Master's degree in Organizational Development, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Business Administration, or related field preferred.

• 7+ years of cross-industry consulting experience in digital transformation roles, organizational change management, business process reengineering, integrated marketing strategy.

• 5+ years working in a top tier consulting firm and/or digital marketing agency.

• Demonstrated experience with end-to-end consulting approaches to solving client problems - from organizational assessment and design through execution and change adoption

• Understanding of marketing technologies to orchestrate and activate customer experience, and how organizational design enables technology adoption and CX transformation.

• Prior experience in marketing operations or change management (preferred)

• Familiarity with the application of agile methodologies to marketing (preferred)

• Experience in leading and delivering complex projects by providing actionable solutions for clients.

• Ability to craft compelling customer-driven transformation narratives and vision stories that create buy-in and alignment across stakeholder groups, translating complex organizational change into meaningful business outcomes.

• Hands-on skills using data and research to drive decisions. Some knowledge of data and analytics strategy.

• Strong writing, presentation and client facing communication skills. Experience translating data analysis into actionable marketing recommendations and presentations – proficiency in PowerPoint required.

• Ability to leverage business experience / acumen to identify new business and marketing opportunities.

• Self-starter high intellectual curiosity, drive, determination, and persuasion skills.

• Problem solving mindset and thrives in ambiguous and fast-moving environments, and in informal, loosely structured and creative work environments.

• Comfort and experience working within a highly matrixed organization in roles with a wide degree of latitude.

• Average 20%-30% travel (contingent on comfort level of client)

The annual salary range for this position is $113,000-$158,000. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law.

Benefits available with this position include:

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance,
• Life insurance,
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance,
• 401k,
• Flexible paid time off,
• At least 15 paid holidays per year,
• Paid sick and safe leave, and
• Paid parental leave.

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies. For further details regarding Dentsu benefits, please visit

To begin the application process, please click on the “Apply” button at the top of this job posting. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps.

At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.

#LI-Merkle #LI-REMOTE

Location:

Chicago

Brand:

Merkle

Time Type:

Full time

Contract Type:

Permanent

Dentsu is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race, color, national origin, sex , sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Dentsu is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with us, please send an e-mail to

[email protected]

by clicking on the link to let us know the nature of your accommodation request and your contact information. We are here to support you.