{"id":2616231,"url":"https://alion.io/job/wpp-vp-development","title":"VP Development","company":{"id":5467,"name":"WPP","domain":"wpp.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/wpp","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":34,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.471,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":56,"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Legal","role_family":"Legal","seniority":"head","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":121000,"max_usd":230000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":14},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-15T09:12:28Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-16T11:38:07Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. \nWe unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company - powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. \n\nWe work with the world's most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.\n\nOur people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow. \n\nFor more information, visit WPP.com.\n\nAbout the role\nWe’re looking for a VP, Development, Prototyping & Innovation to lead the technical capability that turns ideas, research and emerging technologies into validated prototypes, reusable technical assets and scalable solutions across Open Intelligence Solutions (OIS).\nThis is a newly defined leadership role sitting at the intersection of R&D, product, engineering and emerging technology. You’ll help determine which ideas are worth pursuing, prove their technical and commercial viability, and establish the engineering foundations needed to take successful concepts towards production.\nYou’ll be the bridge between research and delivery - ensuring that innovation moves quickly without compromising on technical quality, security, governance, architecture or scalability.\nA significant part of the role will involve emerging AI technologies, including AI applications, agentic systems, AI orchestration and MCP tooling, alongside cloud-native development, MLOps and platform integration.\nWhat you’ll do\nLead development, prototyping and innovation\nOwn the development and prototyping capability for Open Intelligence Solutions.\nTurn strategic concepts, client opportunities, research outputs and emerging technologies into demonstrable prototypes and reusable technical assets.\nWork closely with R&D, Product and Engineering to assess technical feasibility and identify the fastest viable route from idea to validated solution.\nEstablish frameworks for prioritising, building and evaluating experiments, proofs of concept and technical spikes.\nCreate clear governance around the transition from prototype → pilot → production.\nEnsure prototypes demonstrate genuine business value before being positioned as scalable solutions.\nShape engineering standards and architecture\nDefine engineering standards, reference architectures, code governance and reusable development patterns across OIS.\nRaise standards around quality, maintainability, security and consistency across prototypes and technical accelerators.\nLead the architecture of solutions integrating with WPP Open, data platforms, APIs and enterprise technology environments.\nWork with Product, Enterprise Technology and Data Product teams to determine what should remain standalone, what should integrate into existing platforms and what should transition into formal product roadmaps.\nEnsure technical assets can ultimately be governed, supported and scaled across the WPP network.\nDrive AI and technical innovation\nProvide technical leadership for AI application development and agentic systems.\nEstablish practical implementation patterns for AI orchestration frameworks and MCP tooling.\nHelp teams experiment rapidly with AI-enabled capabilities while maintaining appropriate standards around architecture, security, data governance and operational readiness.\nDevelop reusable approaches to MLOps, deployment automation and cloud-native development.\nReduce the friction between prototype and production by creating repeatable technical patterns, tools and processes.\nBuild and lead technical capability\nLead and develop a team of senior engineers, applied AI engineers and innovation specialists.\nBuild a culture that combines high-quality engineering with fast learning, responsible experimentation and pragmatic delivery.\nDevelop reusable templates, toolkits, standards and guidance that allow teams across OIS to build on successful prototypes without relying on a single technical owner.\nEnable domain, product and delivery teams to adopt engineering standards while maintaining appropriate governance over architecture and production readiness.\nCollaborate with engineers and specialists across software architecture, AI application development, rapid prototyping, API and platform integration, MLOps and product engineering.\nWhat we’re looking for\nWe’re looking for an experienced technology leader who is comfortable operating where innovation meets engineering - someone who can move quickly from an emerging idea to a working prototype, while understanding what is required to make it production-ready.\nYou’ll bring:\nSignificant experience leading software engineering, technical innovation, R&D or applied technology teams.\nA strong track record of taking concepts, prototypes or emerging technologies through to production or scalable implementation.\nStrong software architecture and engineering expertise, with experience establishing standards and reusable technical patterns.\nExperience working across prototyping, platform integration, cloud-native development and technical delivery.\nStrong understanding of modern AI application development, ideally including agentic systems, AI orchestration, MCP or similar emerging technologies.\nExperience with MLOps, deployment automation and modern engineering practices.\nThe ability to assess technical feasibility quickly and make pragmatic decisions about where to invest engineering effort.\nExperience partnering with Product, R&D, Enterprise Technology and senior engineering stakeholders.\nStrong understanding of security, data governance and enterprise architecture considerations when taking experimental technology towards production.\nExcellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.\nA passion for emerging technology and a pragmatic mindset - knowing when to experiment, when to iterate and when to stop.\nWho you are:\nYou're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.\nYou're optimistic: We believein the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.\nYou're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.\nWhat we'll give you:\nPassionate, inspired people - We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.\nScale and opportunity - We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.\nChallenging and stimulating work - Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?\n#LI-Hybrid \nWe believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office around four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.\nWPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular 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.\nPlease read our Privacy Notice (https://www.wpp.com/en/careers/wpp-privacy-policy-for-recruitment) for more information on how we process the information you provide.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8131,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Advertising","Creative Agencies","Digital Marketing","Media & Audience Measurement"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T12:18:02Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":56,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/wpp-vp-development","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/wpp-vp-development.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T12:27:12Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":11663,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":5467},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=5467"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fwpp-vp-development"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fwpp-vp-development"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fwpp-vp-development"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/wpp-vp-development\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fwpp-vp-development"}]}