Regional Project Manager

Company DescriptionStarcom, a Publicis Groupe media agency, leads the way in creating connected human experiences powered by precision marketing, content, and technology.Ranked #1 Media Agency in MENA in the 2024 WARC Media 100, Starcom partners with top brands to deliver campaigns that move people and markets.With a culture built on growth, innovation, and balance, Starcom is where media meets meaning. Join us and shape the future.OverviewThe Regional Project Manager will serve as the operational backbone of the regional team, ensuring seamless delivery, governance, and systems adoption across 8 markets. This role is responsible for driving project excellence, rolling out and managing core tools and platforms, and enforcing a consistent operating model that improves efficiency, transparency, and performance across the region. Acting as the orchestrator between HQ and local market teams, the regional project manager ensures alignment, accountability, and measurable progress against regional priorities.ResponsibilitiesProject Management (Regional Programs & PMO Leadership)Own the master regional delivery plan, consolidating tasks, timelines, dependencies, milestones, and sequencing across 8 markets and multiple workstreams (strategy, media, performance, data, tech, measurement, etc.).Run the Project Management Office (PMO) engine, setting up project governance, planning routines, RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) tracking, and change control processes for multi-market initiatives.Translate business priorities into structured plans/tasks, with clear roles, responsibilities, and execution paths for both HQ and market teams.Lead cross-functional working groups and ensure workflows move seamlessly between teams and stakeholders, resolving bottlenecks before they escalate.Create and socialize project documentation, including charters, SOWs, timelines, SLAs, action logs, and post-implementation reviews.Provide transparent visibility to stakeholders through dashboards, progress reports, sprint reviews, and traffic/throughput reports.Run the standups for the project planning and tracking, resolving conflict, and driving towards solution and delivery.Serve as the single source of truth for all regional project status, proactively aligning expectations and enabling faster decision-making.Improve delivery performance over time by optimizing processes, removing inefficiencies, and championing best practices in collaboration, planning, and accountability.Be able to push back on stakeholders when things are at risk of non-delivery, or negotiate timelines in case of scope changes.Be able to represent the Business Lead in status calls and updates and be able to drive the conversation of project tracking and delivery.Systems & Tools Rollout and Management (Adoption, Training, Effectiveness)Lead the rollout of regional toolsets and platforms, from planning to onboarding, activation, enforcement, and ongoing optimization.Act as platform owner and super-user, managing access, permissions, governance rules, maintenance routines, and issue escalation.Develop and maintain a regional systems playbook, including SOPs, best practices, user governance, SLAs, and onboarding frameworks for new markets or new team members.Build and deliver structured enablement programs, including training calendars, knowledge hubs, certification paths, and drop-in support clinics for market teams.Monitor platform usage and adoption levels, building scorecards and dashboards to show adoption progress, gaps, and compliance at market level.Measure ROI and effectiveness, ensuring systems drive efficiency, visibility, quality, and speed, recommending changes to ways of working where tool adoption is suboptimal.Provide proactive support and troubleshooting, ensuring smooth business as ususal system operations and minimizing downtime or tool-related project delays.Stay ahead of product roadmap changes, ensuring the region benefits from global innovations, upgrades, and new feature roll-outs.Be able to customize systems to ensure workflow agility, speed, and success.Lead change management efforts to ensure smooth adoption of new systems and processes across markets—driving awareness, engagement, and behavioral change through structured communication, stakeholder alignment, and ongoing reinforcement. Regional Governance (Standards, Alignment, Accountability)Design, enforce, and evolve the regional operating model, covering workflows, responsibilities, approval paths, reporting structures, and ways of working across HQ + 8 markets.Institutionalize a predictable operating rhythm, including weekly business reviews (WBR), monthly reviews (MBR), quarterly steer-co sessions (QBR), and annual planning milestones. This changes to Daily Reviews in case of key critical camapigns running.Ensure consistency in delivery and processes, minimizing fragmentation and driving unified standards, templates, documentation, taxonomies, and rituals across all markets.Create accountability loops, holding markets responsible for timelines, adoption, reporting hygiene, governance compliance, and quality of outputs.Surface market realities upward and early, synthesizing insights, risks, and structural challenges to the Regional Business Lead and client stakeholders for intervention and prioritization.Own escalation pathways, ensuring fast resolution, clear accountability, and structured follow-through on decisions and remediation plans.Champion continuous improvement, conducting retrospectives, identifying systemic gaps, and driving regional initiatives that streamline workflows, remove duplication, and improve speed-to-market.Ensure agency-client ways of working evolve with maturity, improving partnership effectiveness and transparency over time.Ways of WorkingServe as the central connection point between HQ and 8 local markets.Maintain structured check-ins, cadence, and communication flow.Consolidate local market views into one regional lens for visibility, prioritization, and decision-making.Drive a culture of accountability, clarity, and continuous improvement.Liaise closely with strategy, media, performance, data, tech, measurement, etc. teams to ensure interlock and speed.QualificationsRequired Skills & Experience6-8 years of experience in Project Management, PMO, or Operations (agency, consulting, or complex multi-market environments).Proven experience managing multi-stakeholder programs across markets or regions.Strong command of project planning tools and workflow systems.Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills.Ability to influence without authority across matrixed organizations.Preferred / Nice-to-HavePMP, PRINCE2, Agile, 6Sigma, or Lean certification.Experience in media, marketing, or digital transformation environments.Previous regional or multi-market operating experience.Personality & AttributesHighly structured and process-obsessedCollaborative and ego-free partner across marketsExcellent communicator (written, verbal, visual)Strong presenter with ability to influence senior stakeholdersCalm under pressure, thrives in complexityDetail-oriented, catches what others missProactive problem solver, anticipates issues, not reactiveHigh accountability and ownership mindsetCulturally aware, adaptable across 8 marketsDrives clarity, alignment, and discipline in others