Senior Director - Reporting

Role Purpose:

At WPP Media, technology is at the heart of everything we do, and it is WPP IT's mission to enable everyone to collaborate, create and thrive. WPP IT is undergoing a significant transformation to modernise ways of working, shift to cloud and micro-service-based architectures, drive automation, digitise colleague and client experiences, and deliver insight from WPP's data and reporting platforms.

The Senior Director – Reporting will be responsible for driving the development, enhancement, maintenance, and support of enterprise applications, reporting solutions, and Microsoft SQL Server-based platforms. The role requires a strong combination of application development capability, SQL Server expertise, reporting understanding, and business-facing delivery experience.

Working closely with business users, market SMEs, technology teams, and cross-functional stakeholders, you will understand business requirements, translate them into scalable technical solutions, and ensure reliable delivery across Development, UAT, and Production environments. You will play a pivotal role in bridging business requirements and technical execution, ensuring that applications, databases, and reporting solutions are robust, secure, high-performing, and aligned with business needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, enhance, test, and maintain enterprise applications using the Microsoft .NET technology stack.
• Develop and maintain ASP.NET web applications and Windows desktop applications using WinForms / WPF.
• Build reusable, scalable, and maintainable application components aligned to business and technology requirements.
• Perform application debugging, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and production issue resolution.
• Participate across the full Software Development Life Cycle, including requirement understanding, design, development, testing, deployment, and support.
• Design and develop complex SQL Server stored procedures, optimized queries, and database objects.
• Perform SQL query tuning, database performance optimization, and support database design based on business requirements.
• Ensure data integrity, consistency, security, and reliability across application and reporting databases.
• Support SQL Server administration activities including performance monitoring, index maintenance, job scheduling, and SQL Server Agent jobs.
• Troubleshoot database issues and support SQL Server performance improvement initiatives.
• Support application and database deployments across Development, UAT, and Production environments.
• Provide production support and resolve application, reporting, and database issues within agreed SLAs.
• Interact directly with business users to understand issues, gather requirements, and translate them into technical solutions.
• Perform root cause analysis for recurring issues and recommend permanent fixes.
• Prepare technical documentation, deployment notes, process documents, and support guides where required.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams during implementation, release, migration, and production support activities.
• Support reporting and automation initiatives using relevant Microsoft and cloud-based technologies.
• Drive ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement across assigned development, reporting, and support areas.

Essential Skills & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 10–12 years of relevant experience in application development, SQL Server database development, reporting platforms, and production support.
• Strong experience in C# and .NET Framework / .NET.
• Experience in ASP.NET MVC / ASP.NET web application development.
• Experience in Windows Forms or WPF desktop application development.
• Strong hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server.
• Advanced SQL programming skills, including stored procedures, functions, views, and complex queries.
• Experience in query optimization, performance tuning, and database troubleshooting.
• Experience in IIS deployment and application configuration.
• Experience in REST APIs / web services.
• Experience with source control tools such as Git, Azure DevOps, or TFS.
• Strong understanding of application support, release management, and production issue resolution.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with experience interacting with both business and IT stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Fluent in English.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Experience with SSIS.
• Exposure to Azure DevOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Exposure to Microsoft Azure.
• Experience with Microsoft Power Platform, including Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps.
• Exposure to React and Node.js.
• Exposure to Google Cloud Platform.
• Exposure to Python.
• Understanding of reporting platforms, dashboards, and data integration concepts.
• Relevant Microsoft, SQL Server, Azure, Power Platform, or cloud certifications will be preferred.

Behaviours:

• You'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, and new ways of working.
• You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures for our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with confidence: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.
• You're extraordinary: We are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we deliver extraordinary every day.