Senior Project Manager

Job Description:
We're looking for a Senior Project Manager who's ready for more.

Someone who loves the craft of project delivery, values strong relationships, and is excited to build, guide and grow a team of project managers. If you're a experienced Project Manager with leadership ambitions—or already leading and looking for a new challenge—this role might be your next step.

In this position, you'll take the lead on medium to large, complex, and technically driven CXM projects. From pitch through delivery and handover, you shape the full lifecycle, defining effective ways of working, bringing the right people together, and ensuring clarity on the project's direction. You are a go-to partner for clients, a trusted guide for teams, and the person who keeps everything moving with clarity and confidence and solve the challenges that come with complex delivery.

Beyond running projects, you'll also play a key role in managing other Project Managers, developing the Project Management expertise within the organization. You'll help define how we work, mentor others, foster collaboration, and nurture a culture of continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Own projects end-to-end: Lead planning, execution, and delivery within scope, time, budget, and quality standards.
• Build and guide teams: Form project teams, establish governance, and ensure accountability.
• Develop talent: Coach and support project managers and specialists, fostering growth and success.
• Foster innovation: Promote continuous improvement and explore new delivery models and tools.
• Engage stakeholders: Maintain strong relationships, drive alignment, and communicate effectively with clients, teams, and leadership.
• Optimize ways of working: Champion and continuously improve project management practices across the organization.
• Drive strategic impact: Align projects with business objectives and client success goals.
• Manage risk and change: Identify risks early, develop mitigation plans, and lead change management efforts

Qualifications:
We're looking for the right blend of experience, mindset, and leadership potential. You might be a fit if you have / are:

• Proven experience: 5+ years in project management, with a track record of delivering successful projects.
• A Leadership mindset: You've led teams, formally or informally, and know how to inspire people.
• A Practical problem solver: Comfortable working with both agile and traditional methodologies, skilled at breaking down complex challenges into actionable steps.
• Digital expertise: Familiar with leading strategy projects, mar-tech, web technologies, and digital ecosystems.
• Clear communicator: Able to engage confidently with customers, teams, and senior leadership.
• Collaborative operator: Experienced in managing distributed teams and multiple stakeholders.
• Language proficiency: Fluent in Dutch and English.

Tool-savvy
: Hands-on with Microsoft Project, Jira, and Confluence; Adobe Workfront experience is a plus.

What Do We Offer
We offer a culture of innovation and radical collaboration, a great place to work with a focus on the well-being of our people. We enjoy hybrid ways of working, additional well-being and social impact days, as well as flexible public holidays. We are a certified Great Place to Work.

• In addition to 25 annual vacation days, we offer 3 Well-being days where dentsu employees collectively take personal time off with a focus on well-being and 2 extra days that company is closed;
• 2 Social Impact Days where you can volunteer for the charity of your choice;
• A hybrid work model with 3 days in the office and 2 days at home;
• Extensive learning and development opportunities; we offer a wide range of personal and online training;
• Clear career development; in close collaboration with your manager, you create a personal development plan that helps you grow within the wide range of growth opportunities that Merkle offers.

About Merkle
Merkle is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices for leading brands. The company's heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalized marketing strategies. Merkle is an integrated part of dentsu, a global agency network, with more than 65,000 employees in 145 markets.

In Amsterdam and Rotterdam, more than 130 Merkle employees work with customers such as Albert Heijn, VodafoneZiggo, and Marktplaats. Merkle Netherlands is a strategic partner of Google, Adobe, Salesforce, and Selligent, among others.

Diversity and Inclusion
At dentsu we believe in the power of diversity. We welcome all applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

Contact:
We look forward to receiving your application for any questions, please contact the TA in charge of this role: David Ryall, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner, EMEA, NE.

Location:
Rotterdam

Brand:
Merkle

Time Type:
Full time

Contract Type:
Permanent