Sr. Product Manager, Managed Agents

Why we're hiring:

WPP's Data & Technology Solutions is the unified global data products and technology team. WPP Open is our AI platform for marketing, connecting marketing professionals, data, tools and AI in a single place.

The Product Manager, Managed Agents owns the strategy for WPP's centrally-built, production-grade AI agents. These are complex, code-based agents built to formal briefs by specialist engineers (including ex-Satalia talent) that serve needs the self-serve platform cannot yet address.

Critically, this role has a built-in evolution path. The long-term strategy is to democratise agentic capability across WPP — meaning managed agents should progressively become unnecessary as the platform matures. This Product Manager owns both the current value delivery AND the transition strategy.

• A product manager who thrives in ambiguity — managing a capability that must deliver value today while actively planning its own evolution.
• Experienced in professional services productisation — turning bespoke builds into scalable, repeatable patterns.
• Data-driven: you can mine a catalog of 150,000+ agents to find patterns and translate those into product opportunities.
• Comfortable managing a specialist engineering team as a strategic counterpart — setting direction without micromanaging technical decisions.
• A bridge-builder: you connect the managed agents team's expertise with product strategy across the pillar.

What you'll be doing:

• Own the intake process for managed agent requests — business case validation, deduplication against catalog, feasibility assessment.
• Decide what gets built: which requests warrant managed agent investment vs. self-serve guidance vs. product feature improvement?
• Maintain a prioritised backlog informed by business value, client need, and strategic alignment.

• Define what "production-grade" means for managed agents — testing, accuracy, monitoring, documentation standards.
• Work closely with Agent Governance Operations team on verification processes for managed agents.
• Ensure managed agents are exemplars of best practice that inform standards for the self-serve platform.

• Analyse agent creation patterns across the 150,000+ catalog — identify common needs being solved repeatedly.
• Translate patterns into product signals: "1,500 people/month building insight agents" = signal that Unified Insights needs improvement.
• Feed insights to other Product Managers and the Product Strategist to inform portfolio-level investment decisions.

• For each managed agent: determine the long-term path — become a product feature? Become a catalog super agent? Remain bespoke?
• Work with Product Manager, Agent Hub & Catalog to transition proven agents into the catalog as super agents.
• Work with Product Manager, Agent Builder to feed requirements back: "these are the capabilities that would let users build this themselves."
• Progressively reduce the managed agents backlog as the platform matures — measure success by decreasing dependency.

• Act as strategic counterpart to the managed agents engineering team (ex-Satalia specialists in delivery organisation).
• Set direction and priorities without micromanaging technical implementation.
• Champion the team's expertise as an asset for platform intelligence.

What you'll need:

• 5+ years of product management experience, with experience in services productisation, internal tools, or AI/ML products.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a capability with a deliberate evolution/sunset path.
• Strong analytical skills — ability to mine large datasets for strategic insight.
• Experience managing specialist/senior engineering teams as a product counterpart.
• Excellent stakeholder management — this role interfaces with every other Product Manager in the pillar.
• Commercial acumen: ability to articulate ROI of managed agent investment vs. platform investment.

Who you are: