Business Lead / Director

London | Hybrid

We’re looking for a commercially sharp, relationship-driven Business Lead / Director to join a brilliant creative agency working across an exciting mix of lifestyle, culture and technology brands.

This is a senior, client-facing role for someone who understands how to build great relationships, grow accounts and, importantly, make sure the numbers stack up.

You’ll work closely with senior leadership and teams across strategy, creative and production, taking ownership of key client relationships while identifying opportunities to grow both existing and new business.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll be a trusted senior partner to clients, understanding their businesses, challenging briefs, spotting opportunities and helping turn great creative thinking into commercially successful work.

You’ll take ownership of the commercial and financial performance of your accounts, with a strong understanding of revenue, profitability, forecasting, budgets and margins.

Alongside developing existing relationships, you’ll play an active role in agency growth, identifying new opportunities, building relationships with prospective clients and leading pitches from initial brief through to conversion.

Day-to-day, you’ll be:

• Building and developing senior-level client relationships across a portfolio of lifestyle, culture and tech brands

• Owning the commercial health of your accounts, including revenue, profitability, forecasting, budgets and margins

• Identifying opportunities to organically grow existing client relationships

• Working with leadership to set revenue targets and develop account growth plans

• Spotting and pursuing new business opportunities

• Leading briefs, proposals, RFIs/RFPs and pitch processes

• Negotiating scopes, budgets and commercials confidently with clients

• Working closely with strategy, creative and production to create brilliant, commercially viable work

• Keeping a close eye on project and account performance, identifying financial risks early and taking action where needed

• Helping shape the agency’s wider commercial and growth strategy

• Bringing energy, ambition and a collaborative, no-ego approach to the wider team

About you

You’ll already be operating at Account Director, Business Lead, Business Director, Client Director or similar level within an experiential or brand experience agency.

You’ll combine excellent client leadership with genuine commercial confidence. You’re as comfortable discussing a creative idea with a CMO as you are reviewing an account forecast, challenging a scope or protecting agency margin.

We’re looking for someone with:

• Strong experience leading significant client relationships

• A proven track record of growing accounts and revenue

• Excellent commercial and financial acumen

• Confidence owning forecasts, budgets, scopes, profitability and margin

• Experience negotiating commercials and ensuring both the client and agency are getting value

• Strong new business and pitch experience

• The ability to spot opportunities and turn conversations into meaningful revenue

• Experience working across multidisciplinary creative, strategy and production teams

• A good understanding of the wider creative and marketing landscape

• Ideally, experience across lifestyle, culture, technology and/or consumer brands

• A strategic mindset combined with the ability to get stuck into the detail when needed

Most importantly, you’ll be someone who understands that great client leadership isn’t just about keeping clients happy. It’s about building valuable, long-term partnerships that deliver brilliant work and sustainable commercial growth for the agency.