Business Director (Social)

Department: Social & Advertising)

Location: London

Contact type: 12-Month FTC

Full Time/Part time: Full Time      

Reporting into: Client Partner

 

About Ogilvy: 

Ogilvy UK has been creating iconic ideas that deliver impact at scale for clients ever since David Ogilvy founded the company in 1948. Ogilvy UK specialises in bringing together brand advertising, customer experience marketing, PR, influence and consulting, all fuelled by Behavioural Science. Our world-class award-winning creative campaigns deliver solutions for clients including Molson Coors (owner of Madrí beer), Valeo Foods UK (owner of Kettle Chips and Rowse Honey), Argos, Mondelēz International, Unilever, TK Maxx and Pernod Ricard.  

In 2023, Ogilvy UK celebrated their 75th anniversary and was the most awarded agency in Europe. Ogilvy is home to the largest influencer marketing practice globally and hosts the world’s biggest festival of behavioural science and creativity, Nudgestock – now in its 12th year. 

 

The Role:

A Business Director is a senior leader within the Account Management team, responsible for the strategic, commercial, and creative success of multiple large-scale or complex accounts. You are the client’s trusted senior partner — someone who can navigate board-level conversations, anticipate market shifts, and lead teams to deliver bold, impactful work that drives measurable business growth. 

You’ll oversee the health of your accounts from every angle — financial performance, client satisfaction, creative excellence, and team development — ensuring we are indispensable to our clients and delivering the best work of our lives. You will champion cross-discipline collaboration, bringing the full breadth of Ogilvy Group capabilities to bear on client challenges. 

You are a visible, confident leader who inspires teams, builds deep client relationships, and sets the standard for strategic thinking, commercial acumen, and creative ambition.

 

Key Responsibilities: 

Be the senior client partner – Build and maintain relationships with senior client stakeholders across multiple functions, becoming indispensable to their business. Anticipate their needs, advise with authority, and be their go-to for strategic counsel. 

Be the growth driver – Lead organic growth initiatives, spotting opportunities across disciplines and therapy areas. Develop and implement account plans that deliver sustained revenue growth, leveraging the full Ogilvy network. 

Be the strategic architect – Shape and oversee the strategic direction of accounts, ensuring all work is aligned to client business objectives and market realities. Challenge briefs, push thinking deeper, and ensure strategies are robust and future focused. 

Be commercially accountable – Own the financial health of your accounts, including forecasting, profitability, and recoverability. Partner with finance and procurement to negotiate contracts, scopes, and rates that protect and grow agency value. 

Be the creative champion – Ensure creative work is bold, relevant, and flawlessly executed. Challenge teams to push beyond “good enough” and deliver work that drives business impact. 

Be the team leader – Inspire, mentor, and develop account teams, ensuring they have clarity of role, access to growth opportunities, and the support to perform at their best. Create a culture of collaboration, accountability and resilience. 

Be the connector – Bring together the right people from across the Ogilvy Group and WPP to solve client challenges. Build and maintain a strong internal and external network to unlock opportunities. 

Be the problem solver – Anticipate risks, manage challenges with confidence, and escalate when needed. Maintain a solutions-first mindset, ensuring momentum is never lost. 

 

Key Skills: 

• Proven ability to lead large, complex accounts with significant revenue responsibility.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills at senior client levels, including procurement and C-suite.
• Strategic thinker with deep understanding of healthcare communications, market dynamics, and regulatory environments.
• Strong commercial acumen, with experience in contract negotiation and financial management.
• Creative champion with the ability to inspire bold, impactful work.
• Skilled leader and mentor, able to develop high-performing teams.
• Confident communicator, negotiator, and presenter.
• Resilient, adaptable, and able to thrive in high-pressure situations.
• Well-networked within the industry and able to leverage connections for client and agency benefit.

 

How we help you Thrive:

•  25 days annual leave + 1 Volunteer Day 
• Bupa Healthcare
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave
• We have a Flexible Working Model with core working hours: 10am – 4pm
• A 1.5:1 Matching Pension Structure
• Wellbeing and Health: Up to £25.00 per month towards physical or online exercise class membership, Unmind membership, LifeWorks tool and annual eye tests and development budgets and Wellbeing incentives and activities throughout the year 
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Scheme
• Life Assurance

Our ambition is to attract the very best diverse talent to Ogilvy, and to be the employer of choice in the UK. We want everyone to feel welcome when they join us, and once they’re here, for them to want to stay with us, grow their career, and to feel they belong with us.

We are an equal opportunity employer and we’re committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone who wants to work at Ogilvy. For us, diversity, equity and inclusion is integrated into everything that we do. We believe that for creativity to flourish, everything about how we work must have diversity at its core. Your race, colour, ethnic, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, have no bearing on our hiring decisions, but we encourage everyone to feel free to express their true selves in an environment we are consistently striving to make as inclusive as possible.

We aim to facilitate an accessible and positive application experience for all candidates. If you require any adjustments from us to support you through the process or expect to require any adjustments to working conditions to be able to best perform in the role, please let us know. We are happy to consider all reasonable adjustments.

If you live with a disability and you would like to take advantage of our offer of a guaranteed interview under the Disability Confident Scheme, please ensure you fill out our voluntary Equal Opportunities Questionnaire when applying.