Business Director, Planning & Strategy FTC

ABOUT THE ROLE

We're looking for an experienced Business Director to join our planning and strategy team on a fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave. This is a senior client leadership role where you'll take commercial and strategic ownership of two high-profile accounts, working as an embedded partner to drive their growth and deliver exceptional results. You'll lead all aspects of the client relationship – from strategic counsel and commercial management to team leadership and agency coordination. Reporting to the Head of Planning and working closely with our CIO and MD, you'll be responsible for the client performance, strategic direction, and day-to-day excellence of these accounts. This is an opportunity to step into a genuine client leadership role within a fast-growing independent agency, where your impact will be visible and your expertise valued.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Client Leadership & Strategic Partnership

· Act as the primary senior client lead and strategic partner, working as an extension of the client's leadership team

· Spend regular time embedded in the client's office, building deep, trusted relationships at senior levels

· Lead regular one-to-one meetings with C-suite and senior stakeholders to manage priorities, performance, and partnership health

· Provide proactive strategic counsel, translating business challenges into media solutions

· Challenge briefs constructively and educate clients on market trends, innovations, and opportunities

· Own all senior client communications, ensuring clarity, confidence, and strategic thinking at all times

· Champion Walk-In's point of view and represent the agency as a thought leader in the market (as and when applicable)

Commercial Ownership

· Own the commercial performance and P&L for your accounts, including revenue growth

· Lead client forecasting, ensuring accuracy and financial governance

· Drive commercial conversations with clients

· Identify and convert upsell opportunities, expanding scope and deepening client investment

· Maintain commercial alignment between client expectations and agency delivery capabilities

· Report on financial performance and business health to senior leadership

Strategy & Planning Excellence

· Design and deliver impactful, effective communications strategies that align to client business objectives

· Lead strategic planning across the full media ecosystem – paid, earned, and owned – ensuring integration and coherence

· Ensure all strategies are insight-led, data-driven, measurable, and translated clearly into activation plans

· Own monthly, quarterly and annual strategic reviews, providing clear senior-level narrative on performance, learnings, and forward priorities

· Lead econometric reviews and effectiveness analyses, translating insights into actionable recommendations that drive performance

· Champion test-and-learn programmes and innovation, bringing proactive thinking and future-focused solutions to clients

Integrated Agency Leadership

· Lead communications and coordination across all agency partners, acting as the senior point of contact

· Establish aligned ways of working, clear roles and responsibilities, and strong cross-agency collaboration

· Act as the escalation point for issues, proactively resolving challenges to maintain momentum and trust

· Oversee end-to-end delivery across communications planning, activation, and ongoing optimisation

· Lead responses to briefs and RFPs, coordinating input from investment, specialist, and partner teams

· Own audit processes and responses, ensuring robust preparation, clear storytelling, and strong outcomes

New Business & Growth

· Lead pitch processes and contribute to credentials presentations, representing Walk-In's strategic capabilities

· Identify and develop new business opportunities within existing accounts and the broader market

· Support the agency's new business strategy and act as an ambassador for Walk-In in industry forums and events

· Share case studies, learnings, and best practices to strengthen Walk-In's market position

Team Leadership & Development

· Line manage two Senior Account Managers and provide oversight of Account Executives across both clients

· Manage workflow, resource allocation, and team performance to deliver collective goals

· Mentor and develop direct reports, providing regular feedback, coaching, and career development support

· Create learning opportunities and share knowledge openly across the team

· Support recruitment and onboarding of new team members

· Lead by example, demonstrating excellence in client service, strategic thinking, and commercial acumen

· Champion Walk-In's values and foster a collaborative, solution-focused team culture

The Head of Planning will support your development through regular 1:1s, providing guidance on client work, team management, and your personal career progression.

ABOUT YOU & YOUR EXPERIENCE

Essential:

· Proven track record as a trusted senior partner and strategic advisor to clients, with demonstrable impact on business outcomes

· Expert in designing impactful, effective communications strategies across the full media ecosystem (paid, earned, owned)

· Deep planning experience across online and offline channels, with strong knowledge of planning tools (Nielsen, YouGov, TGI, etc.)

· Commercial acumen with experience owning client P&Ls, managing profitability, and leading pricing/contract negotiations

· Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience line managing and developing account teams

· Excellent communicator with the ability to present complex strategies clearly and influence senior stakeholders

· Subject matter expertise in media planning and a genuine passion for teaching and developing junior talent

· Proven ability to build strong, embedded relationships both internally and with clients

· Experience leading pitches and contributing to new business development

· Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment with multiple priorities

We'd love if you also had:

· A collaborative mentality and passion for bringing people together across teams and agencies

· Specific interest in working within a fast-growing, independent agency with an entrepreneurial spirit

· Tenacious by nature, with a track record of creating new ideas for clients and contributing to agency growth

· Experience working with econometric modelling and effectiveness measurement

· Knowledge of the latest innovations in media, technology, and marketing

· A point of view on the future of media and communications planning

INTERVIEW PROCESS

For this role, there are at least three rounds to the interview process:

Stage 1: Initial Interview

An initial fact-finding conversation reviewing core competencies, your experience, and what you can bring to the role. To be held over Teams with the Head of Planning.

Stage 2: Strategy Presentation

A presentation responding to a brief, demonstrating your strategic thinking, planning expertise, and presentation skills. To be held in person at our Covent Garden office with the Head of Planning and MD.

Stage 3: Final Interview

A meeting with our CEO and CIO to discuss your fit with Walk-In's culture, values, and strategic direction.

If we require you to meet anyone else in the team, we will let you know during the process.

ABOUT US

Walk-In Media's mission is to deliver long-term, sustainable growth for brands by bringing together all marketing activity into one connected ecosystem. We work closely with our clients for an integrated approach to their commercial success. We're a full-service media agency offering brands the service, transparency, agility and breakthrough thinking of an independent agency, yet with the full specialist capabilities and global scale of a network agency (we're part of MSQ Group).

At Walk-In Media, we plan for outcomes…

We're a full-service media agency, offering the agile fast response of an independent but with backing from the MSQ network which means we have access to a wide range of specialist services from Creative to PR to Data. The fact we operate as an independent means that not only do we deliver fast, responsive service, we also design the strategy & plans for the required business outcome, choosing the channels and partners exclusively on what's best for the client outcome, and not our bottom line.

Helping small-medium sized businesses scale quickly is what gets us out of bed each day. We enjoy the fast pace, the challenge of things never done before and using our expertise to help our clients' businesses grow.

We believe brand and performance go hand in hand, so whilst we might look for outcomes in the short term, we'll always be planning for long-term growth too.

Alongside paid, we understand that the whole comms ecosystem has to work together as a well-oiled machine to get the best results. We will happily advise clients when they need us, and also when they don't, guiding them as to where else in the ecosystem they should focus their attention.

What does our best work look like? We plan for outcomes.

Planning for an outcome is at the heart of what we do, starting with the objective and devising the best solution to reach that goal. Whatever capacity you come to us in, small brief or large, we'll always approach the brief in the same way: asking questions, using data to devise the solution, measuring as we go and trading through our 'zero base' trading approach – which puts each individual client at the heart of each deal.

Each plan is designed to get a specific business outcome, and we use our measurement framework to track how we're doing and keep us all honest & on track.

Our Culture & Values

We love what we do, and our people are what makes us who we are. We want to ensure that everyone in the company feels supported and knows where to access the help they may need. Wellbeing is central to this and through our Wellbeing Committee we provide resources and guidance so that each employee can build out their own mental wellbeing support strategy, which may include accessing our extensive EAP or Able Futures support programme.

Our Group Diversity & Inclusion Council is dedicated to learning, education and sharing ideas that will break down barriers whilst strengthening our existing inclusive initiatives. We're striving for equal opportunities for all demographics, and for a workplace environment in which every team member is comfortable, informed and open to change.

The usual standard company benefits apply inc 30 days holiday.