Associate Client Director

Role: Associate Client Director (internally Associate Engagement Director)

Community: Engagement

Type: 12months FTC, potential to extend / offered permanent

Location: London

Set up: Hybrid working, in the studio 3 days per week, 2 days remote per week

Before you apply: Check out these questions that may help you put together your application.

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Your role:

Our Associate Engagement Directors are a key role across our business, capable of leading on stand alone projects and working with client leads on larger accounts.

Fostering great client relationships is key, using your enthusiasm and understanding of their business challenges to develop your client network and proactively working with your project team leads to push them to go further.

You are ambitious for our clients are dedicated to producing the best work for them. You are fully engaged with your workstreams, thinking one step ahead of your clients, and have an interest on their wider business landscape outside of the immediate project.  You become a seamless team with them, ensuring they have full confidence and trust to create long term partnerships.

We expect you to direct & shape the project by becoming the backbone of the team, being hands-on and detail driven whilst also being able to lead the programme, and work with your team to identify growth opportunities. You motivate and challenge your team when needed, flexing to different personalities & working styles to get the best out of them. You motivate them to push boundaries that deliver and add value to your client’s objectives. 

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You are responsible for:

Client relationship growth 

• Focusing on Senior Brand Managers / Head of Brand
• Working with your team to grow existing client relationships
• Growing the relationship across WO’s offer (cross and up-selling)    
• Developing clear growth roadmap for the year and keeping the business up to date with projections   
• Managing any farming investment with internal business stakeholders

Programme planning and management

• Writing complex programmes of work (multiple workstreams, stakeholders and engagement groups)
• Continuing to manage client communication best practice throughout delivery from generating to maintaining time plans, to sharing meeting agendas and writing and following up with meeting notes
• Presenting ‘how we work together’ and the programme of work, as well as managing the agenda for working sessions
• Convincing the client and teams on changes that may need to be made on the programme 
• Having a point of view and shape the content of the work being developed 
• Responsible for the quality of the output, ensuring it is on brief
• Managing client expectations throughout the relationship through to delivery 
• Embracing client feedback and being a positive voice within the team maintaining morale and motivation 
• Inviting feedback from the team and client, looking to continuously review and better the work and relationship 
• Communicating and building the right internal team to meet the client needs

• Contributing to ideas that help to challenge and push the work forward 
• Managing client expectations throughout the relationship through to delivery 
• Long term programme planning and anticipation of how business changes could impact the work
• Exploring new ways of approaching things, being flexible with the client and teams

New business development

• Managing small to medium size pitches with the engagement client lead or principal/ executive director in another community
• Keeping client creds up to date
• Contributing to the content delivery, looking for new approaches to inspire an successful pitch
• Leading the delivery of the pitch content, from the presentation through procurement negotiations and signing of a new client

Team coordination

• Anticipating resourcing changes in advance and actively providing solutions    
• Keeping multiple client relationships and programmes on track 
• Keeping clients up to date and raise and solve any issue in advance 
• Equipping and getting the best out of your team to deliver the best work
• Ensuring the work has been checked and is at the right standard before it goes out

Commercial Management 

• Managing the overall finances on your client accounts, ensuring revenue, profitability, billing are accurate   
• Addressing and solving issues in advance, escalating to business leaders where necessary    
• Anticipating financial issues and shaping solutions together with client leads
• Facilitating contract reviews/negotiations together with clients and procurement, with the support of a client lead
• Reporting client health as part of Principals & Project Leads   ??  
• Navigating difficult financial conversations
• with the client around scope or payment terms 

Engagement community building

• Active and encouraging voice in the community   
• Helping to shape the direction of key community initiatives and supporting the head of the community
• Contributing to the development of the EGM communities skills as well as POV within the business
• Advocate for EGM community within the business and the building of relationships with other communities 

WO business responsibility and advocate 

• Active project lead and partner to community leads on your projects
• Keeping the business leaders up to date and informed in key forums such as P&PL
• Owning the internal narrative on the client relationship 
• Supporting and feeding into internal events and marketing activities 
• Start to develop specialism and POV within the business

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Our focus on people and the world:

Wolff Olins believes in creating an environment where people can bring their whole selves to work. We are interested in our people having diverse points of view and different perspectives on the world. We set out to equip our people with the knowledge, confidence and tools to do the best work of their lives. Our purpose is to help our people create transformative brands that push businesses, people and the world forward.

You should: 

• Have experience in leading medium-sized brand transformations 
• Be confident in running small to mid-sized client relationships
• Have a clear understanding of branding and their role in businesses and wider society 
• Be comfortable presenting to clients (on and offline)
• Flexible in how they work, taking a tailored approach to different client needs and team
• Have worked on successful new business initiatives 
• Be confident in presenting in meetings and pitches 
• Have a clear point of view on the role of brands

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You should:

• Explore the facts- you like to get the bottom of the issue. You ask probing questions, understanding the logic behind arguments and seek solutions.
• Create Impact - in person or in writing; you should be persuasive and articulate. You clearly express your point of view. You enjoy presenting and are open in voicing your opinion and challenging others ideas.
• Show resilience - you are confident in your capabilities and remain calm when working under pressure or with senior stakeholders. You lean into resolving any team or client’s conflicts showing empathy but putting the work at the heart of what we do.
• Be conscientious- You are meticulous with your work, adhering to processes, and placing emphasis on meeting deadlines ensuring details are right.
• Deliver with intent- You are organised, enjoy making plans and have the ability to prioritise tasks. You flourish in a busy multi-tasking environment and place focus on honouring your commitment 

• Hybrid working setup (min in the studio 3 days a week)
• Flexibility on when you want to work - aiming to work 7.5 hours a day
• Laptop for the duration of your role (Mac or Windows)
• Company phone (Apple or Samsung)
• Annual expense allowance on tech equipment and home office set up
• Breakfast, snacks and fruit served daily in the studio + lunches served every Tuesday and Thursday
• Access to company tech i.e. 3D printer, hi-spec cameras
• & much more...!