Social Director

Social Director London, Hybrid Our team of 4,000+ digital specialists across 30+ locations on five continents deliver pioneering work on a global scale with a boutique culture. We live and breathe our ‘big enough to cope, small enough to care’ ethos, providing an inclusive, supportive and an exciting place to accelerate your career. This position sits in our Creative & Media service based in London. We combine data, technology, creative content, and paid media to crack brands’ business problems & drive revenue through a variety of digital marketing solutions. Our clients include eBay, Pepsi Co., Visa and easyJet. JOB PURPOSE The Director of Social will lead an integrated capability spanning social strategy, creative, paid social, creators and influencers, community, client leadership and delivery. This is a functional leadership role rather than a single-craft or hands-on creative position. Success will come from turning DEPT's distributed expertise into one clear, compelling and commercially viable offer for clients. They will set the vision and roadmap collaboratively, partnering with creative leaders, strategists, media leaders, creator specialists, client leads and delivery teams. They will define how disciplines work together, where ownership sits and what great looks like, while respecting the expertise and accountability of each craft. The role requires strong strategic and creative judgement. They must be able to take an ambiguous brief, shape a clear point of view and build a persuasive client-ready narrative or deck independently, then bring in specialists to deepen and finalise the detail. They will recognise, champion and improve strong social ideas without becoming the day-to-day idea generator or stepping into the creative team's ownership. They will understand how paid social contributes to effective social programmes, without needing to operate in day-to-day media planning or activation. They will also bring credible knowledge of creators and influence, making strong recommendations on creator strategy, partnerships, talent models and cultural relevance while relying on delivery specialists for execution. They will combine client empathy with commercial and operational judgement. They will understand what clients ask for, what they are likely to buy and what they genuinely need, and translate that into the right proposition, team, scope and delivery model. A key part of the remit will be defining the right balance between internal creator capability and external creator or talent partnerships. Above all, this person will be a connector, orchestrator and builder: someone who can navigate DEPT, mobilise people from teams that may not naturally sit together, and earn the trust of Creative Directors, craft leaders, client leads and senior stakeholders across the business. From time to time, you may be asked to work on additional projects or new business opportunities, as well as individual objectives that align with the goals and strategies of the business. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Set and evolve the vision, proposition, roadmap and operating model for Social & Influence at DEPT in UKI. Build alignment across creative, strategy, paid social, influence, community management, client leadership, delivery and commercial teams. Define clear roles, governance, processes, handoffs and quality standards so integrated teams can work effectively. Lead the strategic response to complex client briefs and new business opportunities, turning ambiguity into a strong narrative, recommendation and client-ready deck. Work alongside the new business team to answer social RFI and RFPs Create the core strategic story and first draft independently, then mobilise the right specialists to validate, deepen and finalise the detail. Translate client asks into solutions that address what clients need, will value and can realistically buy and sustain. Bring informed paid-social judgement to integrated programmes, partnering with media experts rat…