Business Director

BRAND: Spark Foundry
Job Function: Client Management
Location: London, United Kingdom
Experience Level: Management
Workplace Type: Hybrid

Company description

Who We Are in the UK?

Spark Foundry, the Acceleration Agency.

We help brands to identify, learn and respond to opportunities faster than the competition.

Every client has an area of their business they need to accelerate, from short-term goals to long-term transformation.

We've proven our approach during the most difficult year on record. Now we're using it to provide a launchpad for their future.

Come be an accelerator with us.

How we accelerate

• Planning: an approach that works in practice rather than theory, arming planners with the ability to create cutting edge campaigns
• Intelligence: a suite of tools that give definitive answers to big questions, and uncovers actionable insights about real people
• Trading: a model built on flexibility and trusted relationships, underpinned with bold guarantees
• Relationships: a culture of asking challenging questions to better understand the brief - we are not a 'yes' agency
• People: a strong history of recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds and accelerating their careers

Our Commitment

We are diverse though our experience, people and the clients we look after - and we celebrate that diversity. Our people hold us accountable to our beliefs and via regular surveys and our grass roots D&I team, The Collective, and internal next generation board, Firestarters, we hold regular events and work continually towards generating ideas, initiatives and educating our people to ensure we are a diverse and inclusive agency.

As part of our dedication to create an inclusive and diverse workforce, Spark Foundry is committed to equal access to opportunity for people without regard to race, age, sex, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.

Overview

We are hiring a Planning Business Director to lead planning across one of our most high-profile UK client partnerships, Haleon, on a 12-month fixed-term contract. This role plays a central part in bringing together strategy, media, creativity and data to deliver work that drives meaningful business outcomes. You'll take ownership of direction, raise the bar for planning quality and help shape how we work across the UK and Ireland. If you enjoy connecting people, ideas and impact, this is a role where your influence will be visible and valued.

What you'll be doing

• Owning the overall planning direction for the UK Haleon business, ensuring work clearly aligns to business and marketing priorities
• Acting as a trusted senior partner to Haleon stakeholders, offering clear thinking, challenge and strategic guidance
• Leading key planning moments such as annual planning and QBRs, focusing on insight, clarity and momentum
• Bringing together teams across planning, media, digital, commerce, investment and strategy to deliver joined-up solutions
• Maintaining high standards of planning quality, stepping in to unblock challenges and manage risk when needed
• Improving ways of working through collaboration, test-and-learn thinking and continuous improvement
• Connecting strong UK planning into NEU and global conversations so ideas travel further and land with impact

Skills we're looking for

• Strong experience in planning or media strategy, working across brand and performance activity
• Confidence managing complexity, with the ability to balance multiple brands, stakeholders and priorities
• A collaborative leadership approach that provides clarity, direction and support to teams
• The ability to communicate ideas clearly and influence at a senior client and internal level
• Commercial awareness, with a clear link between planning decisions and business outcomes
• Curiosity and adaptability, with a solutions-focused mindset
• A genuine commitment to inclusive, open and collaborative ways of working

Additional information

Spark Foundry offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees. Full details are shared when you join, but highlights include core benefits such as Pension, Life Assurance, and Private Medical cover, alongside enhanced policies like Reflection Days and Shared Parental Leave. You'll also have access to a range of additional initiatives, including:

Please check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG's (Employee Action Groups).

Publicis Groupe works primarily from the office or our clients' office four days per week.

At Spark Foundry , we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.

We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We'll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.

Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.

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