Social Strategy Director

M+C Saatchi UK is looking for a Social Strategy Director to join the agency. This is a senior role at the intersection of strategy, creativity and digital innovation. About the role: You will define how social and digital thinking shapes campaign work across an agency portfolio including UK government, multilateral organisations and international development clients where communications are required to change behaviours, shift public attitudes and deliver real-world outcomes at scale. You will be a senior voice for social and digital strategy within the agency: setting direction, building capability, influencing creative output from brief to execution, and identifying opportunities to grow the practice. What you'll do: Strategic Leadership

• Lead social and digital strategy across the agency portfolio, delivering audience-first, insight-led campaigns with measurable impact for government, NGO and international development clients.
• Act as a senior strategic authority on social and digital communications advising clients, influencing creative direction and shaping campaign approaches from the earliest stages of planning.
• Embed social-first thinking across end-to-end campaign development, from brief and audience insight through to creative, channel planning and delivery.
• Develop paid, earned and owned campaign strategies that are platform-native, culturally relevant and calibrated to the specific demands of regulated and politically sensitive environments.
• Lead paid media strategy as part of integrated campaign planning.
• Lead agency influencer and creator strategy, guiding cross-functional teams to deliver innovative, data-driven social and content solutions.
Creative Partnership
• Work in close partnership with creative leadership to ensure all work is genuinely social-first and meets the highest standards of craft and effectiveness.
• Bring platform expertise into the creative development process, identifying opportunities to push formats, formats, creator ecosystems and emerging channels.
• Lead earned-first strategic and creative thinking that integrates influencer and earned media strategy as a core component of campaign architecture.
Client and Stakeholder Engagement
• Advise senior clients with clarity and confidence, translating complex digital strategy into clear, easily understood insights and actions.
• Build trusted, long-term client relationships that position the agency as a trusted strategic partner in social media and digital communications.
Data, Insight, Innovation and Evaluation
• Champion data, insight and evaluation throughout the campaign lifecycle establishing measurement frameworks at the outset and synthesising performance into clear outputs for senior clients and internal teams.
• Drive the evolution of agency strategic thinking through the application of AI, automation, and emerging technologies.
• Leverage social listening, audience intelligence and cultural monitoring tools (e.g. Brandwatch, GWI, YouGov) to sharpen audience understanding and optimise in-campaign.
• Drive an agile, test-and-learn culture, building team confidence to iterate rapidly based on real-time data and evolving audience behaviour.
• Demonstrate effectiveness beyond platform metrics, including influence on attitudes, behaviour change outcomes and programme impact.
Practice Growth and Commercial Development
• Identify and convert opportunities to grow the agency's social, digital and influencer offering, deepening relationships with existing clients and leading on new business pitches.
• Lead the development of social and digital products, frameworks and playbooks that strengthen the agency's market position and codify best practice.
• Build the agency's external profile in social and digital strategy through thought leadership, publishing and speaking.
Team Leadership and Capability
• Lead, develop and inspire a multidisciplinary team of social and digital practitioners, creating clear pathways for growth and a culture of creative excellence.
• Consolidate agency strategy, creative, performance and data capabilities to drive campaign excellence.
• Build agency-wide social and digital capability through training, frameworks and knowledge-sharing.
• Manage external partners and platform relationships, ensuring the agency remains at the leading edge of platform development and innovation.
  
  Experience working in government, public sector, NGO or other politically sensitive environments.
• Strong understanding of behaviour change principles and how to apply them in digital and social strategy.
• Confidence using social listening, audience intelligence and cultural insight to shape strategy.
• Familiarity with emerging technologies and AI-enabled ways of working in strategy, planning or campaign development.
• Commercial awareness, including contributing to pitches, scopes or new business development.
• Ability to turn complex ideas into clear, persuasive narratives for senior stakeholders.
• A strong interest in culture, platforms and the evolving social/digital landscape, in particular the Creator economy.
• Experience working across international audiences or multicultural communications.
• Knowledge / experience of performance media strategy (paid search, PPC)
• Thought leadership potential, whether through writing, speaking or internal knowledge-sharing.
  
  M+C Saatchi Group has pledged its commitment to create a company that values difference, with an inclusive culture. As part of this M+C Saatchi Group continues to be an Equal Opportunity Employer which does not and shall not discriminate, celebrates diversity and bases all hiring and promotion decisions solely on merit, without regard for any personal characteristics., About M+C Saatchi Group
M+C Saatchi Group was founded in 1995 and is now the biggest Independent creative agency group in the World. Founded on one core principle, Brutal Simplicity. Founded in 1995 Co-workers 2500+ M+C Saatchi UK · London · Hybrid

For the right candidate, we will offer a competitive salary and benefits package which includes 27 days annual holiday, private healthcare, employer contributory pension, life assurance and income protection. We also offer a host of benefits that support wellbeing including subsidised gym membership, whilst our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion sees us offer learning opportunities around D&I, mentoring programmes and the opportunity for all to participate in a number of active Employee Led Networks and associated events. Finally, this role will be supported with all the necessary personal development required to set someone up for success.