Managing Director - Digital & eCommerce in Leeds

This isn’t a job advert for someone who wants to manage an agency. It’s for someone who wants to build one. Puddle is a specialist digital marketing and Shopify agency based in Leeds, currently turning over circa £300k per annum. We have a small, capable delivery team, a strong client retention record, and a genuine specialism in eCommerce. What we need is a leader who can take all of that and turn it into something significantly bigger.

But we need to be honest about what 'leader' means at this stage. This isn't a boardroom-and-pitches role. The team is small and relatively early-career. They need someone who is in the work with them shaping strategy, reviewing output, and being the senior digital mind they can learn from as well as someone who can win new business and grow the top line. If that combination excites you, keep reading.

We’re also clear-eyed about where agencies are heading. AI is not a nice-to-have, it needs to be the operating model. The agencies that win over the next five years will be the ones that embed AI and automation into every layer of their delivery, from campaign optimisation to reporting to content production. We expect Puddle’s next MD to lead that integration, not delegate it to an innovation committee.

Puddle is part of the Cohaesus Group, which means you won't be doing this alone. You'll have the backing of a group that provides shared HR, finance, legal support, a network of sister agencies, dedicated FinOps reporting across utilisation, recovery, revenue and costs, and critically in-house automation engineers who can help you build and deploy AI tooling across Puddle's operations. The Group is fully committed to making its agencies AI-native. The strategic and commercial decisions for Puddle will be yours — but you’ll have operational support, and you’ll inherit a committed delivery team who are good at what they do and want to get better.

Think of it as running your own agency with a team that needs your leadership, a technology advantage, and a board that wants you to succeed.

At this stage of Puddle’s growth, the MD role is hands-on. You will be the senior commercial presence in the business, which means:

• Winning work. You’ll lead business development personally — identifying prospects, running pitches, closing deals. This is a growth mandate first and foremost. We already have outbound lead generation campaigns in motion (SoPro and LinkedIn), so you won't be starting from a cold pipeline. But you will need to convert those leads, build relationships, and close.
• Owning the P&L. You’ll manage Puddle’s finances with a focus on building revenue to a level where healthy margins follow naturally. The economics are simple: grow the top line using the delivery capacity you already have.
• Leading the team — from the front, not from above. You'll be the most senior digital practitioner in the business. The team spans PPC, SEO, content, and Shopify development — they’re capable, but they need a leader who can review a Google Ads account structure, challenge a content strategy, shape a client's paid social approach, and help them grow. You’ll join the daily standups. You’ll be the person they bounce ideas off. Your credibility with this team will come from knowing the craft, not just managing the numbers.
• Setting the strategy. You’ll decide where Puddle competes, which verticals to pursue, what services to lead with, and how to position the agency in market.
• Stabilising delivery capacity. We have an immediate gap in content, organic social, and paid social following a recent departure. You’ll need to assess the team’s capability, bring in freelance support where needed, and ensure client delivery doesn’t skip a beat while you build the commercial pipeline.
• Engaging with the Group. You’ll work with other Cohaesus agencies for cross-referral, shared learning, and the occasional joint pitch. The network is there to be used.

This is not a role where you delegate everything and operate at 30,000 feet. At ~£300k revenue, the MD is also the top seller, the client relationship owner, the senior strategist on accounts, and often the person writing the proposal. Think of it as two halves: half your week winning new business and managing the pipeline, half your week in the trenches with the team shaping strategies, reviewing output, and making sure the quality of work is what wins repeat business. As Puddle grows, you'll hire a senior delivery lead to take on more of the day-to-day. But right now, both halves are yours. If that excites you rather than concerns you, keep reading.

You’re probably in a senior role at a digital or eCommerce agency right now, head of client services, senior account director, commercial lead, or similar. You’re good at what you do, but you’ve hit the ceiling. You want to run the show, not just contribute to it.

Specifically:

• Commercially sharp. You understand how agency economics work. You’ve sold digital marketing services and you know how to take a prospect from first conversation to signed SOW.
• Digitally deep, not just digitally fluent. You've personally run SEO campaigns, built paid media strategies, or managed eCommerce platforms. You can sit with a junior PPC specialist and help them restructure an account. You can look at a content plan and know whether it'll move the needle. Your team will trust you because you’ve done what they do, at a higher level and for longer. Shopify experience is a genuine advantage.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. A ~£300k agency doesn’t have rigid processes for everything. You’ll need to be the person who builds the process, not the person who needs one to function.
• A natural leader. You stay calm under pressure, you’re direct without being abrasive, and people want to work for you because you raise the standard without lowering morale.
• Present. This is a Leeds-based role. The team works with a blend of remote and in-person days, and we expect the MD to be regularly present leading standups, sitting alongside the team, and being accessible day-to-day. This isn't a role you can do from a home office three hundred miles away.
• Hungry. You see a small agency backed by a group and you think “opportunity”, not “risk.”

The base salary reflects where the business is today, not where it’s going. The profit share and equity path reflect our belief that the right person will take it significantly further. We’re looking for someone who backs themselves enough to bet on the upside.

• Base salary: £67,500 per annum.
• Profit share: A meaningful share of Puddle’s profits, directly linked to the growth you deliver. The more you build, the more you earn.
• Equity potential: For the right person, there is a path to equity participation within the wider Cohaesus Group. This isn’t a vague promise, it’s a conversation we’re ready to have once we see growth.
• Group backing: Shared HR, finance, legal, and operational infrastructure. You focus on clients and growth; we handle the back office.
• Autonomy: You report to the Cohaesus Group board, but day-to-day you run Puddle. Hiring, pricing, positioning, strategy, these are your calls.
• Immediate availability preferred. We're looking for someone who can start quickly. The team is in place, the clients are being served, and the pipeline activity is already running. What's missing is you.

If this sounds like your kind of challenge, we’d like to hear from you. Send us a note explaining why Puddle will be bigger because of you, not a recitation of your CV, but your honest view on what you’d do and why you’re the person to do it.

Puddle is a trading name of Puddle Digital Ltd, part of the Cohaesus Group.