Digital Performance Director in Manly

We have partnered with a Sydney-based independent media agency that has been doing things quietly and properly for 30 years. No big network behind them. No pressure to grow faster than makes sense. Just a tight team of around 25 people, a client roster they are genuinely proud of, and relationships with some of those clients that have been running for over a decade. The kind of place where people know your name on day one and the work actually means something.

The role

You will own the performance function across 2 main accounts. Both clients are full funnel, both have senior stakeholders, and both require someone who shows up to every conversation with a point of view already formed. You will lead client strategy across paid search, paid social and programmatic, quality-control everything that goes out from the team, and be the person the juniors turn to when they need direction. Not a formal manager, but the most experienced digital voice in the team and the person who sets the standard.

What you will do

• Own the senior client relationship across performance accounts, serving as the primary point of contact for strategy, recommendations and escalations.
• Develop and present performance strategies and campaign results directly to senior stakeholders, including quarterly reporting sessions with international head offices.
• Lead the performance channel roadmap across paid search, paid social and programmatic, proactively identifying opportunities rather than waiting for a brief.
• Quality-control all performance output before it reaches clients, setting and holding a consistently high standard across the team.
• Guide and mentor junior team members day to day, helping them build judgement so they need less direction over time.
• Collaborate with the broader planning team to connect performance activity into holistic channel recommendations.
• Navigate the platforms directly to pull insights and understand what is happening at a campaign level, not wait for a report to land in your inbox.
• Own financial accuracy across your accounts including budgets, IO paperwork and reconciliation.

What you will bring

• Solid depth across paid search and paid social, mandatory. Programmatic experience is a bonus and can be developed here.
• The ability to go into a platform and pull meaningful insights independently, not just read a dashboard someone else built.
• A confident, credible presence with senior clients. You can hold a room, answer a hard question, and manage a long-term relationship without hand-holding.
• Experience guiding or mentoring junior team members, formally or informally.
• A full-funnel mindset. These clients are not purely performance-driven and the briefs reflect that.
• Comfort working in a smaller independent agency where you do not have a large machine behind you.

Who this role is for

This is for someone who has done the execution, knows the platforms properly, and is now at a stage where their value is in their thinking, their client relationships, and the standard they hold the team to. You do not need to be taught the basics. But you are also not someone who needs everything scoped before you move. At a smaller agency, that means sometimes you traffic a campaign, pause something that needs pausing, or jump in when the team is stretched. You do that without making it a thing, because you understand that is what good looks like in this environment.

You also genuinely invest in client relationships. The clients at this agency have been with them for years in some cases and trust the team as a real partner, calling to talk through their business, not just their campaigns. That level of relationship takes a certain kind of person to build and maintain.

This role is not for you if:

• You want a clearly defined lane and prefer not to step outside it.
• You need a lot of structure and process before you feel confident with clients.
• You prefer a large agency structure with deep specialist teams around you.
• You are looking for fast vertical progression into a group director role in the short term.

Why you will love working here

• Real proximity to senior leadership in a team where your work is visible and your opinion is heard from day one.
• Client relationships that run deep, accounts where you are treated as a genuine extension of the client's marketing team, not just a supplier.
• Full-funnel exposure across brand and performance, not a performance silo.
• Hybrid working across two Sydney locations, with flexibility on where you work across the week.
• A genuinely collaborative and down-to-earth team culture where people stay and grow long term.
• Every two years the whole team goes away together for a few days. Past trips have included the Blue Mountains, Port Stephens and Nelson Bay.
• A day off on your birthday.

Ready to apply?

If this sounds like the right next step, send us your C. We will be in touch quickly to walk you through everything in more detail. At Fulcrum, we celebrate diversity and know that our differences help us thrive. We are committed to diversity, inclusion, and providing equal opportunities at all stages of the recruitment process. Imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting amazing candidates, so if you feel passionate about this role, please do not hesitate to apply.