Biddable Director (Luxury Brands)

Agency: Forward Media

Reporting To: Biddable Business Director

Office Location: London

ABOUT US – HAVAS MEDIA NETWORK

Havas Media Network (HMN) employees over 950 people in the UK & Ireland. We work with clients to generate meaningful outcomes and are extremely proud of our proven track record for accelerating business growth and creating a meaningful difference. HMN spans London, Leeds, Manchester, and Edinburgh, servicing clients through our agency brands including Havas Media, Arena Media, Ledger Bennett, Havas Market and Forward Media. Across all agency brands, we have defined shared values that shape the way we work and define what we expect from our people: Human at Heart: You will respect, empower, and support others, fostering an inclusive workplace and creating meaningful experiences. Head for Rigour: You will take pride in delivering high-quality, outcome-focused work and continually strive for improvement. Mind for Flair: You will embrace diversity and bold thinking to craft brilliant, unique solutions. These behaviours are integral to our culture and for delivering impactful work for our clients and colleagues.

OUR DIGITAL ACTIVATION TEAM

All brands under HMN are serviced by a centralised digital activation function - a scaled team of 250+ experts spanning PPC SEO, affiliates, paid social, programmatic and commerce in the UK. Our paid social media team consists of over 60 experts – a team of executives, managers, directors and business directors – led by a head of paid social. We’re a highly motivated, energetic team with a passion for all things social. We like great ideas combined with smart planning and a relentless commitment to results. We’re constantly innovating for our clients, working with all the key platforms in the latest formats to reach audiences in interesting ways.

THE ROLE

This is an exciting position as a Biddable Account Director within the Biddable team, reporting to the Biddable Business Director. You’ll be working across some of our most prestigious luxury accounts, with a strong emphasis on agility, as you work closely with both the Client Planning Team, Data & Analytics team (DNA), and Investment team. Working into the Biddable Business Director you will play a key role in developing and implementing an innovative biddable proposition and roadmap across your clients. You will be responsible for the management and development of a team of biddable specialists within the larger team. You are enthusiastic in building a strong culture of collaboration and support, ensuring the strategy is clear and most appropriate to the client’s objectives and KPIs. The recommendation of data and tech partners with consideration of operational suitability is at the core of this role and will help contribute to the implementation of overarching strategy and activation tactics. You will also work closely with investment teams, to learn about and ensure that we recommend preferred partners and suppliers first and foremost. The role is perfect for someone who has had a background and great track record in Paid Social and Programmatic planning and trading or has worked closely with various DSPs and is looking to take their career to the next steps.

Key Responsibilities

• Client: Become our clients most trusted partner Leading Biddable planning and implementation, liaising frequently with the client planning teams on your accounts as well as the investment team. Effectively managing client together with client teams, to ensure the requirements to achieve high standard of our biddable output. Collaboratively working across teams and groups, proactively communicate and manage expectations of internal and external stakeholders, building sustainable relationship with the clients and client teams. Drive, develop and evolve best-in-class client roadmap and lead the team to manage it. Leading the team to attend initial client briefings, providing feedback early in the planning process on the involvement of biddable.
• Work: Deliver more meaningful outcomes through Mx (Havas’ Planning System) Able to lead the team to produce biddable strategies & supporting rationale documents that demonstrate a high level of expertise and innovation.
• Growth: Drive business growth & momentum Enhance the team’s day-to-day work by supporting the Business Director with the development of the team framework, such as workload efficiencies and innovation projects that drive future opportunities. Act as an ambassador for the agency at internal and external events, demonstrating our agency values and lending to the development of a great agency culture. Actively seek for opportunities to maximise Biddable potential. Drive investment planning at platform & audience level, leveraging partnerships with technology vendors and publishers. Pro‑active presentations to promote biddable capabilities both internally and externally.
• People: Make a meaningful difference to our people Managing team workload and resources, identifying training & development needs of team members Coaching and mentoring junior members of the team, support and manage all team members effectively.

WHO WE’re looking for

• Strong understanding of data, analytics and performance-driven marketing, with the ability to translate insights into actionable strategies and recommendations.
• Significant experience delivering Paid Social and/or Programmatic campaigns, gained within agency, platform, media owner, consultancy or in‑house environments.
• Proven leadership capability, with experience coaching, developing and motivating high‑performing teams while fostering a collaborative and inclusive culture.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to influence and educate both internal and external audiences on the role of biddable media within the wider marketing mix.
• Commercially minded, with a proactive approach to identifying opportunities that drive client growth, business performance and innovation.
• Strong presentation and storytelling skills, with the ability to simplify complex concepts for a range of technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, stakeholders and projects while maintaining a high standard of delivery.
• Experience working with industry platforms, research tools and measurement solutions.
• Knowledge of ad servers, DSPs and key media platforms such as DV360, Amazon DSP, Yahoo DSP or equivalent is advantageous.
• Strong attention to detail, organisational skills and project management capability, with a commitment to delivering high‑quality work.
• A collaborative problem‑solver who contributes ideas, challenges constructively and seeks opportunities to improve ways of working across teams and clients.
• Comfortable working in a hybrid and virtual environment, building effective relationships and collaborating with colleagues and clients across a range of locations.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
• Committed to creating an inclusive and supportive working environment where diverse perspectives are valued and respected.

#LI-NK1 Contract Type : Permanent

Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.

About Us

Founded in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas, Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications groups, with more than 23,000 people in over 100 countries sharing one single mission: to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses, and people. Havas has developed a fully integrated model covering all communications activities. The teams of the three business units, Creative, Media and Health & You, work together with agility and in perfect synergy to offer clients tailor‑made, meaningful, innovative and entertainment‑oriented solutions that support them in their positive transformation.

Life at Havas

We take great pride in our Havas family. They bring many unique personalities, perspectives and passions to their work. Collaboration is at the core of how we operate, and Havas Villages are the homes we work in. We encourage our people to take advantage of our many opportunities to learn and grow. Through local agency training sessions, our unique global and development programs, we offer our people endless opportunities to explore.

Havas Creative Network

At Havas, we believe creativity isn’t just a description of our business, it is part of our agencies’ DNA. We bring together some of the industry’s most creative and accomplished agencies. By combining creative expertise with the strategic and innovative power of our Villages, we can build seamless teams around the individual needs of each of our clients.

Havas Media Network

We create the best media experience, capitalizing on the most meaningful media to build more meaningful brands. We know how to connect a client with their target audience – in the context of where they are, through the content they pay attention to. We deliver this expertise through the Mx System, our global operating methodology and strategic planning process, that creates value for our clients by turning consumer intelligence into clear growth targets, aligning stakeholders and KPIs, and measuring the impact of media experiences.

Havas Health

Driven by human purpose and focused on the betterment of humanity through health, Havas Health & You leverages a global collection of experts and individuals to help people everywhere live healthier lives. With a spirit rooted in innovation, creativity, and education, we are dedicated to delivering consistent excellence and groundbreaking work.