Head of Social

Reporting to: Managing Director

Location: Hybrid working, London-based, with cross-regional collaboration

We’re not your typical agency. Raptor is one of the world’s fastest-growing independent youth and community marketing agencies, helping major brands connect authentically with the next generation through ambassadors, creators, communities, experiences and social-first campaigns. Over the past decade, we have grown from a start-up into a global agency working across North America, Europe and APAC. Our partners include Airbnb, PepsiCo, Deliveroo, Jägermeister, Tinder and many more. Our ambition is simple: to become the world’s leading youth marketing agency. That means building world-class teams, exceptional technology and a global operating model that lets us deliver brilliantly and consistently in every market.

This is a rare opportunity to build and lead a new social practice within one of the world’s fastest-growing youth and community agencies. You will own the vision, proposition and commercial growth of the desk, helping current and new clients turn community participation into distinctive, high-performing social content. Raptor has a unique advantage: our ambassador, creator and community activity creates a constant stream of authentic user-generated content and cultural insight. You will shape that raw material into platform-native strategies, always-on content systems and campaigns that drive relevance, engagement and growth. You will also connect social to Raptor’s experiential work, ensuring activations are amplified before, during and after the live moment. From fast-turnaround content and branded shoots to creator partnerships and paid amplification, you will build a complete social offer that can plug into every client relationship. This role combines ownership, creativity and commercial opportunity. You will work across regions, build your own team and ways of working, influence senior clients and use Raptor’s own channels as a shop window for what brilliant community-led social can achieve.

You are a social-first thinker with at least five years’ experience, ideally gained within a successful social media or integrated agency. You can move confidently from cultural insight and channel strategy to creative briefing, content production, paid amplification, measurement and senior client presentation. You understand what makes content travel organically, how communities behave and how brands can participate in culture with credibility. You are fluent in the major platforms, curious about emerging formats and able to turn trends and audience behaviour into useful, brand-relevant opportunities. You have a strong understanding of youth culture and Gen Z: the trends shaping their world, how they engage with brands and how their behaviour differs across platforms. You do not need to be Gen Z yourself, but you must have your finger firmly on the pulse and turn cultural shifts into credible opportunities for clients. You are entrepreneurial and commercially minded. You want to build a capability, not simply inherit one: defining the product, creating the processes, selling the thinking, developing the team and proving the value of social through clear results.

As Social Lead, you will establish and lead Raptor’s social desk across strategy, organic content, community management, content production and paid amplification. You will be the agency’s senior social voice, responsible for the quality of the work, the growth of the service and the confidence clients place in our recommendations. You will work closely with client services, community, strategy, creative, experiential, production and media specialists across the UK, US and wider network. Your role is to turn Raptor’s community intelligence and live experiences into connected social programmes that work across markets and platforms. You will directly lead and develop our talented junior social professionals. One direct report has progressed through Raptor from Ambassador to marketing intern and Social Executive, and now works on the client side of the business, helping key brands generate user-generated content and build active communities. You will provide the direction, coaching and support that enables her, and the wider team to keep developing as the social function grows.

You Will:

• Define Raptor’s social proposition, service model, pricing and roadmap, with community at its heart.
• Create and sell insight-led social strategies for current clients, pitches and new-business opportunities.
• Own channel and platform strategies across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and relevant emerging platforms.
• Build always-on content systems that turn community activity and user-generated content into a reliable publishing pipeline.
• Set standards for sourcing, permissions, rights management, brand safety and the responsible use of user-generated content.
• Lead social thinking around experiential activations, planning amplification across pre-event, live and post-event phases.
• Oversee content calendars, creative briefs, reactive content, branded shoots, short-form video and platform-native production.
• Connect organic performance with paid amplification, working with specialists to define audiences, budgets, testing and optimisation.
• Shape community-management playbooks covering tone of voice, engagement, moderation, escalation and social customer care.
• Use social listening, platform analytics and cultural intelligence to identify trends, audience needs and creative opportunities.
• Define meaningful KPIs and reporting frameworks across reach, engagement, community growth, content performance and business impact.
• Lead senior client presentations, workshops, proposals, campaign reviews and ongoing growth conversations.
• Run Raptor’s own social channels as a high-quality shop window for the agency’s thinking, culture, people and work.
• Build the social team and partner network over time, identifying the right mix of strategy, creative, community, production and paid capability.
• Manage scopes, budgets, resource, timelines, quality and profitability across the social portfolio.

Experience:

• At least five years’ experience in social media, preferably within a successful social-first, creative or integrated agency.
• A strong portfolio of culturally relevant social work for recognised consumer brands.
• Proven experience developing and presenting social strategies that connect audience insight, creativity and commercial objectives.
• Hands-on understanding of organic social, community management, content production and paid social amplification.
• Experience briefing and overseeing creators, designers, photographers, filmmakers, editors and production partners.
• A record of growing accounts, contributing to pitches or helping sell new social work.
• Experience managing budgets, scopes, resourcing and delivery across multiple client accounts.
• Experience leading or developing people, with the ambition to build a high-performing social team.
• An understanding of youth culture, communities, creators and experiential marketing is highly valuable.

Key Competencies:

• Social strategy and platform leadership - Build focused, insight-led strategies that define where a brand should play, how it should show up and what success should look like on each platform.
• Community-led thinking - Turn real community behaviour, conversation and participation into relevant content, stronger relationships and a distinctive creative advantage.
• Social-first creativity - Recognise ideas that belong in feeds and communities, brief them clearly and raise the standard of content across always-on, campaign and reactive work.
• Commercial and practice building - Package and sell a compelling service, protect profitability and build the people, partners and processes needed to scale the desk.
• Client leadership and communication - Build trust with senior stakeholders, present persuasive recommendations and turn complex social opportunities into clear decisions and practical action.
• Collaborative leadership - Bring strategy, community, creative, experiential, production, media and client teams together around one shared social ambition across regions.

Location, Flexibility & Travel:

This role is designed for a UK-based social leader who can collaborate regularly with the London team while working flexibly around client, campaign and team needs. The role will also partner closely with colleagues and clients across the US and wider Raptor network. London collaboration: regular in-person time for priority client meetings, shoots, workshops, pitches and team development. Activation travel: occasional UK or international travel for major shoots, events and live campaign moments. Cross-region working: regular remote collaboration across time zones, with travel planned around the moments where being together adds the most value. Planning: travel and in-person requirements will be communicated as far ahead as possible. The aim is a sustainable, transparent working pattern that supports outstanding social work, strong client relationships and a connected global team.

Benefits:

• 24 days’ holiday per year
• Bonus scheme
• Vitality Health cover
• Work from Anywhere scheme
• New business incentives scheme
• Annual summer and Christmas parties
• Team-building and agency activities
• Discounts on local and national brands and businesses

Contract & Salary:

Permanent. Working pattern and start date to be agreed. Salary: £65-75k To be agreed, reflecting the experience and scope of the role.