Digital Managing Director

JOIN OUR JOURNEY

Medialab is the UK’s leading independent media agency, and one of the fastest growing in the industry. We’re a media agency that’s made differently: purpose-led, data-driven, founder-run and proudly independent.

Our entrepreneurial spirit means success is recognised and rewarded. There are no limits to what you can achieve here, which our employees agree with, evidenced by being a Campaign Best Place to Work for six consecutive years and one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025. As well as this, we’re Campaign’s Independent Agency of the Year 2024 and Media Week’s Independent Agency of the Year 2025.

We are IPA Effectiveness accredited, an IPA People-First agency, and All In Champions, with industry-leading work recognised by double-gold at the 2024 IPA Effectiveness Awards for our work with Laithwaites and a 2025 Effie for our work with Alzheimer’s Society.

Our independence means we can focus 100% on doing the right thing to secure success for our clients and our brilliant people. We work with a wide variety of clients including Hovis, IG, Sharps Bedrooms, SunLife, Standard Life, Ancestry, Laithwaites Wine, Save the Children, Guide Dogs, Alzheimer’s Society, RNLI and Clearscore.

OUR VALUES

• Commit to Doing the Right Thing (Act with integrity and accountability)

• Help People Flourish (Invest in people)

• Dig Deeper to Understand Better (Data driven curiosity)

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

Working at Medialab comes with lots of perks including all the usual things you would expect, such as a competitive salary package, pension, season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, weekly social events and big summer / end of year parties.
On top of that, we offer extra benefits, which make life at Medialab even more rewarding:

• Time to Unwind – We offer generous holiday entitlement that increases with long service, plus Christmas closure and a birthday day off. Alongside this, we offer flexible benefits including a holiday buy scheme, flexi-hours, a work abroad scheme, cultural bank holiday swaps, and Friday Summer hours.

• Hybrid Working – Balance between home and office (3 days in office). We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements from the commencement of employment.

• Career Growth – A meritocratic approach to progression with quarterly reviews, CPD Platinum accredited training, mentoring and leadership support.

• Health & Wellbeing – Private medical insurance, health cash plan, gym discounts, wellbeing apps Mental Health First Aiders and free professional counselling.

• Supporting Families – Enhanced parental leave pay, flexible working and life assurance.

• Giving Back – Paid charity days and sustainability initiatives.

• Perks & Rewards – Retail discounts, long-service trips and an unforgettable team culture.

YOUR NEXT CHALLENGE

We are looking for a Digital MD to lead, scale, and future-proof our digital activation department. In this senior leadership role, you will manage a high-performing team of channel heads across Search, Social, and Programmatic, fostering a collaborative culture and driving operational excellence through process optimisation and AI-driven automation.

Acting as the central connector between internal planning teams, senior client partners, and major media platforms, you will champion commercial growth and ensure best-in-class digital delivery across all channels.

HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT

People & Departmental Leadership

• Lead the digital activation department, managing performance, retention, and succession planning for channel Heads (Search, Social, Programmatic).

• Foster a collaborative, high-performing culture and lead the training framework to maintain team expertise.

• Oversee recruitment, team evolution, and resource allocation aligned with client FTE plans and agency compensation ratios, eventually transitioning processes to Teamwork.

Operational Best Practice, Processes & Technology

• Develop and drive the overarching delivery strategy for digital media across Search, Social, Display, and Video.

• Ensure 100% adoption of end-to-end workflows and full utilization of Teamwork to streamline daily operations.

• Scale operations by identifying and embedding AI tools and automation to eliminate manual bottlenecks.

• Act as the central connector between digital activation and client planning teams to ensure seamless delivery and a "one team" experience.

• Partner with the CPO to operationalize new digital products and industry-leading capabilities into client workflows.

Internal Relationships & Cross-Team Collaboration

• Align with senior leaders to define clear operational boundaries, ensuring that delivery capabilities perfectly support overall client growth and strategic objectives.

• Build trusted, strategic relationships with senior client partners, acting as an expert advisor and ultimate resolution partner on complex aspects of digital execution, delivery, and operational performance.

External Partner & Media Owner Relationships

• Manage and grow relationships with specialist partners, including Hookflash, MIQ, Influencer, Pixability, and Smartly.

• Build and maintain trusted, senior-level relationships with major media platforms

Growth, Pitching & Commercial Strategy.

• Take a leading digital role in New Business pitches to grow agency revenue. Showcase the agency's operational model, digital delivery capabilities, and team structure to prospective clients.

• Take responsibility for maximising growth among current clients, working in partnership with client planning teams, digital strategists, channel leads, and the CPO to identify and unlock incremental opportunities.

• Maintain an accurate view of agency revenues and margins for digital clients. Create robust commercial forecasts and ensure the department delivers successfully to budgets.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TEAM

• Proven experience leading large digital activation or media operations departments, including managing line managers and channel heads across Search, Social, and Programmatic.

• Extensive experience driving delivery strategies across major digital channels, specifically Search, Social, Display, and Video.

• Background in managing end-to-end agency workflows, resource allocation (FTE plans), and utilising project management tools like Teamwork.

• Track record of managing agency revenues, margins, commercial forecasting, and delivering department budgets.

• Ability to foster high-performing teams, build succession pipelines, oversee recruitment, and design training frameworks.

• Strong relationship-building skills to act as a trusted advisor and ultimate resolution partner for senior client issues regarding complex digital execution.

At Medialab we are committed to fostering a culture that celebrates creative thinking, different perspectives and the many different cultures that exist. We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and identities. All qualified applicants will receive fair consideration, regardless of age, disability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, belief, marital status, social mobility or any other protected characteristic. If you require any reasonable adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible for you, please reach out to our Head of Talent Acquisition and Inclusion at View email address on careers.medialabgroup.co.uk . Requesting a reasonable adjustment will not affect your application.