Business Unit Director

About Irvine Partners:
At Irvine Partners, we shape culture-forward communications for global industry leaders. We combine sharp strategic thinking with creative storytelling and digital craft to build brands that matter, move and endure. Our team spans PR experts, award-winning creatives and journalists, seasoned copywriters, cultural strategists, and digital innovators.

About the Role:
The Business Unit Director is a senior leadership role responsible for shaping strategy, driving commercial performance, and leading high-performing account teams across the agency. As a key member of the management team, the role provides strategic and operational leadership, influencing decision-making, setting direction, and ensuring excellence in the delivery of creative communications strategies across multiple sectors.

The Business Unit Director is accountable for the successful rollout of client strategies and creative campaigns, bringing clarity, rigour, and strategic oversight to execution while empowering teams through effective delegation and leadership. They play a critical role in embedding best practice, continuously monitoring shifts in the communications landscape, and identifying opportunities to evolve the agency’s approach across platforms, audiences, nuances and disciplines.

Ultimately, the Business Unit Director builds and leads teams capable of delivering seamless, insight-led, integrated campaigns that create measurable impact for clients and drive sustained growth for the agency.

Key responsibilities:

• Strategic communications & brand leadership: Develop and lead overarching communications strategies that define what needs to be said, why it matters, and to whom—then determine the most effective platforms, channels, and formats (written, video, audio, experiential, etc.) to deliver impact. Strategy leads execution, not the other way around.


• PR-led amplification & ecosystem thinking: Apply deep PR expertise to design integrated, cultural-first communications ecosystems that combine earned media, owned channels, creator platforms, and emerging platforms and channels. Ensure that narratives are amplified strategically across markets and touchpoints, rather than relying on single-channel execution.


• Global brand growth & market relevance: Drive the expansion of the Irvine Partners brand globally, particularly across EMEA, by shaping strategies that balance global brand consistency with local cultural and market nuance. Ensure communications are nuanced, credible, and effective within each regional context.


• Strategic direction & creative collaboration: Define the strategic frameworks, audience insight, and platform strategy that inform creative development, working in close partnership with the Executive Creative Director and Content Director to ensure ideas are grounded in insight, aligned to objectives, and designed to travel effectively across platforms and markets.


• Multi-account strategic oversight: Lead strategic thinking across multiple accounts, ensuring consistency of approach while tailoring strategies to different business objectives, audiences, and markets. Act as the strategic anchor that connects insight, creativity, and execution.


• Measurement, insights & optimisation: Define success metrics at a strategic level, assess performance across platforms and formats, and use insights to continuously refine future strategies, demonstrating impact, effectiveness, and return on effort.


• New business strategy & leadership: Play a senior role in driving agency growth by identifying opportunities within existing accounts and contributing to the development of new business pipelines. Shape strategic propositions, lead client conversations, and position Irvine Partners as a strategic partner, not just a service provider.
  

Requirements

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Digital Media, or a related field

Experience:

• 10+ years’ experience in agency client service roles, with a minimum of 2–3 years operating at a Business Unit Director (or equivalent) level, leading teams, clients, and commercial outcomes.


• Demonstrated commercial and business acumen, with responsibility for forecasting, revenue growth, margin management, and oversight of client budgets and income streams.


• Proven experience leading large, complex, blue-chip client portfolios, sustaining long-term client relationships while driving strategic evolution and business growth for both clients and the agency.


• Strong track record of winning and retaining business, including leading major pitches, shaping strategic propositions, and converting opportunity into sustained revenue.


• Senior-level strategic communications expertise across corporate and consumer sectors, with the ability to integrate earned, owned, and emerging platforms into cohesive, audience-led programmes


• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with confidence as a senior presenter, facilitator, and strategic advisor to C-suite and executive stakeholders.


• Highly developed people leadership capability, with a passion for mentoring, coaching, and building high-performing teams while supporting the growth and progression of junior and mid-level talent.


• A collaborative, decisive leader who brings strategic clarity, creative ambition, and operational rigour to everything they do.

Personal attributes:

• A strategic and creative thinker with the ability to generate original ideas and shape innovative communications strategies grounded in insight and audience understanding.


• Highly organised and commercially disciplined, able to oversee multiple complex workstreams and priorities across accounts, markets, and teams.


• An exceptional communicator and collaborator, confident working across disciplines, cultures, and seniority levels while also operating autonomously when required.


• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, high-pressure environments, with the agility to adapt to evolving client needs, business priorities, and international market dynamics.


• A genuine passion for storytelling, reputation-building, and brand growth on a global stage.


• A collaborative, inclusive leader who fosters trust, accountability, and shared ownership within teams, embracing diverse perspectives in hybrid working environments.


• Proactive, decisive, and comfortable being assertive when required, able to provide clear direction and make informed calls in the best interest of clients and the agency.


• Strong relationship builder with a proven ability to maintain and grow senior client partnerships, underpinned by credibility and sound judgement.


• Deeply networked and respected across media, creators, and industry stakeholders, with the ability to activate relationships strategically.


• Meticulous in approach, with high attention to detail, balanced by the ability to see the bigger picture and drive work forward efficiently.


• Curious and future-focused, with a strong innovation mindset and commitment to evolving ways of working and communicating.