Social Director

Social Director – INFLUENCE by WPP Media Overview of the team: In today’s entertainment economy, influence is currency, making social and content creators the new media powerhouses. At WPP Media, we have a dedicated Social, Content and Influencer Marketing capability, designed to help brands authentically connect with audiences through the voices they trust most. Our approach is rooted in creativity, data intelligence, and cultural fluency. We craft strategic partnerships that drive measurable impact, spark conversation, and build long-term brand equity. Our Capability Offers Clients: End-to-end social and creator campaign management from strategy to reporting Access to a diverse and vetted creator network Advanced data and performance analytics Global reach with local market expertise Welcome to the future of INFLUENCE. Let’s create something extraordinary. Overview Of The Role: We are looking for a Social Director to lead the delivery, development and growth of Owned Social Media services across a key portfolio of world-class clients. You will be responsible for setting the strategic direction across owned social, ensuring projects run seamlessly and are delivered at the highest standard. This role requires a confident leader who is equally passionate about people, process, performance, and product - capable of nurturing client relationships, guiding a growing team, and helping evolve our social offering. Reporting Lines: Reporting To: Head of Social & Influencer Direct Reports: Social Manager Social Manager Social Executive x2 Social Coordinator Key Relationships: Owned Social team Wider INFLUENCE team Internal and external client teams Social media platform partners 3 Best Things About The Job: Own the strategic vision and execution for social across some of Australia’s most exciting brands. Lead a high-performing, creative team of social specialists, with opportunities for mentorship and growth. Shape the future of our social product, championing innovation and evolving how we work and what we deliver. Objectives: People: Mentor and lead a high-performing team while fostering strong relationships across internal stakeholders. Client: Own senior client relationships, ensuring strategic alignment, satisfaction, and exceptional output. Commercial: Drive revenue growth through new business, upsells, and effective team resourcing. Product: Lead innovation and excellence in owned social marketing delivery and social-first content production. Process: Identify and implement process improvements to boost efficiency and scalability. Responsibilities: Project Management: Oversee the day-to-day delivery of owned social projects across the team, ensuring work meets internal and client standards. Ensure all work adheres to best practices, timelines, scopes, and agreed SLAs. Resolve delivery issues or roadblocks swiftly and proactively. Strategy: Lead the development of owned social strategies that align with client objectives and audience insights. Deliver platform-appropriate recommendations across paid, earned, and owned touchpoints. Work closely with agency planning and implementation teams to ensure cohesion across channels. Client Relationships: Own senior client relationships, ensuring trust, strategic alignment, and high-quality outputs. Serve as the senior point of escalation and thought leadership. Ensure alignment between client expectations, team delivery, and internal goals. Client Education: Proactively educate clients on owned social best practice, platform updates, and new capabilities. Facilitate regular training sessions or invite platforms/tools to run workshops. Provide confidence to clients by translating complexity into clear, actionable advice. Team Management: Manage and support direct reports, ensuring clarity on roles, responsibilities, and expectations. Conduct regular 1:1s, goal setting, and development check-ins. Create pathways for growth, including performance reviews and promotions. Team Education: Champion a culture of continuous learning. Provide budget/time for team training, certifications, and conferences. Facilitate or delegate internal skill shares, platform updates, or case study reviews. Finance: Own financial hygiene across your team, including accurate and timely billing, forecasting, and reporting. Ensure timesheets are submitted weekly and reflect true client/product work. Work with Commercial/Operations leads on scope definition and P&L inputs. New Business: Lead new business opportunities across owned social and social content production. Collaborate with Strategy and Media teams to develop social responses and pitch materials. Present confidently and persuasively in client and prospect settings. Revenue Targets: Own revenue targets across your team and support commercial leadership in hitting monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. Identify upsell opportunities and scope extensions with existing clients. Maintain high utilisation and resource efficiency across the team. Product Innovation: Identify ways to evolve the owned social and social content production offering. Work with the Head of Social & Influence to implement new tools, processes, playbooks, or positioning. Ensure the team is adopting innovations in workflow, AI tools, content formats, or reporting. Process Optimisation: Review team workflows and delivery models to identify inefficiencies. Propose new ways of working to improve speed, quality, or collaboration. Build business cases for new systems or structures and lead their implementation. Stakeholder Relationships: Build strong partnerships with internal stakeholders (Client Leads, Media Planners, Creative, Strategy). Represent the Owned Social function with platform reps and external suppliers. Facilitate cross-team collaboration for integrated delivery. Ideal Candidate Experience: The ideal candidate for the Social Director role is a visionary leader with deep expertise in social media and content production, and a passion for shaping how brands show up in culture. You’re a strategic thinker who thrives in fast-paced environments, with a proven track record of developing high-impact social strategies, nurturing strong client relationships, and driving business growth. You excel at mentoring teams, solving complex challenges, and elevating social best practices across the board - all while inspiring innovation and delivering measurable results. 8+ years of experience in social media and / or social content production, with agency experience strongly preferred. Strong track record of developing and delivering social strategies that drive measurable results. Proven leadership experience managing and growing high-performing teams. Confident in client management at a senior level, including presenting, problem-solving and relationship-building. Deep understanding of platform best practices, emerging trends, and creator culture. Proficiency with social tools like Sprout, Sprinklr, Later, Meltwater, CreatorIQ or similar. Comfortable working across both creative and data environments. Passion for social culture, storytelling, and helping brands make meaningful impact online. Strong understanding of paid social media principles and how organic/paid work together. Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively. Experience using AI tools for content creation or analysis. #J-18808-Ljbffr