Associate Business Director Creative Services📣 Job Ad

About the Role

Publicis Groupe is seeking an Associate Business Director for Creative Services to oversee creative operations and ensure efficient agency functioning. This full-time position is based in Riyadh and requires 5-10 years of experience. The role reports to the Business Director - Creative Operations.

Role Overview and Purpose

The Associate Business Director - Creative Services is responsible for leading creative operations, identifying internal solutions, and maintaining an overview of creative resource capacity and utilization. This role ensures the agency operates efficiently, functions as a profit center, and meets all client deadlines. A key focus is on maintaining quality, people, and processes to resolve production and workflow issues, while collaborating with senior leadership to define optimal resources and processes that support the agency's success.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a liaison between Creative and Account Management to assess implications and anticipate workload needs before assignments begin.
• Attend status meetings and collaborate with Creative Resources and Communications teams to stay informed of timing, scope, and priority changes during creative development.
• Own and maintain the Capacity Plan, ensuring it is regularly updated.
• Review new assignment briefs to ensure alignment with forecasting and to understand creative requirements, including scope, timing, and priority.
• Evaluate available creative resources based on aptitude, work style, skills, and workload against project needs.
• Prepare staffing solutions by matching appropriate teams and individuals to suitable projects.
• Present staffing solutions and work with the CCO & CD to organize and brief creative teams.
• Organize and attend creative briefings and pit stops, managing time, location, and team member involvement.
• Track individual creative contributions to the agency.
• Manage all resources to ensure projects and accounts are adequately staffed.
• Ensure department leads review all briefs before work is dispatched to teams.
• Manage team time and provide recommendations for workload prioritization to ensure timely delivery.
• Collaborate with team leads on prioritizing and reallocating workloads.
• Serve as Casting Manager, understanding employee skill sets, strengths, and weaknesses to map talent effectively to business needs.
• Anticipate trends within the group and develop innovative solutions.
• Assess skill sets and specialties to assign the best possible resources for each project.
• Continuously monitor the group for efficiencies, report concerns and opportunities to the head of creative services, and address overloaded reports.
• Ensure appropriate communication levels with creative teams, determining the best channels for sharing information.
• Maintain an open mind to ideas and welcome feedback for process improvement.
• Manage the day-to-day workload allocations.
• Regularly review timesheets and vacation schedules for the team and prepare reports.
• Monitor the asset repository and act as a gatekeeper for asset management.
• Follow and lead the Groupe GDPR policy, guiding others in compliance.
• Support company culture and actively seek innovative ways of working.
• Track creative contributions and support individuals in performing at their best.
• Project optimism and confidence in resolving escalated situations.
• Gain support and ownership from key stakeholders for efficient and effective resource deployment.
• Act as a problem-solver with a solution-oriented approach.
• Maintain composure and deliver under extreme work pressure.
• Challenge established viewpoints with respect and openness.
• Utilize storytelling to connect with stakeholders and influence outcomes.
• Handle complex issues and make decisions with incomplete information.
• Proactively develop meaningful relationships with key decision-makers.
• Accept responsibility for client issues, manage conflict, and actively solve problems internally and externally.
• Build succession plans and mentor future talent.
• Provide constructive feedback in a timely manner.
• Demonstrate a collaborative and positive spirit, promoting inclusivity.
• Listen and proactively seek views from others to foster transparency and comfort.
• Motivate teams to pursue goals and exceed expectations.
• Assess ideas and individuals based on merit, without bias, and provide recognition.
• Empower individuals to solve problems with support when needed.
• Coach and support others by aligning career expectations and providing actionable feedback.
• Persuade others with integrity by understanding their motivations and concerns.
• Continuously work towards improving team working and collaboration.
• Handle complex messages and convey issues to facilitate understanding.
• Initiate and lead open conversations with stakeholders to build trust.
• Create opportunities for others to grow and demonstrate learning agility.
• Drive a culture of trust with peers, clients, and stakeholders.
• Adjust performance based on experiences and feedback, showcasing agility and flexibility.
• Leverage the ideas of others when beneficial for the business.
• Demonstrate a growth mindset and adapt behavior for sustained success.
• Set high-impact objectives and go above and beyond to exceed performance.
• Demonstrate agility and flexibility to respond and reprioritize based on situations.
• Constructively challenge the status quo and take risks.
• Approach situations and individuals with honesty, integrity, transparency, and humbleness.
• Showcase resilience and maintain drive and a positive outlook when faced with challenges.
• Actively listen and be receptive to feedback on performance.
• Take justified risks and accountability when things do not go as planned.
• Identify change early and proactively develop and share plans to seize opportunities.
• Act ethically and make ethical decisions in line with local regulations and contracts.
• Listen in a way that others feel understood and respected.
• Make timely decisions that consider different factors in ambiguous circumstances.
• Build initiatives despite doubts or resistance to deliver strategic impact.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of 8 years of experience in a relevant or operations-related job role.
• Demonstrated understanding of strategy, creative, data & analytics, and digital & film production processes and terminology.
• Extremely organized with good negotiation skills.
• Ability to take calculative risks.
• An operations background with a positive, 'can-do' attitude.
• Good verbal and written communication skills to enhance negotiation and liaison with key stakeholders.