• Job Title: Innovation Director
• Level & Responsibility: This role will be at Director leader within our central Innovation team and the Retail Partnership. You will lead 2+ direct reports and be responsible for the engagement and performance of the broader teams.
• Location & Hybrid Working: This role will be based in London for 1-2 days a week, with occasional travel to other SMG offices.

The role

We seeking an Innovation Director to lead digital and physical media innovation within a key retail partnership. You will oversee the innovation pipeline for one of our most influential retail accounts, driving the entire process from ideation to delivering new media toolkit capabilities.

Why SMG?

We are dedicated to supporting our employees in being the best version of themselves both inside and outside of work. We have an extraordinary culture built by exceptional people and it’s because of this that we’ve been recognised by Best Companies within the top 5 best Marketing & Media agencies to work for, with a World Class and Outstanding accreditation across the past 2 years.

We are also dedicated to continuously reviewing and improving our benefits package to offer the best that we can for our people. We have a whole page dedicated to our benefits here, but here's some of our favourites...

💰 Generous discretionary bonus scheme

🧘‍♂️ £1,800 yearly wellbeing fund (on top of your salary!) towards your personal wellbeing and passions

🫶 4 additional Wellbeing Days - one to be taken each quarter, dedicated to focusing on your wellbeing

📚 £500 yearly “Uni Fund” towards learning and development

🎧 Free headspace subscription

🕐 4pm Friday finishes all year round

🥳 Two fully paid conferences a year at Summer & Winter, as well as a dedicated team that put on activities and celebrations throughout the year

Why you?

In line with our company values, within your role you'll want to stay honest, stay hungry, stay foolish, and most importantly, have fun! We are looking for an experienced hire who can demonstrate clear industry knowledge and expertise. We are seeking someone with significant digital media development experience, likely from an agency or media background. More specifically, you'll have / be:

• Strong expertise in leveraging first-party data across media publishers, ad-tech, and martech industries.
• Confident in driving digital media innovation and advancing the agenda across the organization.
• Proven success in delivering impactful digital media solutions.
• Skilled at coaching and nurturing high-performing teams.
• Experienced in client-facing roles with excellent influencing abilities.
• Commercially savvy with a results-driven mindset.
• Adaptable and composed in all settings, with a determination to succeed.
• Effective at collaborating with senior stakeholders to execute complex projects.

P.s. we try really hard to make sure that we list only essential criteria here, BUT if you think you can do an amazing job, yet don't have every single thing on this list, we'd still love to hear from you.

What you'll be doing

We pride ourselves on creating challenging and exciting opportunities, meaning that no two days are the same. However, here's an idea of what your responsibilities will look like:

• As a leader in Media Development, you'll shape the vision and roadmap for physical and digital media innovations, enhancing first-party data engines, ad-tech capabilities, and media channels. You'll identify competitive opportunities, manage stakeholders (retailers, tech providers, agencies), and ensure projects are commercially viable.
• In Partner Management, you'll establish governance, nurture relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and oversee a partnership roadmap that advances "connected commerce media."
• Collaboration is key, ensuring seamless teamwork across functions like Media, Insight, Creative, and Strategy. You'll manage a talented team, guiding their development and fostering engagement while addressing skill gaps through training.
• For Client Management, you'll balance the needs of retailer partners and branded clients, navigating complex relationships to deliver aligned solutions. You'll also analyse campaign performance, collaborating with insight teams to assess effectiveness using key metrics.
• Finally, you'll contribute to organisational growth through initiatives like training, PR, and talent acquisition, helping build an inspiring and innovative workplace.

More information and resources to support you & your application...

• To find out more about our agencies and departments, click here.
• To find out more about our application & interview process and supporting you through this, click here.
• To find out more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SMG, click here.
• To take a look at our FAQ's, click here.

PLEASE NOTE: you should always receive an email from us following your application, so if you do not, please check your junk or spam folder, whether "conversations@message.teamtailor.com" are on your approved senders list and whether your mailbox is full. Please email careers@smg.team if you've still not received anything!

Our full data retention policy can be found here.