Overview
Business Unit Director Jobs in Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa at RØERING CREATIVE KIN
Title: Business Unit Director
Company: RØERING CREATIVE KIN
Location: Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa
Purpose of the role
We are looking for an experienced and commercially minded Business Unit Director to lead our Client Service Business Unit as our agency continues to evolve and enter an exciting new chapter.
This is more than a traditional Client Service leadership role. We are looking for a leader who has successfully led a business unit through periods of change, transition or transformation — someone who can bring stability while challenging the status quo, inspire teams through change and help shape what the future of the business looks like.
You will be responsible for the strategic direction, operational performance, client relationships and commercial success of the Business Unit. You will lead a high-performing Client Service team, build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders and work closely with Creative, Studio, Traffic and Operations to deliver strategically strong, creatively excellent and commercially successful work.
As a member of the agency leadership team, you will play an important role in shaping our next phase of growth, building a high-performance culture, developing future leaders and ensuring our Client Service offering continues to evolve with the needs of our clients and the industry.
What You’ll Do
Strategic Client Leadership
- Build trusted, long-term relationships with senior client stakeholders.
- Develop a deep understanding of clients’ business, commercial objectives and market environments.
- Act as a senior escalation point for client matters.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen relationships, improve client value and grow existing accounts.
- Champion clients’ interests internally while demonstrating the agency’s strategic value externally.
Business Unit Leadership & Transformation
- Lead the Client Service Business Unit to achieve operational and commercial excellence.
- Provide clear direction and stability while navigating organisational change and transformation.
- Lead the Business Unit through periods of transition, ensuring teams remain engaged, focused and accountable.
- Identify opportunities to evolve structures, processes and ways of working to support the agency’s future ambitions.
- Create a culture that embraces change, innovation, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Drive effective collaboration across Client Service, Creative, Studio, Traffic and Operations.
- Lead by example through professionalism, integrity and strong commercial judgement.
Portfolio & Commercial Management
- Oversee client portfolios to ensure exceptional service and delivery.
- Monitor client satisfaction, portfolio performance and commercial health.
- Ensure major campaigns and high-priority deliverables are strategically aligned, on time and within budget.
- Identify and mitigate delivery and client risks.
- Partner with Finance to ensure effective commercial management.
- Identify opportunities for organic growth, client retention and increased value.
Leadership & People Development
- Lead, coach and mentor Account Directors and Client Service teams.
- Develop future leaders and support succession planning.
- Set clear performance expectations and development objectives.
- Conduct regular one-on-ones and performance reviews.
- Recognise high performance and address underperformance effectively.
- Support and guide teams through change, ensuring clarity, communication and engagement.
- Remove barriers that prevent teams from performing at their best.
Operational Excellence
- Partner with Studio Leadership and Resource Management to optimise workflow and resource utilisation.
- Review and improve processes to ensure the Business Unit is operating effectively and efficiently.
- Ensure appropriate resource and workload planning across portfolios.
- Oversee leave and overtime planning to balance business requirements with employee wellbeing.
- Ensure agency processes, standards and ways of working are consistently followed.
Client Service Excellence
- Ensure teams develop high-quality, strategically aligned and commercially sound briefs.
- Attend key client meetings, portfolio reviews and senior stakeholder engagements.
- Drive clear, timely and professional communication between clients and internal teams.
- Maintain consistently high service standards across the Business Unit.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business or a related field.
Experience
- 8–10+ years’ experience within an advertising agency environment.
- At least 5 years’ experience leading Client Service teams.
- Proven experience managing major client portfolios.
- Demonstrated experience leading a business unit, department or significant team through a period of transition, transformation or organisational change.
- Strong leadership and people management experience.
- Experience working across integrated marketing and TTL campaigns.
- Financial Services experience will be advantageous.
We’re Particularly Interested in Leaders Who Have
- Led teams through significant organisational or business transformation.
- Successfully managed change while maintaining client confidence and business performance.
- Reshaped teams, structures or ways of working to support new business objectives.
- The ability to balance stability and transformation — knowing when to protect what works and when to challenge what doesn’t.
- A track record of bringing people with them through change.
- Experience building high-performing teams during periods of growth or transition.
- The commercial mindset to turn change into sustainable business opportunity.
Key Skills & Capabilities
- Strategic and commercial thinking
- Senior client relationship management
- Business unit leadership
- Change and transformation leadership
- Brand and marketing strategy
- Commercial and financial management
- Agency operations
- Integrated campaign management
- Creative development
- Resource and project planning
- Performance management
- Reporting and analytics
- Budget management