Associate Director, Client Strategy

The Business of Fashion; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

The Business of Fashion (BoF) is seeking an Associate Director, Client Strategy to lead high-impact partnerships and translate industry intelligence into commercially valuable propositions. You will work closely with the Head of Client Strategy and senior colleagues across Commercial, Editorial, Events, Marketing and Product.

You will develop capabilities within the Client Strategy team, raise strategic thinking quality and help deepen client relationships to grow commercial value at scale.

Qualifications

• The Associate Director, Client Strategy will be a senior strategic lead within the team, responsible for developing ambitious ideas, leading complex partnerships and helping translate BoF’s intelligence and expertise into commercially valuable propositions.

Responsibilities

• Leading the strategic development of major custom partnerships, translating client objectives and business challenges into compelling propositions across content, thought leadership, executive engagement and live experiences.
• Acting as a senior strategic partner to clients, confidently engaging with CEOs, CMOs and other senior decision-makers, while identifying opportunities to deepen relationships, develop new propositions and increase the long-term commercial value of key partnerships.
• Playing a leading role in the growth of The Business of Beauty, developing high-value commercial partnerships and executive engagement opportunities, and translating BoF's beauty intelligence into compelling briefings and strategic narratives for senior audiences.
• Collaborating on the strategic development of community experiences across fashion and beauty, including executive salons, leadership briefings, roundtables, panels and other bespoke formats designed to create genuine value through insight, access and peer exchange
• Taking ownership of complex, cross-functional projects, bringing together colleagues across Commercial, Editorial, Content, Events, Marketing and Product while maintaining strategic clarity and consistently high standards.
• Representing BoF externally, including moderating panels and executive conversations, facilitating senior roundtables and presenting BoF intelligence to leading fashion, luxury and beauty businesses.
• Supporting the Head of Client Strategy in developing the function, including identifying new propositions, improving ways of working and building repeatable approaches that increase the team's commercial impact and ability to operate effectively at scale.

Job description

Overview

Reporting to the Head of Client Strategy, The Business of Fashion is seeking an experienced and commercially minded strategist to join its Client Strategy team at Associate Director level. The Client Strategy team sits at the intersection of BoF’s commercial organisation, industry intelligence, content expertise and global community. We work with leading fashion, luxury, beauty, technology and retail businesses to translate their objectives and challenges into distinctive, high-value partnerships.

Our work spans strategic thought-leadership programmes, executive briefings and presentations, custom research and content, intimate leadership gatherings, roundtables, panels and major global events. The team plays an important role in both developing the strategic proposition behind these partnerships and ensuring that the resulting work meets the standards expected of BoF.

As Associate Director, Client Strategy, you will take senior ownership of some of BoF’s most important and complex commercial partnerships, working closely with the Head of Client Strategy and senior colleagues across Commercial, Editorial, Events, Marketing and Product.

You will also help develop the capabilities of the wider Client Strategy team, raise the quality of our strategic thinking and identify opportunities to deepen client relationships and grow the commercial value of our work.

Who Are We?

The Business of Fashion is recognised around the world for its authoritative, analytical point of view on the global fashion and beauty industries. Our mission: to open, inform and connect the global fashion and beauty industries.

Serving members in more than 125 countries, The Business of Fashion combines independent, agenda-setting journalism with practical business advice, online learning, career-building tools and immersive events, powering positive change in fashion and the wider world.

Over time, our pioneering approach has made BoF the fashion industry’s leading source of business intelligence, and one of its most respected and influential voices, simply because you won’t find BoF’s original reporting, analysis and advice anywhere else. The Business of Beauty brings the same kind of agenda-setting coverage to the beauty and wellness space. Today, our talented team of correspondents, editors, analysts, engineers, designers, marketers and more numbers more than 100 people in London, New York, Paris and Milan.

Commitment to Diversity

BoF is committed to building a diverse workforce and we are proud to be an Equal Opportunities employer. All applicants and employees receive equal treatment regardless of race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity.

Commitment to Inclusivity

BoF is committed to building an inclusive environment where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and reach their full potential within their roles using a growth mindset. We are committed to creating an inclusive culture for our employees globally.

Commitment to Accessibility

BoF is committed to providing an accessible environment for all applicants throughout any stage of the recruitment process, by removing any barriers to ensure we offer a process that gives all of our applicants an opportunity to shine.

We will work with you to understand what adjustments you may need in the recruitment process to ensure you are able to perform at your best and we want to create a safe space to support this. Should you require any particular adjustment to be made, please let the Talent Specialist who is managing your application know when you are contacted for an interview, so we can consider how best we can support you with this.

What We Need You to Do

The Associate Director, Client Strategy will be a senior strategic lead within the team, responsible for developing ambitious ideas, leading complex partnerships and helping translate BoF’s intelligence and expertise into commercially valuable propositions.

The successful candidate will play a significant role in:

• Leading the strategic development of major custom partnerships, translating client objectives and business challenges into compelling propositions across content, thought leadership, executive engagement and live experiences.
• Acting as a senior strategic partner to clients, confidently engaging with CEOs, CMOs and other senior decision-makers, while identifying opportunities to deepen relationships, develop new propositions and increase the long-term commercial value of key partnerships.
• Playing a leading role in the growth of The Business of Beauty, developing high-value commercial partnerships and executive engagement opportunities, and translating BoF's beauty intelligence into compelling briefings and strategic narratives for senior audiences.
• Collaborating on the strategic development of community experiences across fashion and beauty, including executive salons, leadership briefings, roundtables, panels and other bespoke formats designed to create genuine value through insight, access and peer exchange
• Taking ownership of complex, cross-functional projects, bringing together colleagues across Commercial, Editorial, Content, Events, Marketing and Product while maintaining strategic clarity and consistently high standards.
• Representing BoF externally, including moderating panels and executive conversations, facilitating senior roundtables and presenting BoF intelligence to leading fashion, luxury and beauty businesses.
• Supporting the Head of Client Strategy in developing the function, including identifying new propositions, improving ways of working and building repeatable approaches that increase the team's commercial impact and ability to operate effectively at scale.

Who You Are

You are an experienced strategist with a strong understanding of the fashion, luxury and/or beauty industries and a track record of developing sophisticated strategic work for senior clients.

You combine intellectual curiosity with commercial instinct. You can quickly understand a business challenge, identify the most interesting strategic territory within it and turn that thinking into an idea or proposition that both clients and senior internal stakeholders find compelling.

You are equally comfortable in a room with a CEO, interrogating a client brief with a commercial lead, shaping the narrative of an executive presentation or helping a strategist make a promising idea significantly stronger.

You will also bring:

• You have a depth and breadth of experience in strategy, consulting, intelligence, journalism, brand partnerships or a related discipline.
• A sophisticated understanding of the commercial dynamics shaping fashion, luxury and beauty, including consumer behaviour, technology, retail, culture and wider macroeconomic forces.
• Strong commercial judgement and an understanding of how excellent strategic work can create deeper client relationships and new revenue opportunities.
• Exceptional storytelling and editorial judgement, with the ability to turn complex information into sharp, authoritative narratives.
• Confidence engaging senior executives and navigating complex stakeholder relationships.
• Excellent presentation, facilitation and public-speaking skills.
• The ability to manage multiple complex work-streams without losing sight of the strategic objective.
• A hyper-collaborative approach and the judgement to work effectively across commercial, editorial and creative teams while protecting BoF’s authority and standards.

You’ll Know You’re Successful When…

• You are trusted by senior clients and Commercial colleagues to shape the strategic direction of BoF’s most important partnerships.
• Your strategic input contributes to stronger propositions, deeper client relationships, larger opportunities and repeat business.
• You develop ideas and intellectual territories that feel distinctive to BoF and make meaningful use of our journalism, intelligence, audience and industry access.
• You confidently lead senior client conversations, presentations, executive gatherings and live discussions as a representative of BoF.
• You raise the quality of thinking across the Client Strategy team and are a trusted source of guidance.
• You build strong relationships across BoF and can effectively mobilise different parts of the organisation around ambitious partnerships.
• The work you lead consistently meets BoF’s standards for intellectual credibility, client value and executional excellence.
• You help the Head of Client Strategy build a stronger, more commercially valuable and increasingly scalable Client Strategy function.