Client Director

Ipsos S.A.; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

pension contribution

income protection and life assurance

range health & wellbeing

financial benefits

professional development opportunities

Job summary

Ipsos S.A. is seeking a senior Innovation leader in London to drive growth across a large client portfolio and a broader client base. You will guide strategy, foster client retention and expansion, and lead high-performing teams across the full innovation lifecycle.

In this hybrid role, you will spend three days in the London office and the rest from home, shaping divisional priorities and delivering world-class insights and execution for clients globally.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience with client accounts.
• Proven ability to retain and expand strategic accounts.
• Strong commercial acumen with revenue and margin focus.
• Experience across the full innovation lifecycle.
• Ability to lead and develop high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive profitable growth across your portfolio and shape account growth strategies.
• Oversee major proposals to ensure high win rates and competitive pricing.
• Deliver excellence for clients and scale work efficiently with delivery teams.
• Build a high-performing Innovation team and role-model leadership skills.
• Own the Innovation proposition and align with global leadership on capabilities.

Skills

Strategic account management

Leadership

Client relationship management

Proposal development

Innovation

Job description

Job Spec: This is a senior role in Innovation, accountable for leading a large strategic client account alongside a portfolio of other clients (managed by account directors) within the division. You are responsible for client delight, retention and growth across the clients, and these outcomes are reflected in your KPIs. You are a specialist in helping clients develop their innovation pipeline end-to-end: from opportunity identification through proposition development, screening, validation, forecasting, launch and post-launch execution. You deliver beyond data bringing insight, strategy and execution together. As a crucial member of the divisional leadership team, you combine commercial credibility with world-class people leadership, building trust and unlocking potential in your teams to drive brilliant performance for clients and the business. You contribute beyond your team, shaping divisional strategy and priorities alongside other Innovation senior leaders. This is a hybrid role with 3 days in our London office and the rest from home. Day to day These are the types of things you can expect to be doing during your day to day, although as Ipsos is a dynamic organisation , this may vary as different opportunities arise.

• Driving profitable growth across your portfolio. Leading your team to commercial success by managing financials, shaping account growth strategies that drive revenue through repeat and expanded business, and prioritising relationship investment with decision-makers to maximise ROI. Supporting client directors with commercial strategy across accounts.
• Winning new work. Overseeing major proposals to ensure they are well-designed, competitively priced and pitched for high win rates, leading key pitches personally alongside the team and Ipsos experts.
• Delivering excellence for clients. Taking personal responsibility for your accounts, while leading client directors to the same high standard across theirs. Acting as the most senior Innovation expert in client engagements, and partnering with delivery and operations to scale work efficiently and profitably.
• Building a high-performing Innovation team. Role-modelling the Ipsos Leading People skills and driving a culture of excellence, entrepreneurship and accountability. Inspiring team members at all levels, managing performance, and keeping the team focused on growing revenues and identifying opportunities.
• Delivering the Innovation proposition. Working with Innovation and global leadership teams to keep our Innovation offer competitive, AI- and tech-enabled, and aligned to client needs differentiated from competitors.
• Raising our profile and building our reputation. Externally contributing to client events and thought leadership and supporting team members to build their own market presence. Internally establishing Innovation as a go-to centre of excellence across UK and global networks, known for expertise, quality and entrepreneurial spirit.
• These are the areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role.
• Senior leadership presence - sets a clear vision, creates energy and purpose, and leads through ambiguity and change.
• Proven ownership of senior client relationships, with demonstrable success retaining and expanding strategic accounts through consultative selling, negotiation and competitive pitching.
• Strong commercial acumen: a track record of sustainable growth, with understanding of financial levers (revenue, margin, pricing) and pipeline discipline.
• Experience across the full innovation lifecycle with the ability to shape client portfolios and translate insight into strategy and execution.
• Fluency in innovation methods, and the ability to integrate them to answer business questions and evidence impact.
• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing teams: develops leaders, fosters psychological safety and inclusion, and addresses underperformance fairly.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. Synthesises complexity into compelling proposals, debriefs and outcomes.
• Strategic, growth-oriented and resilient, with high integrity, sound judgement and a commitment to action., Experience embedding technology, GenAI and automation to improve speed, quality and consistency of delivery.
• Creativity and comfort with data visualisation.
• Strong appreciation of research quality, data privacy and compliance requirements, with experience partnering with delivery and operational teams to scale work efficiently.
• Active contribution to thought leadership, client events and external profile-building.
• Demonstrable strength across Leading Self, Leading Clients and Leading People dimensions of the Ipsos leadership framework.

Behaviours

• Proactive and takes initiative
• Collaborative and client-focused
• Resilient, flexible and agile
• Analytical and creative thinker
• Curious and committed to lifelong learning
• Empathetic with strong active listening
• Self-aware and motivated
• Leads with influence and develops talent
• Service-oriented.

Ipsos is one of the world's largest research companies and currently the only one primarily managed by researchers, ranking as a #1 full-service research organization for four consecutive years. With over 75 different data-driven solutions, and presence in 90 markets, Ipsos brings together research, implementation, methodological, and subject-matter experts from around the world, combining thematic and technical experts to deliver top-quality research and insights. Simply speaking, we help the biggest companies solve some of their biggest problems, serving more than 5000 clients across the globe by providing research, data, and insights on their target markets. And we are proud of our continuous efforts in making Ipsos the best place to work!

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave
• pension contribution
• income protection and life assurance
• range health & wellbeing
• financial benefits
• professional development opportunities