Digital Strategy Manager

Craft Agency Ltd; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work schedule

Bonus scheme

25 days leave + bank holidays

Training and development budget

Team socials and outings

Job summary

Craft Agency Ltd is seeking a Digital Lead to define and own the digital discipline within a B2B agency. You will set the direction for a new department, shaping the digital proposition across SEO, paid media, analytics, websites and email.

You will lead a team, manage external partners, and drive digital growth including new business pitches, with a strong focus on complex, considered purchases and long-term client value.

Qualifications

• Eight+ years in digital marketing, currently in a B2B agency setting.
• Experience leading a small team and managing external partners.
• Hands-on breadth across the digital toolkit: SEO, paid media, analytics, websites and email.

Responsibilities

• Define and own digital strategy for a retained base of clients.
• Set the strategic direction and technical standards for the new department.
• Oversee digital performance from workshops to always-on activity and drive new business pitches.
• Hire, mentor and develop the team as it grows; run the function.

Skills

Digital leadership

B2B marketing

Team management

New business

SEO

Paid media

Analytics

Email marketing

AI Search

Job description

You’ll be the first person to own digital as a discipline at this B2B agency, setting the direction for a department that doesn’t yet exist. Most digital lead roles hand you an established team, a fixed remit, and someone else’s playbook. This one hands you the mandate to define what digital means here.

This is an agency that has already built a strategic methodology, refined over two decades and more than 200 planning processes for industrial, science and technology businesses. You’ll be applying and evolving that framework, not working to a generic planning model.

The Role

You’ll own digital strategy across a retained base of global industrial, science and technology clients. Reporting to the Managing Director, you’ll set the strategic direction and technical standards for the department as it scales. That means shaping the digital proposition, defining integrated strategies across SEO, paid media, analytics, websites and email, and moving the agency into emerging areas like AI Search (AEO and GEO).

You’ll oversee digital performance across the full portfolio, from discovery workshops through to always-on activity, working alongside client services, content and design. You’ll also lead the digital element of new business pitches, identify growth within existing accounts, and hire, mentor and develop the team as it grows. This is a function to run, not a channel to manage.

The Package

• £45,000 – £55,000
• Hybrid working: 2 days a week in the office
• Company bonus scheme
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Dedicated training and development budget
• Quarterly socials and monthly team outings

The Person

You have at least eight years in digital marketing, currently in a B2B agency, likely a Digital Lead, Senior Strategist or Strategy Director. Your background is in complex, considered-purchase categories rather than fast-moving consumer work.

You have hands‑on breadth across the digital toolkit: you’ve led a small team and managed external partners, you’ve owned the digital side of new business, and now you’re ready to run a function.