Commercial Lead

Verve | United Playgrounds; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Verve | United Playgrounds is seeking a Commercial Lead to own the agency’s pipeline, pitches and client growth. You’ll turn opportunities into high-impact work with the founders, strategists and creative directors.

You will move deals forward, sharpen proposals and shape the offer, aiming to grow revenue from ~€3M to beyond €5M while maintaining work quality. This is a senior, non-corporate role in a fast-growing, international agency.

Qualifications

• 5 to 12 years of relevant commercial experience.
• At least 3 years in an agency, consultancy, studio or comparable professional services environment.
• Proven experience owning a pipeline and closing meaningful deals.
• Experience with senior (B2B) clients, ideally in tech, brand, design, strategy or digital.
• Strong proposal and pitch skills.
• Fluent English. Most of our clients are international.
• Financial literacy. You understand revenue, margin, scope, budget pressure and commercial trade-offs.
• Affinity with brand, design or technology. You do not need to be a strategist or creative, but you do need to respect the craft.

Responsibilities

• Own the commercial pipeline: inbound warm leads, partner leads and existing-client opportunities.
• Lead larger pitches and proposals from first conversation to close.
• Help decide which opportunities are right for Verve, and which ones are not.
• Work with strategist-and-creative-director duos to sharpen commercial thinking around accounts, upsell and long-term client relationships.
• Keep the founders close to the right opportunities, without making every commercial decision dependent on him.
• Improve the rhythm around pipeline meetings, forecasting, proposal quality and follow-up.
• Watch the numbers: revenue targets, project value, margin, conversion and account potential.
• Help Verve grow from around 3 million to beyond 5 million in revenue, without lowering the bar for the work.

Skills

Pipeline management

Closing deals

Senior client experience

Fluent English

Proposal & pitch skills

Financial literacy

Brand/design affinity

Job description

You are a commercial operator who understands that in branding, nothing sells itself. You think in pipelines, not in briefs. You bring structure to opportunity and conviction to the room. You know how to take a warm lead and turn it into the right kind of work, the kind an agency is proud of, at a value that reflects what it's worth. You close, but never at the expense of the work.

About Verve

Verve is a strategic digital branding agency for tech companies. We build brands for companies with international ambition. Around 70% of our clients are based outside the Netherlands.

We are a team of 35+ people and a clear ambition: to become one of the top rebranding agencies in the world. Verve is part of United Playgrounds, a group of independent boutique agencies.

We are looking for someone who can take full ownership of our commercial engine: pipeline, pitches, proposals, client growth and revenue quality..

The Role

As Commercial Lead, you own Verve's pipeline.

You know what is coming in, what needs to move, where we are stuck, and what needs to close. You work closely with the founders, strategists and creative directors to turn strong opportunities into the right kind of work for Verve.

This is not a classic account management role. We are not looking for someone who keeps clients warm and waits for briefs. We are looking for someone who creates commercial momentum, sharpens opportunities, helps shape the offer, and closes.

You will also help bring more commercial discipline into the agency: better forecasting, clearer ownership, stronger proposals, cleaner handovers and sharper account growth.

What You Will Do

• You own the commercial pipeline: inbound warm leads, partner leads and existing-client opportunities.
• You lead larger pitches and proposals from first conversation to close.
• You help decide which opportunities are right for Verve, and which ones are not.
• You work with strategist-and-creative-director duos to sharpen commercial thinking around accounts, upsell and long-term client relationships.
• You keep the founders close to the right opportunities, without making every commercial decision dependent on him.
• You improve the rhythm around pipeline meetings, forecasting, proposal quality and follow-up.
• You watch the numbers: revenue targets, project value, margin, conversion and account potential.
• You help Verve grow from around 3 million to beyond 5 million in revenue, without lowering the bar for the work.

What Sits Outside This Role

• Creative accountability sits with our Executive Creative Director.
• Verve's positioning, public voice and external thought leadership stay with the founder.
• You do not run the whole agency: You run the commercial side of the business, and you make it sharper.

Who You Are

• You are commercially sharp and comfortable taking the lead.
• You know how to move a deal forward.
• You understand that in branding, the sale is consultative. Clients need trust, clarity and conviction before they commit.
• You are direct. You say what needs to be said to clients, colleagues and the founders.
• You can handle ambiguity. Verve has structure, but it is not corporate.
• You build trust quickly with senior clients and senior creative people.
• You care about the quality of the work, not just the value of the deal.
• You like ownership. If the pipeline is unclear, you make it clear. If a proposal is weak, you fix it. If a lead is going cold, you act

What You Bring

• 5 to 12 years of relevant commercial experience.
• At least 3 years in an agency, consultancy, studio or comparable professional services environment.
• Proven experience owning a pipeline and closing meaningful deals.
• Experience with senior (B2B) clients, ideally in tech, brand, design, strategy or digital.
• Strong proposal and pitch skills.
• Fluent English. Most of our clients are international.
• Financial literacy. You understand revenue, margin, scope, budget pressure and commercial trade-offs.
• Affinity with brand, design or technology. You do not need to be a strategist or creative, but you do need to respect the craft.

This is not for you if

• You are good at relationship management but do not close & You prefer to support commercial work rather than own it.
• You need a fully built sales machine before you can perform.
• You are looking for a general management role.
• You want to make creative decisions. This is a commercial role in a creative business.
• You come from a corporate environment and need heavy process to feel comfortable.

What We Offer

• A senior commercial role with real ownership.
• Direct partnership with the founder.
• A respected agency with a clear international growth ambition.
• A team of 35+ mostly senior people.
• A high bar, direct communication and little room for theatre.

Competitive Compensation Based On Experience And Fit.

A possible path to equity over time, depending on performance and fit within the United Playgrounds structure..

Our culture

We choose depth over noise, clarity over cleverness, and momentum over perfectionism. We say no to the wrong briefs. We push hard on the right ones. Our values are Love, Sense and Challenge.

We work in-person at least four days a week, Amsterdam or The Hague, with up to six weeks a year from anywhere in the world.

Salary based on experience.

p.s. We use AI a lot ourselves and we understand the temptation. For this application we want to hear you. A rough, opinionated answer beats a polished one every tim.