Managing Director, Client Strategy & Innovation [AQ-16640]

Aquent; Redmond (WA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Aquent leads strategic and operational initiatives for a multi‑million dollar enterprise engagement with a world‑renowned brand. You will guide a cross‑functional team, shape program scope, manage P&L, and translate ideas into scalable, measurable outcomes.

As a strategic adviser to senior stakeholders, you will drive growth, expand partnerships across events, content, and marketing, and apply AI and emerging technologies to improve efficiency, quality, and impact.

Qualifications

• Leadership experience managing large enterprise engagements.
• Proven ability to translate strategy into executable programs.
• Strong financial oversight and P&L management.
• Experience guiding cross-functional teams across disciplines.
• Proven ability to develop new business and expand client partnerships.
• Experience leveraging AI to improve business workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead the overall business and creative operations for a significant enterprise engagement.
• Advise senior client stakeholders and diagnose challenges with innovative solutions.
• Build and mentor high‑performing cross‑functional teams delivering measurable outcomes.
• Own P&L, forecast, budget, profitability, and growth initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to expand partnerships across events, content, design, marketing.
• Drive programs from strategy through execution balancing quality, cost, speed, and impact.

Skills

Leadership

P&L management

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional leadership

Client relationship mgmt

AI/tech innovation

Business development

Enterprise engagements

Job description

Aquent partners with the world’s most innovative and impactful organizations, connecting them with exceptional talent to drive transformative results. We are dedicated to building high-performing teams that tackle complex challenges and deliver groundbreaking solutions for our enterprise clients. Join us in shaping the future of how leading companies operate and innovate.

Are you a visionary leader with a passion for strategy, innovation, and operational excellence? Imagine stepping into a pivotal role where your expertise directly influences the strategic direction and growth of a multi-million dollar enterprise engagement with one of the world’s most recognized companies. This isn’t just a job; it’s an opportunity to redefine how work gets done, leveraging cutting-edge technologies and new methodologies to unlock unprecedented value. You will be at the forefront of innovation, leading a dynamic team to solve complex business problems, challenge conventional thinking, and deliver measurable outcomes that propel our client’s success and shape the future of creative and operational workflows.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the overall business and creative operations for a significant enterprise engagement.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior client stakeholders, proactively diagnosing business challenges and developing innovative solutions, rather than merely responding to requests.
• Challenge assumptions and influence clients toward superior approaches based on your deep expertise, sound business judgment, and a clear understanding of their overarching goals.
• Lead complex programs from initial strategy through successful execution, meticulously balancing quality, cost, speed, resources, and business impact.
• Take full ownership of P&L management, including forecasting, budgeting, profitability, and driving growth initiatives.
• Identify and cultivate opportunities to expand our partnership across various business areas, including events, content, social media, design, and marketing.
• Build, mentor, and lead high-performing, cross-functional teams that consistently deliver exceptional results.
• Continuously evaluate current operational workflows and identify opportunities to enhance efficiency, foster creativity, improve quality, reduce costs, and achieve greater scale.
• Bring a modern, hands‑on approach to artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, identifying precisely where new tools and approaches can fundamentally improve how work is accomplished.
• Translate innovative ideas into tangible, real-world programs, pilots, and scalable solutions that drive measurable impact.
• Play a critical role in shaping the future of how creative and business services are delivered to enterprise clients.

Who You Are

We are seeking an individual with a rare blend of intellectual curiosity, strategic acumen, commercial judgment, a drive for innovation, and a proven ability to execute. You might come from consulting, an agency, creative operations, technology, or business transformation, bringing a wealth of experience in solving complex problems and leading through ambiguity. Above all, you are a builder and a doer—someone who can conceptualize a strategy, structure a solution, assemble the right team, and make it happen.

You possess a naturally curious relationship with technology, constantly experimenting, exploring, and seeking new ways technology can solve problems, both professionally and personally. You understand that true innovation lies not in using technology for its own sake, but in creating superior business outcomes.

What We Are Looking For

• Significant leadership experience in business operations, creative services, consulting, agency, technology, transformation, or related environments, with a demonstrated trajectory of increasing responsibility and impact.
• Demonstrated record of academic excellence and intellectual achievement, with evidence of succeeding in rigorous academic environments and pursuing challenging areas of study.
• Evidence of achievement and initiative beyond formal coursework—such as research, independent projects, entrepreneurship, leadership, competitive programs, technical or creative pursuits, publications, or other self-directed work.
• Proven experience managing both business and creative operations within large‑scale, enterprise‑level engagements.
• Proven experience managing multi‑million‑dollar client relationships, ideally at the $8M+ level, in complex organizations.
• Strong expertise in P&L management and financial oversight.
• Demonstrated success leading and scaling cross‑functional teams.
• Experience driving business development and expanding client partnerships.
• Deep understanding of creative, design, content, marketing, events, digital, or related ecosystems.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a strategic consultant and trusted advisor, rather than simply an account or delivery manager.
• Proven ability to understand complex or ambiguous business problems, structure solutions, and drive those solutions through execution.
• Demonstrated ability to challenge a client's initial request when appropriate and articulate a better path forward based on expertise, business judgment, and a clear understanding of the desired business outcome.
• Demonstrated ability to act as an AI and Technology Innovator, with a practical, business‑first approach to applying AI and emerging technologies.
• Hands‑on experience experimenting with or integrating AI into workflows, with a clear understanding of where it can create meaningful value.
• Strong intellectual curiosity and a demonstrated pattern of learning quickly, tackling difficult problems, and applying knowledge in new or unconventional ways.
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, influence, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong strategic thinking, problem‑solving, and decision‑making abilities.
• Demonstrated ability to take ideas from concept through execution and measurable outcome.

10+ years of experience is preferred, but not required. We are open to candidates earlier in their careers who have demonstrated an exceptional trajectory, taken on significant responsibility, and achieved at a level that indicates they are ready for this opportunity.

We are looking for candidates who have demonstrated exceptional academic performance and intellectual rigor, particularly within demanding or highly selective academic environments. We are equally interested in what candidates did beyond the classroom. This could include research, independent study, leadership, entrepreneurship, competitive programs, technical or creative projects, publications, organizations, or other pursuits that demonstrate a genuine drive to learn, explore, and accomplish more than what was required. We are less interested in a particular degree or school than in the pattern of achievement behind it.

We are looking for someone with a modern and highly curious relationship with technology. You do not need to be an AI engineer. You do need to be someone who naturally explores new technologies, experiments with tools, and thinks differently about how technology can be applied. We want someone who doesn’t wait for technology to become mainstream before exploring it and who can distinguish between technology that is genuinely useful and technology that is simply interesting.

What Will Set You Apart

• Above all, you are a builder, problem solver, and strategic thinker who can execute.
• You can engage with a client who states, “This is what we need,” and skillfully ask the necessary questions to determine if that is truly the right problem to solve.
• You possess the ability to take an ambiguous challenge, structure it, develop a robust solution, build the optimal team and operating model, and drive it through to successful execution.
• You are comfortable challenging conventional thinking, with a clear understanding that innovation is only valuable when it produces a better business outcome.
• You not only bring innovative ideas but, more importantly, you know how to transform those ideas into real programs, measurable outcomes, and repeatable capabilities.
• You are equally comfortable discussing high‑level strategy with an executive, meticulously evaluating a P&L, redesigning an operating model, experimenting with new technology, and delving into the essential details required to bring an idea to fruition.
• This role is for someone who doesn't simply ask, “What does the client want us to do?” but rather asks, “What is the client actually trying to accomplish, and what is the best, most innovative way for us to help them get there?”
• Experience working with large enterprise clients.
• Background in experiential design, creative operations, consulting, business transformation, or digital transformation initiatives.
• Experience delivering both live and digital event‑based work.
• Track record of building operational efficiencies through emerging technologies.
• Experience expanding a client relationship across multiple business units or disciplines.
• Experience across content, social, design, marketing, events, or other creative services.
• Experience in a creative agency, consulting, technology, or professional services environment.
• Experience developing new business models, operating models, or service offerings.
• Strong writing skills for proposals, thought leadership, or strategic content.

Client Description

Aquent Studios is a global creative studio that delivers scale, speed and efficiency to the world’s most recognized brands. We create the work that matters the most to them—work that has a real impact on their business. As an Aquent Studio team member, you’ll have the opportunity to engage with the largest and most influential companies in the world, solving design challenges and extending their brands across tactic types and platforms, including digital design, UI/UX, video, motion, content, print design, web development, and more. If you want to do work that matters in a collaborative setting that values ingenuity and personal growth, you have found the right place!

Other Requirements

The target hiring compensation range for this role is $130-180K + bonus potential. However, final compensation level will be determined based on experience and scope alignment.