Associate Director, Digital PR
You own Digital PR agency-wide through expertise and standards rather than line management. You carry a commercial number for the discipline without owning the team that delivers it. You continue to own the discipline's most strategic client accounts directly. You set the direction of the agency's expertise in digital PR and represent it externally.
How this role differs
You move from shaping the agency through expertise to owning a discipline agency-wide, including a commercial number, without owning the headcount that delivers it.
Both roles own the discipline agency-wide. The Associate Director holds it through expertise, standards and external standing. The Head of Digital PR holds it through the team, including resourcing, performance and succession.
Roles and responsibilities
- Lead the specialist development of the Digital PR offer, defining its value to clients and recommending how services should evolve.
- Work with the Head of Digital PR to shape scope, pricing and positioning, making sure services are credible, competitive and deliverable.
- Own agreed commercial targets for specialist-led new business, consultancy or service growth, with delivery capacity agreed with the relevant managers.
- Set agency-wide strategic, creative and outreach methods, using evidence to establish which approaches should be adopted, improved or retired.
- Provide senior counsel on the agency's most complex client challenges, shaping strategies that connect Digital PR activity to business goals and measurable outcomes.
- Lead the specialist case in major pitches and senior client conversations, explaining the value of the proposed approach and setting realistic expectations.
- Work with SEO, Data & Insights and AI visibility leaders to develop integrated services with clear responsibilities and shared measures of success.
- Identify the capabilities Digital PR will need over the next twelve months, and recommend investment in expertise, tools, partnerships and training.
- Develop senior specialists, and make sure expertise becomes practical guidance that teams can apply consistently.
- Build the agency's external authority through original thinking, speaking, publishing and industry relationships that support reputation and commercial growth.
- Continue to own the discipline's most strategic client accounts directly, doing the expert work on them yourself.
Entry requirements
Gateway skills needed at 8+ in the previous role to step into this one (proposed).
How this role is weighted
Immediate growth path
Paths converge. Accountable for agency direction and results.
Owns a function agency-wide, including its commercial performance. Same level, no drop in title or reward.