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Planning Business Director
We are hiring a Planning Business Director to lead planning across one of our most high-profile UK client partnerships, Haleon, on a 12-month fixed-term contract. This role plays a central part in bringing together strategy, media, creativity and data to deliver work that drives meaningful business outcomes. You’ll take ownership of direction, raise the bar for planning quality and help shape how we work across the UK and Ireland. If you enjoy connecting people, ideas and impact, this is a role where your influence will be visible and valued.
What you’ll be doing
- Owning the overall planning direction for the UK Haleon business, ensuring work clearly aligns to business and marketing priorities
- Acting as a trusted senior partner to Haleon stakeholders, offering clear thinking, challenge and strategic guidance
- Leading key planning moments such as annual planning and QBRs, focusing on insight, clarity and momentum
- Bringing together teams across planning, media, digital, commerce, investment and strategy to deliver joined-up solutions
- Maintaining high standards of planning quality, stepping in to unblock challenges and manage risk when needed
- Improving ways of working through collaboration, test-and-learn thinking and continuous improvement
- Connecting strong UK planning into NEU and global conversations so ideas travel further and land with impact
Skills we’re looking for
- Strong experience in planning or media strategy, working across brand and performance activity
- Confidence managing complexity, with the ability to balance multiple brands, stakeholders and priorities
- A collaborative leadership approach that provides clarity, direction and support to teams
- The ability to communicate ideas clearly and influence at a senior client and internal level
- Commercial awareness, with a clear link between planning decisions and business outcomes
- Curiosity and adaptability, with a solutions-focused mindset
- A genuine commitment to inclusive, open and collaborative ways of working
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
See breakdownIt searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Additional Information
Spark Foundry offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees. Full details are shared when you join, but highlights include core benefits such as Pension, Life Assurance, and Private Medical cover, alongside enhanced policies like Reflection Days and Shared Parental Leave. You’ll also have access to a range of additional initiatives, including:
📖 Please check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG’s (Employee Action Groups).
Publicis Groupe works primarily from the office or our clients' office four days per week.
At Spark Foundry, we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.
We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We’ll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.
Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.
Company Description


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Who We Are in the UK?
Spark Foundry, the Acceleration Agency.
We help brands to identify, learn and respond to opportunities faster than the competition.
Every client has an area of their business they need to accelerate, from short-term goals to long-term transformation.
We’ve proven our approach during the most difficult year on record. Now we’re using it to provide a launchpad for their future.
Come be an accelerator with us.
How We Accelerate
- Planning: an approach that works in practice rather than theory, arming planners with the ability to create cutting-edge campaigns
- Intelligence: a suite of tools that give definitive answers to big questions, and uncovers actionable insights about real people
- Trading: a model built on flexibility and trusted relationships, underpinned with bold guarantees
- Relationships: a culture of asking challenging questions to better understand the brief – we are not a ‘yes’ agency
- People: a strong history of recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds and accelerating their careers
Our Commitment
We are diverse though our experience, people and the clients we look after - and we celebrate that diversity. Our people hold us accountable to our beliefs and via regular surveys and our grass roots D&I team, The Collective, and internal next generation board, Firestarters, we hold regular events and work continually towards generating ideas, initiatives and educating our people to ensure we are a diverse and inclusive agency.
As part of our dedication to create an inclusive and diverse workforce, Spark Foundry is committed to equal access to opportunity for people without regard to race, age, sex, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
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