What behaviours we need from you:

As Senior Planning Director you and your team are the heartbeat of the agency. You will be a calm and assured, motivated individual with an attitude and mindset to convey real care, craft, and creativity.

For your team, you will be a leading figure, and someone that will play a pivotal role in motivating those around you, bridging the requirements of both the client and wider agency. You will:

• Effectively manages upwards; builds positive cross functional relationships, provides solutions when escalating issues, anticipates the needs of the wider team
• Works with specialist team leads to manage hours dedicated to the account to ensure profitability
• Effectively communicates upwards account challenges and suggests structural changes to retainer/contract
• Takes a proactive view to talent management within the team, optimising the development of others by employing a variety of internal and external tools and resources. e.g. Campus, Equalize, IPA
• Can work with the HR team when required to manage and resolve conflict situations, escalate welfare concerns and deal with team personnel issues, and if required to, is confident in disciplinary matters

For your clients, you are representing the best of Havas. The face of our offering and someone that can build brilliant, trusted relationships based on exceptional work and genuine interest in their business. You will be someone who:

• Identifies commercial opportunities for the client that aligns to wider agency goals and initiatives
• Can make commercial decisions guided by strategic business plans and recommendations.
• Can develop and apply market and economic understanding and insight to support commercial decision making and recommendations
• Independently engages in tasks which require a high degree of interpretation of complex information
• Can articulate to their team how business priorities, client demands, and other commercial considerations influence our work, whilst proactively managing risk

Role Competencies:

The successful candidate will be able to deliver upon the following:

• Uses experience and industry knowledge to identify planning, strategic and where appropriate, commercials improvements to client and Havas.
• Ensures that all strategic and annual planning includes 'Source of Growth' analysis, supported by analytics teams' benchmarks and contributions
• Has a clear understanding of products and services within Havas and how they can help clients to meet their short- and long-term business objectives
• Produces innovative ideas which may lead to award-nominated work
• Able to provide direction in use of tools to interrogate hypotheses or provide direction
• Able to critically evaluate sources and contradictory information and draw conclusions from multiple sources of information
• Can make clear, evidence-based judgements on a range of topics related to their area of expertise
• Can create clear measurement frameworks and set out guidance for appropriate KPIs to assess the viability of plans
• Supports others to see the bigger picture, encouraging thinking that goes beyond their own role and team

What’s on offer from Havas:

We want you to do the best work of your career. To support you in managing your career, as well as your commitments and priorities in your life. We have created a modern, market leading approach to personal benefits, wellbeing, and care:

• We have shown at Havas, that we can all work productively in a new Hybrid manner – this is a Manchester based role, with us typically in the office 3 days a week, 2 days from home.
• To give you even more flexibility, and support a better balance between work and life, Havas employees are given the opportunity to work remotely from anywhere in the world for up to 4 weeks per calendar year.
• Alongside a generous holiday allocation and birthday off, we are all allocated one day per quarter as mental health days. These are simply days you can take off, guilt free and without eating into your holiday allowance.
• We have modernised and introduced a market leading parental package for our employees. The Parental Life at Havas policy enhances, broadens, and encourages the uptake of parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, type of relationship, type of parentship or any other potentially defining characteristic.
• We also haven’t forgotten about those benefits that make a meaningful difference to you personally, from a Rental Deposit Loan (so you can secure your new place), season ticket loan to ease travel and free mortgage advice for the getting on the property ladder we have you covered and much more!
• We haven’t lost the fun stuff either, subsidised gym membership, social club, bar nights, early Friday finishes

We work in a hybrid working model – in office and remotely Current policy is for minimum 3 days in office. Office Location: Manchester – Havas Media office Role Tenure: 12 months fixed contract, maternity cover.