Operational Lead - Auto

Key Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & People Management
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of account, project, and operational professionals within the Automotive division.
• Conduct regular one-to-one meetings, performance reviews, and development conversations.
• Create clear career development pathways and identify training opportunities to support employee growth.
• Foster a positive, collaborative, and high-performing team culture.
• Support employee engagement, retention, wellbeing, and professional development initiatives.
• Manage performance issues effectively and constructively, ensuring clear expectations and accountability.
• Resource Planning & Workforce Management
• Own team resource allocation and capacity planning across automotive accounts and programmes.
• Ensure workloads are balanced and aligned with team capabilities and business priorities.
• Identify future resource requirements and support recruitment activities where needed.
• Manage freelance and contract resource requirements in partnership with senior leadership and HR.
• Monitor utilisation and productivity metrics, making recommendations to optimise team performance.
• Operational Excellence
• Establish and maintain effective operational processes, frameworks, and ways of working across the Automotive team.
• Drive consistency in project governance, documentation, reporting, and team processes.
• Identify operational challenges and implement solutions that improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Champion best practice and continuous improvement initiatives across the department.
• Develop and monitor key performance indicators to measure team effectiveness and operational health.
• Stakeholder Management
• Build strong relationships with senior internal stakeholders across Client Services, Production, Finance, HR, and Leadership teams.
• Act as the primary escalation point for team-related operational challenges.
• Collaborate with department leaders to ensure alignment on priorities, resource requirements, and business objectives.
• Support strategic planning initiatives and departmental decision-making.
• Financial & Commercial Oversight
• Support workforce budgeting and resource forecasting activities.
• Monitor team utilisation and contribute to departmental financial planning.
• Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency and maximise profitability through effective resource management.
• Ensure operational decisions align with broader commercial objectives.
• Continuous Improvement & Capability Building
• Drive operational improvement projects that enhance team performance and employee experience.
• Develop onboarding programmes and frameworks for new team members.
• Promote knowledge sharing, collaboration, and best practice across the Automotive team.
• Identify skills gaps and implement development plans to strengthen team capabilities.

Job requirements

• The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate the below experience:
• Significant experience in a leadership or operational management role within an events agency, marketing agency, or client services environment.
• Previous experience of managing projects to understand the full project life cycle to enable team support in solving project challenges
• Proven track record of managing and developing high-performing teams.
• Strong resource planning, workforce management, and organisational skills.
• Experience implementing operational processes and driving efficiency improvements.
• Excellent communication, coaching, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Commercial awareness and understanding of agency operations.
• Experience working within automotive-focused agency teams.
• Knowledge of agency resource management systems and project planning tools.
• Experience leading organisational change or transformation initiatives.
• Coaching, leadership, or people management qualifications.

Key Competencies

What Success Looks Like

Employee Benefits

• 25 days annual leave, plus usual Bank Holidays
• Birthday day off
• Private Health Insurance*
• Workplace pension scheme
• Death in service scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Hybrid working arrangement
• Regular social events
• *Upon successful completion of a 6-month probation period

Our Principles

Diversity at Strata