Associate Director

About us

Tin Man is an earned first, creative comms agency offering everything from brand consultancy to creative activations, media relations to social media management, content to experiential. All of our work is designed to create powerful, emotional connections between brands and audiences.

Tin Man’s ‘communications with heart’ approach has helped change behaviour, challenge perceptions, increase brand equity and enhance bottom lines for household brands including Cadbury, OREO, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, Hilton, Vodafone, Dunelm and Tesco.

The Role

We’re looking for a talented Associate Director to join our team and play a key role in leading client relationships, driving outstanding work and developing high-performing teams.

You’ll be a confident and credible senior client lead, with a strong track record of building trusted, long-term relationships and delivering creative, impactful campaigns—ideally with experience across the FMCG sector. You’ll combine strategic thinking and commercial acumen with a passion for great communications, acting as a senior adviser to clients while inspiring and developing the teams around you.

As Associate Director, you’ll take overall responsibility for the successful delivery and development of key client programmes. You’ll set the strategic direction of accounts, identify opportunities for organic growth and work closely with clients to develop programmes that deliver against their business and communications objectives.

You will:

• Lead and develop key client accounts, building trusted senior relationships and providing confident, strategic counsel.
• Set the strategic direction of accounts, ensuring teams are aligned, motivated and delivering consistently high-quality, impactful work.
• Identify and develop opportunities for organic growth, bringing fresh thinking and new ideas to clients and contributing to the continued growth of the business.
• Bring a strong understanding of PR and the wider communications landscape, with the ability to develop and deliver integrated campaigns that place earned media and PR at their heart.
• Lead the commercial management of accounts, including budgeting, forecasting, resource planning and profitability, ensuring programmes are delivered efficiently and sustainably.
• Build strong relationships across the agency, acting as a key link between client teams and senior leadership and providing clear visibility of account performance, opportunities and challenges.
• Use your strategic and forward-thinking approach to anticipate client needs, spot opportunities and develop plans that deliver both client and business objectives.
• Have the confidence to manage commercial conversations with clients, including budgets, scope and expectations, while maintaining strong and trusted relationships.
• Lead, coach and develop high-performing teams, creating an environment where people feel supported, challenged and motivated to do their best work.
• Act as a mentor and role model across the agency, sharing your expertise and contributing to the wider development of our people and culture.
• Bring gravitas, credibility and excellent presentation skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and adapt your approach to different audiences.
• Be comfortable navigating challenges and changing priorities, responding to campaign or client issues with calmness, sound judgement and a proactive approach.

About You

We’re looking for someone who combines strategic thinking, creativity, commercial awareness and strong leadership skills. You’ll be comfortable operating at a senior level, confident advising clients and equally passionate about developing the people around you.

You’ll bring:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop compelling proposals, presentations, campaign plans and evaluations tailored to different audiences.
• A strong ability to translate client and business objectives into strategic communications plans, with creativity and a clear eye for a compelling story.
• Outstanding presentation and influencing skills, with the confidence to engage senior clients and wider business stakeholders.
• A track record of developing creative, integrated campaign ideas, from proactive media and newsjacking through to larger-scale brand moments and integrated campaigns.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with experience managing budgets, forecasting, resource and account profitability.
• Excellent judgement, with the confidence to make recommendations, challenge constructively and take ownership while knowing when to involve senior leadership.
• A strong understanding of measurement and evaluation, both in terms of campaign effectiveness and account/team performance.
• Proven experience managing and developing people, including direct line management and leading high-performing, integrated teams.
• Strong leadership, communication and interpersonal skills, with a high degree of professionalism and discretion.
• Strong organisational and digital skills, with confidence across Google Workspace and Microsoft Office. We work on Macs at Tin Man.
• A genuine passion for PR, communications and creative thinking, with the curiosity to stay ahead of industry trends and bring fresh ideas to clients.

Ultimately, we’re looking for someone who is smart, ambitious, commercially minded and autonomous. Someone who thinks ahead, builds strong relationships and is always looking for ways to create better work for our clients and our people.

Due to the high volume of applications, we can only contact those shortlisted for the role.

At Tin Man, we’re all about creativity, collaboration, and bringing out the best in people no matter who you are or where you’re from. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we’re building a workplace where everyone feels they belong and can grow.

If there’s anything (like neurodiversity, a disability, or a health condition) that might affect how you apply or take part in the hiring process, just let us know. We’ll work with you to make sure things feel fair, comfortable, and tailored to you. Sharing this won’t affect your application, we just want to set you up for success.