Managing Director, Client Strategy & Innovation AQ

This role is HYBRID.

Location:

Puget Sound [Hybrid]. Aquent Studios is seeking a Managing Director, Client Strategy & Innovation to lead a multimillion-dollar enterprise engagement with a global technology client who can drive both business growth and operational excellence. This is not a traditional account management role. We’re looking for someone who can think strategically, solve complex business problems, lead large teams, manage a multimillion-dollar P&L, and rethink how work gets done.

You’ll serve as a strategic consultant and trusted partner to senior client stakeholders, helping them move beyond what they think they need toward the solutions that will drive better business outcomes. You are a leader who can critically evaluate how work is being done and identify opportunities to push it forward through thoughtful application of AI, emerging technologies, automation, and new ways of working.

You’ll play a critical role in transforming how creative and operational workflows evolve. Your leadership will directly influence revenue growth, client satisfaction, cost efficiency, innovation, and the future direction of one of Aquent Studios’ most strategic enterprise engagements.

• Lead the overall business and creative operations of a multimillion-dollar client engagement.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior client stakeholders, diagnosing business challenges and developing solutions—not simply responding to requests.
• Challenge assumptions and influence clients toward better approaches based on expertise, business judgment, and a clear understanding of their goals.
• Lead complex programs from strategy through execution, balancing quality, cost, speed, resources, and business impact.
• Own P&L, forecasting, budgeting, profitability, and growth.
• Identify opportunities to expand the partnership across events, content, social, design, marketing, and other business areas.
• Build and lead high-performing, cross-functional teams.
• Continuously evaluate how work is being done and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, creativity, quality, cost, and scale.
• Bring a modern, hands-on approach to AI and emerging technology, identifying where new tools and approaches can fundamentally improve how work gets done.
• Turn innovative ideas into real-world programs, pilots, and scalable solutions.
• Help shape the future of how Aquent Studios delivers creative and business services to enterprise clients.

We’re looking for someone with an unusual combination of intellectual curiosity, strategic thinking, commercial judgment, innovation, and execution. You may come from consulting, agency, creative operations, technology, business transformation, or another environment where you've had to solve complex problems and lead through ambiguity. Most importantly, you are a builder and a doer. You can develop the strategy, structure the solution, get the right people involved, and make it happen.

You also have a naturally curious relationship with technology. You don’t simply use the tools your company provides—you experiment, explore, and look for new ways technology can solve problems, both professionally and personally. You understand that innovation isn’t about using technology for technologys sake; it’ss about creating better outcomes.

• Significant leadership experience in business operations, creative services, consulting, agency, technology, transformation, or related environments, with a demonstrated trajectory of increasing responsibility and impact.
• Demonstrated record of academic excellence and intellectual achievement, with evidence of succeeding in rigorous academic environments and pursuing challenging areas of study.
• Evidence of achievement and initiative…