About this Managing Director role at AKQA

AKQA · Onsite · Milan

At AKQA (part of WPP) we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital services and applications that capture the imagination, delivering impressive returns for our clients.

We partner with our clients to create a better future, through world-leading work, constant innovation and care.

The Managing Director is responsible for developing and driving the studio's overall strategy, fostering creative excellence, and delivering commercial growth. The role will cultivate a safe, inclusive, and collaborative environment where everyone is valued, respected, and empowered to deliver their best work.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Direction: Develop and execute strategic plans for the studio.
Client Growth and Acquisition: Strategise growth with existing clients and lead new business initiatives to win new clients.
Client Relationship Management: Build and nurture strong relationships with key client stakeholders, becoming a trusted advisor and partner.
Financial Performance: Drive the studio's revenue growth, profit margin, staff utilisation, and billability targets.
Team Culture and Wellbeing: Cultivate a positive, supportive, and inspiring work environment where team members feel valued, respected, and empowered to thrive.
Leadership and Goal Setting: Provide clear direction, set challenging goals, and empower the team to reach their full potential.
Creative Excellence: Inspire the team to develop purposeful, pioneering work for our clients, fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
Team Development: Mentor and coach team members, providing regular feedback and development opportunities to enhance skills and expertise.
Budget and Risk Management: Oversee budgets, forecast accurately, and analyse financial data to identify growth opportunities and mitigate risks.
Regional Collaboration: Collaborate with the regional leadership to increase revenue, share best practices, and align on strategic initiatives.
Global Alignment: Work closely with the regional leadership to deliver AKQA global ambitions.

QUALITIES & CHARACTERISTICS:

Leadership Attitude: Lead by example, inspiring teams to excel and surpass expectations.
Market-Specific Expertise: Strong understanding of the Italian market, including cultural and business dynamics. Experience working with Italian clients and an ability to tailor strategies to the local market, as well as service global brands and businesses.
Studio or Department Leadership Experience: Prior experience leading a department or studio, with a strong track record of driving performance, managing teams, and delivering growth.
Industry Knowledge: Understanding of creative services, marketing and/or product experiences. Understanding of best-in-class, with proof of being able to elevate the experiences and products made/sold in service of moving the brand or business forward.
Strategic Sensibility: A proven hands-on leader with applied examples.
Commercial Acumen: Ability to forecast, plan, and track. Ability to balance growth with service.
Emerging Design & Technology Knowledge: Stay ahead of industry trends and possess a deep understanding of emerging technologies to guide clients towards cutting-edge solutions.
Language Skills: Proficiency in English at a business level is essential.
Hands-on Service: Comfortable getting into the details when necessary, ensuring a deep understanding of project requirements and the ability to contribute directly to the creative process.

The Gross Annual Pay range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. This reflects part of our broader group's compensation framework across diverse agencies and disciplines. For this specific role our offer will be determined based on our internal benchmark, reflecting the specific market conditions for our discipline. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including business needs, experience, level of responsibility and qualifications.

The employment contract will be governed by CCNL Aziende del Terziario distribuzione e Servizi.

Salary band

€98.000—€195.000 EUR

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

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About AKQA

CORE VALUES

Our founding values guide our work and the philosophy of our firm:

Innovation – pioneering ideas combined with the application of technology, to achieve lasting improvements in performance for our clients.

Service – outstanding service to our clients and colleagues, so we retain exceptional people and create trust-based relationships with clients.

Quality – adhere to the highest professional standards and superior quality.

Thought – recommending the best solutions through the most rigorous thinking process.

TEAMWORK

AKQA provides the highest quality ideas and innovation services to clients around the world. Our consistent track-record of results achieved for clients have set our firm apart. Through our focus on our core values, thought-leadership, rigorous delivery, and industry initiatives, AKQA is today one of the world’s most influential companies. Our goal is to become a high-performance environment where the most talented people flourish. With our perfectionist approach, people join AKQA for the opportunity to do the best work of their careers.

We create digital products, services and immersive experiences that are useful, usable, delightful and enjoyed by millions. We employ a rapid ideation and prototyping process that focuses on getting pilots into market quickly, helping clients make a sustained impact, increase their relevance and expand their connection. By embracing a pioneering approach that continues to lead and define the industry, we deliver cohesive blueprints that fulfil audience needs and surpass business goals.

LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

AKQA is committed to helping our team develop into the best possible practitioners and to providing them with an unparalleled foundation for their career. We help develop well-rounded professionals acquire leadership skills more quickly than at other organisations. Our employees benefit from the trusted long-term nature of our client relationships as well as the cultural alignment between the client and our own organisation, creating an optimum environment to deliver the work without any compromises.

ORGANISED TO SUCCEED

The core motivation at AKQA is product excellence. Although we are part of WPP, AKQA operates as an independent firm. Organically grown, our team works as a single firm, without geographic division. This means we can bring the best resources from our network to provide solutions for our clients.

In addition to our own Future Lions initiative, we have formed partnerships with many of the world’s leading universities so we can hire their best graduates. We combine youth and energy with maturity and experience to form a community that has a unique diversity of knowledge and exceptional professional judgement.

DEVELOPMENT

In addition to on-the-job training, AKQA offers a menu of training through the AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development. This comprehensive curriculum of formal training is designed to equip our team with the substantive creative, engineering, business acumen, communications, management and analytical skills required to have professionally rewarding careers. AKQA Academy and WPP Professional Development courses are taught by leaders in their fields including AKQA’s own senior team and respected external experts.

To maintain the continuous focus on our core values, and provide a clear career path for our team, all of our Managing Directors and Executive Partners are promoted from within AKQA.

All AKQA employees and clients are invited to participate in the AKQA Insight and AKQA Tech.Insight thought leadership programmes. These comprise a series of informative lectures and Q&A sessions with authors, artists, athletes, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs who are recognised leaders in their respective disciplines.

DIVERSITY

We believe that diversity is vital to AKQA’s ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. We provide our employees with the canvas, tools and confidence to help them advance their careers in a way that best suits them.

SUSTAINABILITY

At AKQA we believe everything a company does should be about taking the responsibility to be respectful towards the community and the environment. We consider community and pro-bono work to be an important commitment of our employees. We encourage our team to devote their skills to a broad range of pro-bono and community activities, working with myriad charitable and not-for-profit organisations. AKQA is part of WPP’s Sustainability initiatives. WPP is ranked no. 49 in an annual round-up of the World’s Greenest Companies.