NAVIGATOR
Director of Agency Operations
Location
London
Reports To
Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPO)
Direct Reports
Head of Paid Media, Head of Ad Operations, Head of Programme Delivery
Role Overview
Build and run the accountability and visibility infrastructure for Navigator’s agency operation. Establish the ceremonies, frameworks, and reporting that give senior management clear sight of capacity, utilisation, time allocation, and client-driven needs across all agency functions. This role exists to ensure leadership can answer four questions at any time: What is the team working on? How much capacity do we have? Where are the bottlenecks? What does the business need next?
Key Responsibilities
* Accountability Frameworks: Design accountability structures with clear ownership, deadlines, KPIs, and escalation protocols across campaign delivery, ad operations, and programme delivery
* Ceremonies & Cadence: Build the operational rhythm — standups, weekly reviews, monthly business reviews — ensuring every ceremony produces a decision, status update, or capacity report
* Visibility & Reporting: Produce weekly capacity, utilisation, and time allocation reports; build a self-serve dashboard or report pack so senior management never needs to chase for operational data
* Capacity Planning: Track capacity against current and incoming demand; model resource needs against pipeline; recommend hiring, freelancer, or reallocation decisions based on data
* Client Demand Intelligence: Analyse patterns in client briefs to surface productization opportunities and feed demand intelligence to the CPO for product and platform decisions
* Data Quality: Ensure operational data standards support platform intelligence requirements and meet the quality bar for ML training data
* People Management: Line manage three department heads; run performance cadence, handle workload balancing, and present an underperformance plan to CPO by end of month two
Requirements
* 5–7 years in agency operations, delivery management, or resource/capacity planning
* Proven track record building operational cadences and reporting frameworks from scratch
* Strong data skills — capacity models, utilisation tracking, clear executive-level presentation
* Experience managing multiple team leads or department heads
* Understanding of digital advertising operations: paid social, search, programmatic
* Familiarity with project management tools (Monday.com or similar)
* Comfortable holding people accountable through structure, not authority
Success Metrics
* Accountability framework documented and live within 30 days; full ceremony cadence operational within 45 days
* Weekly capacity and utilisation report delivered to senior management from week four
* Client demand pipeline tracked and reported monthly from month two
* First productization recommendation based on demand patterns by month three
* CPO time spent on agency operations reduced by 70%+ within the first quarter