Client Lead

Role Overview

The Client Lead makes sure client work is delivered on time, on budget and to a high standard. You are the day-to-day point of contact on your accounts and the person who holds them together across every channel working on them.

You work across several accounts at once as part of a pooled Client Lead team, allocated to accounts by workload. Your focus is delivery and the client’s day-to-day experience: turning briefs into clear, well-run work, keeping it moving through the agency, tracking budgets and account margin, and staying accountable for whether the work hits its targets. It is a senior, client-facing role that combines hands-on ownership of delivery with enough channel knowledge to make decisions and challenge the work.

Purpose

• Own the operational success of your accounts: work delivered on time, on budget and to target.
• Act as the named day-to-day client contact, owning the communication rhythm and the client experience between strategic touchpoints.
• Be the connective tissue between the brief and the delivery, translating briefs into clear deliverables, targets and timelines.
• Keep work flowing through the agency by removing blockers and resolving competing priorities.
• Protect account margin day to day, flagging over-servicing and scope creep before they land.

Responsibilities

Brief Intake and Set-Up

• Take ownership of briefs, working with channel specialists to define deliverables, targets and timelines.
• Translate what has been agreed into a deliverable plan, flagging gaps or misalignment before work starts.
• Run kick-off and onboarding for new work, ensuring the right people are involved at the right points.

Delivery Ownership

• Own timelines, milestones and delivery coordination across your accounts; there is no separate project management layer behind you.
• Monitor delivery against client objectives, flag issues early and coordinate the response when performance is off track.
• Bring enough channel knowledge to sense-check delivery proposals and challenge misalignment with the client’s goals.
• Specialists own their own tickets and the quality of their work; you QA delivery against the plan and escalate when guidance is not being followed.

Client Communication

• Act as the named primary point of contact on assigned accounts, attending client calls and meetings as the day-to-day owner.
• Let specialists speak directly to the client on their own work, while you keep the overall conversation joined up and on track.
• Support the account’s senior relationship owner at QBRs and strategic reviews.
• Own the client portal as the primary communication and visibility tool on your accounts, keeping it the single source of truth for work in flight.

Working with the Client Partner/ Revenue Owner

• Keep the account’s revenue owner continuously up to speed on delivery health, risks and growth signals through a regular rhythm; they should never need to shadow the account to know its state.
• Handle scope and over-servicing conversations at working level with the client and specialists; escalate to the revenue owner when the resolution is commercial (scope change, fees, contract).
• Escalate anything threatening retention on a Tier 1 or 2 account to the Revenue owner within 24 hours.
• Highlight growth opportunities to the revenue lead where possible

Budget and Account Margin

• Track budgets, hours and resource against client commitments, proactively flagging overruns or underspend.
• Carry account margin day to day: spot over-servicing and scope creep early and raise them with the account’s senior relationship owner.
• Flag risks and growth signals from the day-to-day work to the account’s senior relationship owner.

Flow of Work

• Remove blockers and keep work moving across the agency.
• Raise resource conflicts through the weekly resourcing pass and make practical calls on sequencing within your accounts.
• Keep delivery data (Forecast, the client portal) accurate and up to date.

Requirements

• Strong operational instincts: able to hold multiple accounts together, sequence work and keep delivery on track under competing demands.
• Enough channel knowledge across SEO, paid media, creative and wider digital to sense-check work and make informed calls, without needing to be a specialist in any one.
• Confident, credible client communicator, able to own the day-to-day relationship and represent the work clearly.
• Commercially aware: understands budgets, margin and the difference between delivering activity and delivering results.
• Comfortable taking ownership, making decisions and holding others to deadlines and standards.
• Shows radical candour: gives praise, motivational feedback and constructive challenge as each is needed.
• Thrives in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities and multiple stakeholders.

Marketing

In this role, you will be expected to contribute both independently and collaboratively at the department level to drive the overall success of our marketing efforts. You will play an active role in thought leadership initiatives that support lead generation and help maximise the department’s impact. This includes contributing to a range of activities such as blogging, content creation, event support, and other marketing tasks.

• Collaborate with the marketing team to provide insights and ideas for campaigns and content.
• Stay informed on the latest digital marketing trends, sharing knowledge with colleagues and clients.
• Be involved with thought leadership initiatives, promoting yourself and Hallam through a variety of channels.

Workplace Culture

At Hallam, we believe that a positive and inclusive workplace culture is the foundation of our success. Every employee plays a crucial role in fostering this environment by embodying and promoting our company values in their daily work and interactions.

• Uphold and embody the agency’s core values in daily work and interactions with clients and colleagues.
• Promote a positive, inclusive and dynamic workplace environment.
• Support initiatives that enhance employee engagement, learning and well-being.

DEI

At Hallam, we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered. Regardless of your role, you will be responsible for contributing to this culture by embracing diversity, promoting equity, and supporting an inclusive environment where different perspectives are encouraged and respected.

• Foster inclusivity by being a welcoming and respectful colleague, valuing diverse perspectives and treating all colleagues, clients and stakeholders with dignity and respect.
• Promote equal opportunities by supporting initiatives that ensure all team members have equal access to growth, development and advancement.
• Challenge bias by recognising and addressing unconscious bias and fostering open dialogue about diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Be an ally to underrepresented groups by listening, advocating and actively participating in efforts to create a more inclusive workplace.