Company Description

Publicis Groupe Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, the second largest communications group in the world and a global leader concentrated within four main activities: Communication, Media, Data and Technology. Publicis Groupe Canada represents the vision of a set of collaborative and integrated agencies that offer expertise and insightful services to many of the biggest brands in North America. Publicis Groupe Canada is committed to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mandate which focuses on four pillars: Education, Talent Management, Outreach and Giving Back. Since the mandate's launch in 2020, they have made strong and continued growth in all their pillars including top-tier mental health benefits, regular education sessions for employees, six business resources groups for employees of various backgrounds and their allies and developing training and scholarships programs with POV and the Miami Ad School Canada. The Groupe also launched This Is The Job, an initiative designed to work with Canada's largest school boards to change the complexion of the marketing industry and inspire racialized teens and young adults to consider a career in the industry.

Canadian brands include: Publicis Canada (Publicis Canada, Hawkeye, Razorfish, Publicis Health, ThePubProductions, Nurun, Publicis Sports & Entertainment), Publicis Media (Starcom, Spark Foundry, Zenith), Leo Burnett (Leo Burnett Canada, Ove Brand Design, Leo Burnett Design), Saatchi & Saatchi (Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, Synergize, TPM),MSL Canada/North Strategic (North Strategic, MSL Canada, Notch Canada) and Publicis Sapient.

Overview

We’re on the hunt for a SVP Client Leadership who believes the best client partnerships canprove that social isn’t simply a channel, it’s one of the most powerful creative and commercialengines for modern brands. Based in Toronto, you will lead a client department for a fast-growing, social-first creativeagency operating within one of the world’s largest agency networks. You will shape our clientexperience and operating model while helping demonstrate the value of social to seniormarketers, business leaders, and agency partners alike. This isn’t about account management;it’s about becoming an indispensable business partner to our clients, an advocate for the powerof social, and the connective tissue between our agency and the broader network around us.

What makes this opportunity unique is the environment we’re building within. We have thespeed, entrepreneurial energy, and specialist expertise of a growing social agency alongside thescale, relationships, capabilities, and complexity of a much larger network. You will help usharness the best of both—building strong partnerships across agencies and disciplines,navigating competing priorities with confidence, and creating integrated ways of working thatmake our social expertise more valuable, not less distinctive.

We’re a growing agency, which means we need visionary builders, not passengers. You will helpturn early momentum into a scalable business: growing client relationships, strengtheningcommercial performance, building the right operating infrastructure, and ensuring quality keepspace with growth. Critically,



you will help move social upstream—earning our agency a seat atbigger client conversations and continually demonstrating how social-first thinking can drivecreative effectiveness, cultural relevance, and business growth.

Responsibilities

Client Partnership & Social Advocacy: Build deep, trusted relationships with senior clientstakeholders, serving as a strategic advisor while continually demonstrating the creative andcommercial value of social. Help move social upstream into annual planning, brand strategy,and integrated marketing decisions rather than allowing it to become a downstream executionalchannel. Commercial Leadership: Own agency revenue, forecasting, scoping, and organic growthacross the client portfolio. Translate the effectiveness of our work into stronger clientinvestment, expanded mandates, and sustainable long-term growth.

Scaling the Agency: Co-create the operational infrastructure required for a rapidly growingagency, balancing entrepreneurial speed with increasingly sophisticated resource planning,governance, financial discipline, and delivery standards.

Creative Stewardship: Protect the ambition and integrity of social-first creative thinking.Challenge briefs, elevate strategic quality, and ensure social ideas are built for how peopleactually behave and participate in platforms—not simply adapted from broader campaigns.Network Leadership: Build trusted relationships across a complex network of agency leadersand specialist partners across the Groupe in North America. Navigate overlapping capabilities,competing priorities, and different operating models with diplomacy and clarity, creatingcollaboration models that unlock the strength of the broader network while protecting theagency’s distinct expertise and accountability.

Integration & Orchestration: Bring together the right capabilities across creative, strategy,media, influence, data, production, and technology around client opportunities. Establish clearroles, ways of working, and decision-making structures so integration accelerates great workrather than adding complexity.

Growth & New Business: Identify opportunities where social-first thinking can solve largerclient challenges, leading organic growth and contributing to integrated network pitches thatexpand both the agency’s remit and influence.

People Leadership & Culture: Lead, coach, and develop the client department throughhiring, performance management, mentorship, succession planning, and culture-building whilefostering an environment grounded in accountability, collaboration, and inclusion.Cross-Functional Integration: Partner proactively with leaders across strategy, creative,content, community, influencer, production, media, and analytics to create integrated teams,stronger collaboration, and better client outcomes.

Qualifications

Social-First Leadership: Deep understanding of social as a creative, cultural, andcommercial discipline, with the ability to articulate its value to senior clients and ensure socialexpertise influences broader brand and business decisions. Network Navigation:



Proven success operating within a large, matrixed agency orholding-company environment, with the political acuity, generosity, and confidence to alignmultiple senior stakeholders while protecting clear accountability and moving work forward.Builder Mentality: Experience helping build, transform, or rapidly scale an agency, practice,or capability, with an understanding of how operating models, talent, commercial discipline,and culture need to evolve as a business grows.

Executive Track: 15+ years of experience leading client services, integrated accounts, oragency operations within a creative, social, digital, or integrated agency environment, includingproven success leading senior client relationships and high-performing teams.

Commercial Acumen: Demonstrated success managing agency revenue, profitability,forecasting, scoping, and organic growth while maintaining a deep understanding of agencyeconomics and client P&Ls.;

Operational Excellence: Proven experience building scalable operating models, improvingdelivery systems, and leading organizational change that enhances both efficiency and quality.Executive Presence: Outstanding communication, negotiation, and storytelling skills, withthe confidence and credibility to influence C-suite clients, senior stakeholders, and executiveleadership teams.

Creative Judgment: Strong instincts for outstanding creative work, with the confidence tochallenge briefs, advocate for ambitious thinking, and ensure the agency consistently deliverswork that exceeds expectations.

People Leadership: An accomplished people leader with a track record of developing seniortalent, building high-performing teams, and creating cultures grounded in trust, accountability,collaboration, and continuous growth.

Agency DNA: An entrepreneurial, creative and commercially-minded leader who thrives in afast-paced, collaborative, and evolving setting. You are proudly accountable, relentlesslysolutions-oriented, and committed to raising the standard of both the work and the business.You bring calm under pressure, clarity through complexity, and the ability to unite peoplearound a shared vision

Additional Information

Salary Transparency matters to us. The salary range for this position is between $180,000 to $220,000 per year. Actual compensation within this range will be based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and applicable certifications. This range reflects what we reasonably expect to offer based on current market data.

AI Use

We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications or analyzing resumes. These tools assist our recruitment team but never replace human decision-making. We believe in a human-first approach, where your experience and potential are recognized by people.

Publicis Canada is committed to building a diverse workforce representative of our community. We encourage and are pleased to consider all qualified candidates, without regard to race, colour, citizenship, religion, sex, marital / family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, aboriginal status, age, disability or persons who may require an accommodation, to apply. If you require a specific accommodation please contact Human Resources at (phone hidden) or by email at [email protected]

📌 SVP, Business Leadership (Toronto)
🏢 Publicis Groupe Holdings
📍 Toronto