Acting Managing Director (leave coverage) (Remote)

Invisible Hand is looking for an experienced Acting Managing Director to support our rapidly growing agency during a five-month parental leave period. This is an opportunity to lead a strategic agency, bringing forward your leadership experience, agency operational excellence, and proven business development skills.

This is for you if you are a self-starter, motivated by learning, able to work quickly, and a creative problem solver with incredibly strong communication skills and a “passion for polish.” Candidates should be comfortable working in a startup environment. This is a high-touch, senior leadership role.

Responsibilities include :

Run the agency holistically, managing all 6 core functions :

Account Management :

Provide seamless leadership both with clients and internal teams during the term, maintaining agency momentum and high quality of deliverables

First gate for any problem solving, quality control, and leadership escalation

Oversee timeline and project plan development, ensuring project delivery on time and in budget

Oversee and manage hours burn, resource allocation and staff plans for projects

Act as client advocate by anticipating their needs and reactions to ensure agency work product aligns to their expectations; developing a deep understanding of their work and making their objectives paramount in all we do

Strategy

Lead the team in how we get the work done - do we need research? What’s the right timeline, what resources are we missing

Main quality check - as first point of review on all materials, you’re assessing whether they fit the IH standard, hold strategic water, and uphold the Invisible Hand standard

Billing / Budgeting / Accounting

Develop project budgets and staffing plans

Manage financial reporting (ie project profitability)

Liaise with accounting team for anticipated contractor costs, new project budgets, project close process, and first round of approval for contractor invoices

Business Development

Lead organic growth opportunities for existing clients. You will be responsible for growing existing client scopes (i.e. from project basis to retainer, selling in new products, etc.).

Support team, and allocate resources to, new proposal development

Identify potential strategic growth opportunities with new and existing clients

Contribute to agency marketing - i.e. materials development and updating, etc.

People Ops

Oversee hiring and staffing

Manage freelancer contracting and negotiation

Own onboarding to agency and projects

Agency Operations

Build scopes and internal budgets for new projects and assemble the teams needed to get the work done through a combination of FTEs and freelancers so projects may kick off quickly

Allocate resources across the agency to maximize efficiency and quality

Identify opportunities for process improvement and operational excellence

Here's what we're looking for :

At least 10+ years of client-facing account management and / or operations in an agency or production house, with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles

Proven track record leading and managing agency teams and operations

Knowledge in building budgets and scopes for a variety of projects in an agency setting

Experience building trusted client relationships

Demonstrated experience managing budgets in a range of scales

Great presentation skills (both written and oral)

You can hold the pen on a great deck. The team will work on it together, but you know how to make it sing and clean up formatting, etc.

Capable and conversant in all aspects of a creative, strategy and program workflow

Appetite for solving problems, developing effective solutions, and performing in high-velocity, deadline-driven environments

Exceptional organizational skills, problem-solving, and strategic thinking

Ability to closely track project performance and oversee the successful completion of short and long term milestones

Invisible Hand ( is a strategic agency that partners with organizations to help them build, launch and sustain initiatives that create successful outcomes. Our approach combines deep expertise with a genuine commitment to excellence. We believe in the power of strategic thinking and effective execution to drive meaningful action. Through thoughtful strategy and innovative approaches, we help our clients navigate complex challenges and create lasting results.

Invisible Hand is proud to have a diverse, inclusive team. At IH, we don’t just celebrate our differences, we thrive on them. Our goal is to continue to create a workplace that fosters and champions diversity of thought, lived experience, and perspective, and we encourage people of all backgrounds to apply to join our team.

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