Director, Client Services

Job Description

Job Description

About Us

Applecart is the leading technology company that C-suites rely on to reach business-critical decision makers. The most important decisions are made by the hardest people to reach and influence. Historically, C-suite leaders have lacked the tools to reach the stakeholders who matter most to their business. The C-suites of hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, major agencies, trade associations, nonprofits, and governments use Applecart to put their best content in front of business-critical decision makers and those they trust — from policymakers and investors to CEOs, key employees, members of the media and more. Decision makers are informed by what they read, learn from advisors, hear from colleagues, and discuss with family and friends. To break through to them, you must reach them through the only channel that really moves them: those they know and trust. Applecart's platform uses publicly available data to map billions of social relationships between nearly every American adult and enable clients to deliver content directly to decision makers and those who matter most to them.

We are hiring a Director, Client Services in our New York City office.

About the Role:

We're looking for a people leader who can lead and inspire a multi-layered team of Digital Strategy Managers and Client Services Associates. The team you will lead is responsible for driving digital marketing campaigns from development through execution and managing day-to-day stakeholders in partnership with Sales. You'll lead the team in New York City at our HQ and report to the VP of Client Services.

The team manages clients at the intersection of corporate reputation, public affairs, and B2B marketing, leading strategic digital advertising efforts for some of the country's most influential organizations—including Fortune 500 companies, agencies, trade associations, and advocacy groups.

In this role, you'll provide support, coaching, and structure to your team and other managers, helping them navigate fast-moving client use cases, while instilling operational rigor and effectiveness. This role will not manage clients directly (though you will impact client outcomes through supporting your direct reports); rather, you'll manage a team of strategists who own the day-to-day client management responsibilities.

You'll collaborate cross-functionally with GTM, CS, and Platform leadership to troubleshoot and address operational and delivery gaps to better deliver paid media campaigns aligned to client objectives.

What You'll Do:

Team leadership and people management:

• Manage, oversee and motivate a team of managers and their direct reports. The team does the following:
• Partners closely with sales to drive commercial outcomes and deliver targeting and campaigns aligned with client objectives
• Owns the day-to-day management of client relationships across accounts, proactively anticipating client needs
• Manages campaign activation and execution from start to finish—developing targeting recommendations, overseeing media buys, and ensuring timely, high-quality delivery
• Cross-functionally partners to translate client goals into smart, scalable digital paid media strategies across platforms including LinkedIn, Meta, Google, DSP and programmatic channels
• Develops campaign reporting and recommendations tailored to executive client audience
• Collaborates with internal teams and external partners to ensure smooth campaign implementation to optimize client success
• Meet regularly with team members in 1:1, provide ongoing coaching, and conduct performance management (including formalized biannual reviews); keep records up-to-date across internal platforms
• Work with team management to track team bandwidth and project needs to ensure consistent resource allocation across Applecart's client base

Team growth and enablement:

• Partner with CS and Recruitment Leadership to hire new team members and identify hiring needs
• Identify enablement opportunities and gaps and coordinate with Enablement leaders to ensure team members are certified and adopting new processes following roll outs
• Partner with CS Enablement leaders to evolve our current enablement program with the goal of onboarding new hires more efficiently

Cross-functional collaboration and partnership:

• Cross-functionally collaborate with GTM, CS, Revenue Operations, and Product leadership and other internal teams to improve processes, share feedback, and streamline ways of working on behalf of the CS function
• Provide senior-level oversight and serve as a point of escalation for teams and their high-priority client accounts
• Serve as a thought partner to GTM, CS and cross-functional leaders as we continue to grow as a company and team

Experiences and Capabilities You Bring:

• 8+ years of digital advertising experience, preferably at a public relations, public affairs, communications, digital advertising or media buying agency, with proven client-facing experience
• 5+ years of people leadership and management experience within scaling organizations and high-performing teams
• Proven experience in coaching, training and performance management
• A track record of working with senior-level stakeholders (including C-suite executives) at companies, brands, and agencies within the Fortune 500 or public sector elected officials
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams having strategic business and digital marketing conversations with C-suite and important senior stakeholders within a client base of highly regulated industries (ie. government, non-profit, think tank, healthcare/life sciences, financial services, etc.)
• Strong proficiency in core digital advertising platforms (Meta, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Twitter/X, TTD, LiveRamp, etc.) and an understanding of how to use digital media to influence decision-makers
• Strong storytelling and communication skills—both written and verbal—with the ability to distill complex data into insights that drive client decision-making
• Experience building polished business memos, decks, and performance analyses for executive audiences
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment with shifting priorities

This is a hybrid role. Work from home or in the office on Monday and Friday, and in Applecart's New York City office Tuesday through Thursday.

Compensation:

Our compensation package consists of three components: (i) a base salary, (ii) annual cash bonus, and (iii) generous equity compensation.

The base salary range for this role is between $170,000.00-190,000.00, based on the candidate's experience and skills relative to the requirements listed above. The salary range provided is exclusive of discretionary annual cash bonus and equity compensation. The salary range provided for this role is specific to candidates located in the New York City area.

A few facts about us:

• Applecart's platform has been used by hundreds of industry-leading clients spanning Fortune 500 companies like Blackstone and Intuit, leading nonprofit organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund, and top-tier advertising and communications agencies like Teneo, FGS, Weber Shandwick, and OMD.
• Applecart is growing quickly — over the last 3 years, we've increased our bookings by 10X, grown our headcount by 4X, and we're cashflow positive.
• Our senior leadership team includes two members of the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Marketing and Advertising, the former Head of Product at Moat, Oracle's online ad measurement platform, a former senior White House advisor, early sales and talent leaders from Google and Twitter, two of the Democratic Party's most successful pollsters and strategists, a former CRO of a high-growth tech company with hundreds of millions in ARR, and alums of top-tier organizations like Bain, Amazon and Simpson Thacher.
• Our investors include Bain & Company, global sports, entertainment and marketing giant Endeavor, KKR Co-Founder Henry Kravis, entrepreneur Chris Burch, a founder of Palantir, senior engineering leaders at Twitter and Yelp, former Fortune 50 and advertising agency CEOs, and a number of well-known venture capitalists. Ari Emanuel, CEO of TKO and Executive Chairman of WME, and Jennifer Fonstad, Owl Capital Managing Partner, serve on our board.
• Our work has been featured on Morning Joe on MSNBC, BloombergTV and The Colbert Report, and in Axios, BusinessWeek, the Associated Press, Forbes, the Washington Post, and Politico, among many others.