Business Director - Hospitality, QSR + Leisure

Totalwellnessacupuncture; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - GBP 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An ambitious independent agency is seeking a Business Director to lead their Hospitality, QSR, and Leisure division. You will play a crucial role in client relationships and guide strategic direction, ensuring the delivery of culturally resonant campaigns. The ideal candidate has at least 10 years of experience in a client-facing role, excellent communication skills, and strong commercial acumen. If you thrive in fast-paced environments and seek to contribute to innovative projects, apply now.

Qualifications

• Experience in a culture-first, creative, social, or brand agency.
• Ability to manage multi-workstream integrated accounts.
• Capable of leading discussions with C-suite stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Act as senior point of contact for key clients.
• Guide strategic direction across various media.
• Own client account P&L and oversee budgeting.

Skills

Client-facing experience

Commercial acumen

Communication and presentation skills

Strategic mindset

Team leadership

Education

Minimum 10 years in a related role

Job description

The Business Director - Hospitality, QSR and Leisure, will lead their own division of the agency, bringing strategic direction, commercial leadership and cultural fluency to our clients operating in fast-moving, high-impact environments.

This role exists to be the senior partner to our clients, you must be someone who builds trust in the boardroom, relevance in the feed and empowerment in an enthusiastic team.

Leading multi-disciplinary teams across communications, social, creators, partnerships, experiential and project delivery, you will know how to translate brand ambition into sharp, actionable, culturally tuned work, ensuring all our activity ladders back to brand, audience and cultural intent.

You create clarity, pace and momentum, driving retention, growth and creative excellence across your portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Client + Stakeholder Leadership

• Act as the senior point of contact for flagship QSR, Hospitality and Leisure clients.
• Build trusted relationships with CMOs, brand teams and senior stakeholders.
• Understand client ambitions and translate them into sharp, actionable briefs.
• Provide a strong point of view on brand, culture, category and audience.
• Manage high-stakes conversations with clarity, confidence and commercial grounding.

Strategic + Creative Impact

• Guide strategic direction across earned, owned and paid activity.
• Ensure all work is rooted in cultural intelligence and QSR/Hospitality and Leisure category understanding.
• Leading strategy, creative and production teams within the QSR/ Hospitality and Leisure department to deliver standout, culturally resonant campaigns that ladder into brand intention and business impact.
• Translate trends into insights that inform commercial and creative action.

Commercial Ownership

• Own client account P&L across QSR, Hospitality and Leisure portfolios.
• Oversee scopes, budgets, forecasting, resourcing and profitability.
• Identify and grow organic opportunities across TFR’s service lines.
• Lead proposals, renewals and new business pitches with commercial competence.
• Contribute to agency revenue planning, pipeline forecasting and leadership decisions.
• Ensure high commercial rigour across teams and accounts.

Team Leadership + Development

• Manage, mentor and upskill a high-performance team.
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams across Social, Content, PR, Communications and Project Delivery.
• Set the tone for clarity, energy, pace and cultural curiosity.
• Ensure teams operate with accountability, strong communication and values-driven behaviour.
• Build a positive, ambitious and supportive team culture.

Delivery Excellence

• Oversee seamless cross-functional delivery across multiple workstreams.
• Maintain standards of excellence across strategy, creative, comms, social and experiential.
• Support teams to identify risks early and course-correct.
• Champion integrated thinking and ensure all outputs meet TFR’s bar for cultural impact.

Skills, Experience + Mindset

• Minimum of 10 years experience in a client-facing role within a culture-first, creative, social or brand agency working with leading QSR and Hospitality brands.
• Experience running multi-workstream, integrated accounts across social, content, PR, creator and experiential.
• Strong commercial track record: P&L ownership, forecasting, growth and contract negotiation.
• Exceptional communication, presentation and influencing skills from C-suite to cross-functional teams.
• Deep cultural fluency with the ability to translate trends into strategic action.
• Strong problem-solving ability with sharp prioritisation and decision-making.
• Highly organised with strong budget management and commercial acumen.
• Strategic, commercially sharp and culturally tuned.
• Positive, proactive and solutions-led, even under pressure.
• Thrives in pace and excels in fast-moving client environments.
• Values-driven leader who brings energy, empathy and excellence.
• Collaborative and team-first but confident in senior leadership moments.
• Willing to be hands-on when needed and lead from the front.

The Fitting Room started with less than £20 and a vision to build something different. That idea-to-execution mindset still defines us and is central to how we hire. We look for individuals with proven experience, strong drive and values that align with our culture. If you care deeply about your craft, live and breathe pop culture, and want to help shape an ambitious independent agency, get in touch.