Senior Business Development Director

A leading, socially-led growth marketing agency is seeking a Senior Business Development Director to drive expansion across Southeast Asia. This role offers you the opportunity to leverage your extensive network within the digital economy and make a significant impact by connecting startups, scale-ups, and enterprise brands with cutting-edge performance media, social commerce, and influence solutions.

What you'll do:

• Independently identify, qualify, and close new business opportunities using your existing network of senior contacts across the digital economy without relying solely on cold outbound methods.
• Bring a robust black book of founders, CMOs, growth leads, platform partners, and infrastructure stakeholders with proven low relationship decay rates for immediate activation.
• Engage clients across the maturity spectrum—from early-stage startups through scale-ups to established enterprise brands—ensuring tailored solutions for each segment.
• Maintain rigorous pipeline hygiene and forecasting practices with end-to-end ownership of all stages from origination through signed contracts.
• Sell across at least three to four service lines including paid social, performance media, influencer/creator campaigns, branded content, and social commerce offerings.
• Take personal responsibility for quarterly and annual revenue targets by structuring commercially sound deals in partnership with Finance teams.
• Prepare insight-led proposals that are meticulously tailored to each client’s objectives and personally present these pitches at senior decision-maker level.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with media planning, creative, performance, and account teams to build compelling pitch responses without direct team management responsibilities.
• Represent the agency’s Southeast Asia proposition in market by articulating pricing strategies, positioning statements, and performance guarantees at industry events and forums.
• Contribute actively to case studies, award entries, and thought leadership initiatives that reinforce both personal credibility and agency reputation within the SEA market.

What you bring:

• More than eight years’ experience in business development or commercial partnerships within media, digital or performance marketing environments is essential for this role.
• An existing activatable network comprising senior contacts such as founders, CMOs, growth leads as well as infrastructure/platform stakeholders like ad-tech/MarTech platforms or payment rails is required.
• Prior experience working with or selling into sectors including consumer fintech, marketplaces, consumer apps, Web3 technologies or other new-economy verticals such as healthtech or edtech is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage new business pipelines from zero—including outbound prospecting efforts—pitch development expertise—and contract negotiation skills is vital.
• A proven track record of independently closing significant new business deals while consistently exceeding revenue targets in competitive agency or media settings is expected.
• Experience selling across multiple product lines rather than specialising in a single service ensures versatility when engaging clients at different stages of maturity.
• Comfortable pitching both Series A startups as well as regional enterprise brands with equal fluency demonstrates adaptability across client types.
• Deep familiarity with Southeast Asian platform dynamics (TikTok; Meta; YouTube; XiaoHongShu; Google) enables effective engagement with local audiences.
• Self-directed operator who thrives owning the full cycle solo without reliance on team reporting layers is necessary for success in this position.
• Understanding full-funnel marketing frameworks—including how performance media; content; culture intersect—drives measurable business results for clients.

What's next:

If you are ready to elevate your career by connecting culture-driven brands with transformative marketing solutions across Southeast Asia apply now!

Do note that we will only be in touch if your application is shortlisted. Robert Walters (Singapore) Pte Ltd ROC No.: 199706961E | EA Licence No.: 03C5451 EA Registration No.: R26162578 Heidi Chew