General Manager

The Opportunity This role has been created because the Lebanon operation has grown significantly — from a small team of 3–4 people to a 20-person hub — and now requires dedicated, experienced operational leadership. The team has the talent and the capability. What it needs is structure, process discipline, clear accountability, and a leader who can develop people and drive consistent service quality. You will have a direct mandate from the Managing Partner and real authority to run this operation. You will not be managing upward for every decision. You will be trusted to lead. The mental model for this role is simple: the UAE and KSA teams are your clients. Your job is to ensure Lebanon services them with the speed, quality, and reliability of a best-in-class agency. When they brief Lebanon, they should feel confident the work will be delivered on time, accurately, and to standard — every time. What You Will Do Operations and service delivery • Own the quality and timeliness of all output from the Lebanon team — campaign setup, optimisation, reporting, dashboards, and data products • Establish and enforce clear SLAs for turnaround times, quality standards, and escalation protocols across all workstreams • Act as the primary point of contact for UAE and KSA client leads when issues arise; resolve problems quickly and communicate clearly • Build and maintain a structured brief-to-delivery workflow that minimises errors and creates visibility for all stakeholders • Identify whether recurring issues are process failures, people issues, or capacity constraints — and fix them at the root People management and development • Manage day-to-day performance across the Lebanon team; set clear expectations, give direct feedback, and hold people accountable • Build a development and training programme for the team — with particular focus on the media planning and data functions • Identify high-potential team members and create structured growth paths for them • Manage underperformance decisively and fairly; make hiring and exit decisions with the support of UAE management • Create a team culture that is motivated, professionally proud, and oriented toward client service excellence Hiring and team growth • Own the Lebanon hiring process: define roles, screen candidates, conduct interviews, and make recommendations to UAE management • Build relationships with local talent networks and recruiters to maintain a pipeline of strong candidates • Plan headcount requirements in line with business growth projections from UAE and KSA Compensation and people operations • Conduct regular compensation reviews and make recommendations to UAE management to ensure the team is paid fairly, competitively, and consistently • Ensure Lebanon compensation is benchmarked against the local market and does not become a source of attrition • Work with finance and UAE management to plan and manage the Lebanon cost base within agreed parameters Stakeholder management • Develop strong working relationships with all UAE and KSA client leads; understand their workload, their standards, and their pressure points • Participate in regular structured check-ins with UAE management to report on team performance, capacity, and any operational issues • Surface problems early — before they reach the client — and always arrive with a proposed solution, not just a problem statement How Success Is Measured Your first 90 days will be assessed on three things: • A clear diagnostic of current team capability, process gaps, and service quality issues — with a proposed improvement plan presented to UAE management • Structured operating rhythms in place: weekly check-ins with UAE/KSA client leads, clear SLAs documented and communicated, and an escalation protocol understood by the whole team • The beginning of a development plan for each team member — identifying strengths, gaps, and growth paths From month 4 onwards, success is measured on client satisfaction with Lebanon delivery, reduction in errors and delays, team retention and development, and the overall health and performance of the operation. Requirements What We Are Looking For Background We are looking for candidates from one of the following backgrounds: • A senior agency operations leader or account director from a network or independent agency who has managed large delivery teams and understands how media campaigns are planned, built, and optimised • A media agency department head or regional operations lead who has built process, managed teams across functions, and driven service quality at scale We are not looking for a pure media practitioner. This is a people and operations leadership role. The right candidate understands media well enough to hold quality standards — but their primary skill is building and running teams, not executing campaigns. Experience • 10+ years of experience in media agency environments • Proven track record of managing teams of 15 or more people across multiple functions • Experience building or significantly improving operational processes in an agency context • Comfortable with performance management, including difficult conversations and exit decisions • Familiarity with campaign planning, digital media, programmatic, and reporting workflows — sufficient to assess quality and identify errors without needing to be a practitioner • Experience working in a hub or back-office model serving remote client-facing teams is a strong advantage • Based in Lebanon or willing to relocate Behaviours and character • Service-minded by instinct — you measure your success by how well the teams you support are performing, not by your own visibility • Direct and clear communicator — you give honest feedback, set clear expectations, and do not let ambiguity persist • Process-oriented without being bureaucratic — you build structure that helps people do better work, not structure for its own sake • Decisive under pressure — when something goes wrong, you diagnose fast, communicate quickly, and fix it • Developer of people — you invest in the team around you and take genuine satisfaction in watching people grow • Commercially aware — you understand that quality and efficiency are not in tension; both matter