Director of Delivery

Director of Delivery

Agency Operations & Integrated Delivery

The Role

Foreground is a boutique 360° agency specializing in integrated marketing, creative campaigns, experiential, digital, social, and content production for some of North America’s most ambitious brands.

We build ideas that pull our clients into the Foreground.

Impossible to ignore.

We’re intentionally small, highly collaborative, and obsessed with doing exceptional work. Our clients trust us with complex programs because they know we’ll figure out what others can’t.

As we continue to grow, we’re looking for a Director of Delivery to build and lead the operational backbone of the agency.

This isn’t a traditional project management role.

You’ll own how work gets delivered across Foreground, leading our Project Management and Program Management teams while partnering directly with agency leadership, Account, Strategy, Creative, Digital, Social, and Experiential.

Your job is to create the systems, standards, and culture that allow talented people to do exceptional work without adding layers of unnecessary process.

You’ll help us scale while protecting the things that matter: great work, confident clients, strong teams, and healthy margins.

What Success Looks Like

Success here isn’t measured by completed timelines.

It’s measured by whether the agency works better because you’re here.

You’ll know you’re succeeding when

• Our teams know exactly what they own and have the confidence to deliver it.
• Projects are consistently delivered on time, on budget, and to an exceptional standard.
• Leadership has clear visibility into resourcing, capacity, project health, and profitability.
• Delivery issues are identified and solved before they become client problems.
• Our Project Managers and Program Managers operate with greater ownership, accountability, and confidence.
• Processes make us faster and better without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Clients trust us with increasingly complex and ambitious work.
• Foreground can continue to grow without sacrificing the quality of our work or our culture.

Ultimately, you’ll build a delivery organization that leadership trusts completely.

Responsibilities

Own Agency Delivery

• Own delivery excellence across every client engagement.
• Ensure integrated programs are delivered on time, on budget, and to the highest standard.
• Lead high-profile or high-risk engagements that require senior operational leadership.
• Establish consistency in how work is planned, resourced, executed, and delivered across the agency.
• Identify risks early and solve problems before they become client issues.
• Continuously improve how work moves through Foreground.

Build Better Operations

• Build and refine the operational systems that power the agency.
• Establish agency-wide delivery standards, governance, and best practices.
• Develop scalable processes that improve quality without slowing talented people down.
• Improve planning, resource management, forecasting, reporting, and delivery workflows.
• Challenge processes that aren’t working and build better ones.
• Help us scale intelligently without turning a boutique agency into a bureaucracy.

Drive Commercial Performance

• Own delivery utilization, billable efficiency, project health, and profitability.
• Partner with leadership on forecasting, staffing, and capacity planning.
• Maintain visibility into budgets, resourcing, scope, and commercial performance across the agency.
• Ensure projects remain commercially healthy from kickoff through completion.
• Recognize when scope, resources, or timelines are moving in the wrong direction and act early.

Build a High-Performance Team

• Lead, mentor, and develop our Project Managers and Program Managers.
• Set a high standard for ownership, accountability, communication, and execution.
• Conduct performance reviews, coaching, hiring, onboarding, and career development.
• Give people the tools and clarity they need to make decisions without constant escalation.
• Build a delivery team that thrives under pressure without creating unnecessary stress.
• Create future leaders, not just better task managers.

Lead When It Matters

• Partner with Account, Strategy, Creative, Digital, Social, and Experiential teams to deliver integrated work.
• Join senior client conversations when additional delivery leadership is required.
• Act as the senior escalation point for delivery challenges.
• Build client confidence through clear communication, decisive leadership, and consistent execution.
• Bring calm, structure, and judgment when the stakes are high.

Qualifications

We’re less interested in collecting credentials than finding someone who has actually done this before.

You’ll bring

• 8+ years of experience delivering integrated marketing, advertising, creative, digital, or experiential programs within an agency environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading Project Management, Program Management, Delivery, or integrated cross-functional teams.
• Strong commercial understanding of agency operations, including utilization, forecasting, profitability, budgets, and resource planning.
• Experience managing multiple complex client engagements simultaneously.
• Experience building or improving operational processes, not simply following them.
• Strong leadership, communication, and decision-making skills.
• The ability to operate calmly and decisively when things get complicated.
• A track record of taking ownership rather than waiting for escalation.

Bonus Points

• Experience working with Tier 1 global brands.
• Experience within a boutique or independent agency.
• Experience scaling delivery teams during periods of rapid growth.
• Experience implementing agency operations platforms such as Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, Workfront, or similar.
• PMP, Agile, Scrum, or equivalent certifications are welcome, but absolutely not required.

You, in a Nutshell

You take ownership without being asked.

You build systems that make talented people better.

You see problems coming and deal with them before everyone else has to.

You believe operational excellence creates better creative work.

You communicate directly, respectfully, and clearly.

You can hold a high standard without making everyone miserable in the process.

You make difficult decisions when they need to be made.

You care about people and performance.

And you’re energized by the opportunity to build something that lasts.

Please Don’t Apply If...

We’re looking for someone who has already operated at a high level inside an integrated agency environment.

This probably isn’t the right role if

• You haven’t worked within an integrated advertising, marketing, creative, digital, or experiential agency.
• You’ve primarily managed timelines and task lists rather than owning delivery outcomes.
• You haven’t been accountable for project profitability, utilization, budgets, or resource planning.
• You need constant direction before making decisions.
• You avoid difficult conversations or performance management.
• You’re looking for a role focused primarily on administration.
• Your instinct is to add process rather than solve the problem.
• You prefer maintaining existing systems over questioning whether there’s a better way.
• You’re looking for a highly structured corporate environment where every decision moves through layers of approval.

Why Foreground?

We’re building an agency where exceptional people can do the best work of their careers.

You’ll work directly alongside agency leadership and have a genuine hand in shaping how Foreground operates as we grow.

This is an opportunity to build something, not inherit a finished machine.

We’re ambitious, collaborative, and deeply invested in creating a culture where talented people can grow quickly, take ownership, and deliver work they’re genuinely proud of.

If complexity energizes you, ownership comes naturally, and the idea of building an exceptional delivery organization sounds like a challenge worth taking on, we’d love to meet you.