Growth and Client Development Director

This isn't a traditional sales role. We’re not interested in building a high-volume outbound machine, filling a CRM with weak leads, or winning projects just to hit a number.

We’re interested in finding the right organisations, understanding what is happening inside them, and developing partnerships that can become something substantial over time.

The Role

Your work will span the following areas of growth & development.

• Growth direction: Helping decide where 3800’s future clients should come from — the organisations, sectors, networks and moments of change where our work can have the greatest value.
• Pipeline development: Building and managing a focused pipeline of significant opportunities, with an emphasis on quality rather than volume.
• Opening doors: Finding thoughtful and creative ways of connecting with CEOs, Founders, CMOs, HR leads and other senior decision-makers.
• Relationship building: Developing trust over time. Understanding that the right relationship may begin months before there is a project to discuss.
• New business: Taking the right opportunities from an initial conversation through to assisting with the proposals, presentations, and negotiations.
• Client development: Looking beyond the first project to understand what else a client needs, where we can add value and how a good project can become a long-term partnership.
• Opportunity spotting: Horizon scanning to understand what is happening within organisations, and recognising where brand, culture, digital or creativity could make a meaningful difference.
• Networks & partnerships: Developing relationships with people and organisations that can create meaningful introductions — from other advisers and consultants to investors, agencies and other professional networks.
• Market presence: Helping us decide where 3800 should show up, from events and roundtables to collaborations, thought leadership and more unexpected ways of meeting the right people.
• Commercial intelligence: Regular reviews of what is working, maintaining a clear view of the pipeline and helping us make decisions on project fit and resource management.

We're looking for someone commercially sharp, but curious too. Someone who can sit comfortably with a CEO, founder or C-suite team and have a useful conversation about their business — not just sell them a service.

And critically, you'll know our world. You’ll have spent meaningful time in or around brand, creative, design, business consultancy or a closely related industry. Enough to talk passionately and credibly about the power of brand, culture, digital, business improvement and creativity — and understand the value that good work can create.

You’ll work closely with 3800’s founder to identify where we should be looking, who we should be talking to and how we can create better ways into the organisations we’d genuinely like to work with.

The aim is to win more of the right work — and build the kind of relationships that lead to more of it.

Experience

You’ll already have experience developing significant new business within a creative, brand, design, consultancy or related professional-services environment.

You’ll represent 3800 in conversations with experienced business leaders, so you need enough industry knowledge to understand the work, ask good questions, and talk credibly about what it can achieve.

You’ll also have a track record of building relationships with senior decision-makers and turning them into meaningful commercial opportunities.

We’re less interested in the number of deals you've closed than the quality of the relationships you've helped create and what they became over time.

You'll be comfortable operating at C-suite level, navigating complex organisations and staying close to an opportunity without forcing it before the time is right.

Performance Bonus

Alongside your salary, the role will include a performance bonus linked to the commercial value of the new relationships you help create and develop.

We're deliberately not building this around calls made, meetings booked or short-term sales targets. We want incentives to support what we value as a studio: good clients, good work, and relationships that become more valuable over time.

About you

You’re naturally good with people, with a strong network and the confidence to keep expanding it in the right places.

You're interested in businesses: how they work, where they're going, what's getting in their way and what might make them better.

You listen and ask good questions. You can quickly get underneath what somebody is really trying to achieve.

You’re commercially confident without being overly sales-driven. You can spot an opportunity, but you're equally comfortable deciding that something isn't right for us.

You have a creative approach to new business. If the obvious approach isn't working, you'll find another one — an introduction, an event, a targeted idea, a collaboration, a conversation or something we haven't considered yet.

You understand that senior relationships take time, and you're happy developing a connection long before there's something obvious to sell.

And once a client joins us, you don't disappear. You want to understand how the relationship is developing, what else is happening within their organisation and where good work could naturally lead next.

Most importantly, you'll care about what you're representing. You should be able to get genuinely excited about a brilliant piece of brand strategy, a better customer experience, a cultural change programme or a beautifully considered digital product — and be able to communicate why that work matters.

Applications

Salary: £60k–80k DoE (Pro-Rata) + Performance Bonus, 3 Days Per Week

Location: Sheffield, UK (Studio-based minimum 1 day per week)

Email: [email protected] Subject: Growth Director

Apply with a CV, examples of previous success and a few sentences about relevant experience and what you would bring to 3800.

Careers at 3800

We’re ambitious about the work we do, but deliberate about how we grow. We choose projects carefully and focus on work where we can make a genuine difference for both our clients and the people we work alongside.

As a team, we invest heavily in each other’s development. Everyone receives a £1,000 annual personal development budget and 12 days per year dedicated to CPD, giving people the space and support to keep learning and progressing in their careers.

We also believe that good work comes from people who feel supported and connected. Alongside 23 days' holiday (plus Christmas break and your birthday off) plus bank holidays, we make time to get together outside the studio — building the kind of team that genuinely enjoys working with each other.

All of our roles are based out of our Sheffield studio. As a company, we focus heavily on working together and believe our strongest work happens when people are in the same place. We aim to be flexible with working from home to accommodate needs on a case-by-case basis; however, unless otherwise specified for the role, all working hours take place in the studio.