Social Media Director

Established in 2004, OLIVER is the world’s first and only specialist in designing, building, and running bespoke in-house agencies and marketing ecosystems for brands. We partner with over 300 clients in 40+ countries and counting. Our unique model drives creativity and efficiency, allowing us to deliver tailored solutions that resonate deeply with audiences.  

As a part of The Brandtech Group , we're at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to revolutionise how we create and deliver work. Our AI solutions enhance efficiency, spark creativity, and drive insightful decision-making, empowering our teams to produce innovative and impactful results.  

Role:  Social Media Director 

Location:  Dubai, United Arab Emirates 

About the role:  

As the Social Media Director, you'll lead a team of four to eight — including Social Media Managers, a Community Manager and Content Creators — reporting to the Operations Director. You'll be jointly accountable with brand stakeholders for channel performance, creative quality, risk mitigation and integrated campaign delivery across a multi-category FMCG portfolio.

This isn't a role for someone who wants to own individual channels day-to-day. It's a role for someone who can build the infrastructure, set the standards and develop the people that make great social work possible — consistently, across multiple brands. You'll drive the function forward through people leadership, strategic counsel, senior client partnership and data-informed decision-making.

What you will be doing:  

Leadership and people management

• Lead, coach and develop the social team; set clear objectives, run regular 1:1s and conduct performance conversations
• Manage resource planning and recruitment; forecast capacity and onboard new team members and contractors as needed
• Build team capability through training, playbooks and best-practice documentation; institutionalise community management standards across the studio
• Oversee team administrative processes including time-off approvals, feedback cycles and career development planning

Strategy, delivery and governance

• Define and steward social and channel strategy across assigned brands; translate brand strategy into clear social execution frameworks the team can operate against
• Ensure the team delivers high-quality content calendars, moderation, social snapshots and performance reporting to a consistent standard
• Implement and maintain SLAs, moderation policies, escalation flows and approval processes aligned to brand, legal and compliance requirements
• Oversee risk and reputation management; review reactive opportunities, approve responses for sensitive issues and lead escalations with communications and legal where required
• Maintain cross-functional alignment with paid social, creative production, insights, eCommerce and customer care teams

Client and stakeholder partnership

• Act as a trusted strategic partner to brand teams; present social strategy, performance and recommendations at senior level
• Directly manage senior stakeholder relationships for major deliverables and support the social team in client-facing interactions
• Lead the social workstream for new-business pitches and proposals; partner with strategy, project management and creative teams to shape and present compelling responses

Data, insights and continuous improvement

• Own the reporting framework; ensure the team delivers actionable insights consistently tied to business objectives
• Establish benchmarks for community health, engagement performance and campaign contribution
• Use social listening and analytics platforms to identify cultural moments, emerging platform opportunities and performance gaps

Operations, tools and commercial management

• Oversee the use and optimisation of enterprise social tools (Sprinklr preferred; Hootsuite, Sprout, Brandwatch, Meta Business Manager)
• Manage vendor and production partner relationships; maintain accurate documentation and ensure procedural standards are upheld across the team
• Oversee account-level social and content budgets; track and report spend against forecast; present financial performance to OLIVER and client stakeholders

What you need to be great in this role:  

• Substantial experience in social media — including organic social strategy, community management and integrated campaign delivery — gained in an agency or brand environment
• A track record of leading social teams, developing capability and managing performance across multiple brands or workstreams
• Experience building and operating community management functions, including moderation processes, escalation protocols and SLA frameworks
• Proficiency with enterprise social management platforms (Sprinklr preferred)
• Strong client and senior stakeholder management skills; experience presenting strategy and performance recommendations at brand leadership level
• Confidence navigating crisis communications and reputation escalation protocols
• A data-driven approach: ability to define measurement frameworks, structure reporting and communicate insights clearly to non-specialist audiences
• Professional proficiency in Arabic and English, written and verbal
• Deep knowledge of social platform features, GCC market dynamics and how culture shapes brand perception and community behaviour
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities across a multi-brand portfolio

Nice to have

• FMCG experience across beauty, wellness, personal care, home care or refreshments
• Experience with paid social strategy and creator or influencer programmes
• Familiarity with customer care workflows and CRM integrations
• Experience with social listening and brand tracking platforms
• Additional language proficiency relevant to GCC markets
• Background in digital strategy or integrated media planning

Gen AI and agentic thinking

• Sets the approach to AI adoption for the social discipline across the OLIVER UAE studio
• Builds AI capability within the team — identifying relevant tools, integrating workflows and supporting the team in using AI responsibly and critically
• Shares best practice on AI's role in social content, community management and reporting, both internally and with client teams
• Establishes appropriate AI governance and quality standards in the context of brand safety and compliance requirements in the GCC

Req ID: 18703

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Our values shape everything we do:  

Be Ambitious to succeed   

Be  Imaginative to push the boundaries of what’s possible   

Be  Inspirational to do groundbreaking work   

Be  always learning and listening to understand   

Be  Results-focused  to exceed expectations   

Be actively pro-inclusive and anti-racist across our community, clients and creations   

Our recruitment process does not employ artificial intelligence for selection. We use AI to support efficiency and consistency, not to replace human judgement. Candidate evaluation and selection are conducted without AI-supported screening or decision-making. We are committed to a fair, thoughtful, and equitable experience for every candidate.

OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.   

OLIVER has set ambitious environmental goals around sustainability, with science-based emissions reduction targets. Collectively, we work towards our mission, embedding sustainability into every department and through every stage of the project lifecycle.