Senior Agency Development Manager – Global Brands APAC
Job description
<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.</span></p></div><h3 data-pm-slice="1 1 []"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">ABOUT THE ROLE:</span></h3>
<p>Agencies decide what gets planned, pitched, and bought. This role exists to make X the default recommendation inside those rooms.</p>
<p>You own the agency system and the commercial architecture for Global Brands across APAC. That means holding-company and regional leadership in Singapore and India — and, as a hiring requirement, the Business Directors, Client Directors, and Account Directors who write the plans and clear the buys. A C-suite network without working-level relationships is not sufficient for this role. You will structure commercial deals, navigate complex agency structures, and create the conditions for the sales tea to win more spend.</p>
<p>This is a senior individual-contributor role. You will operate independently, set your own map, and be accountable for agency-sourced revenue influence and partnership quality. You will work as a peer with the Global Brand sales team — close partnership, distinct ownership. This role reports to the Head of Global Brands, APAC.</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">RESPONSIBILITIES:</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Build and run the agency development plan for Global Brands across APAC — covering holding companies, regional hubs in Singapore and India, operating companies, and key independents.</li>
<li>Develop strategic relationships at two levels, both required:</li>
<li>Structure and negotiate commercial deals with agencies: trading agreements, partnership frameworks, incentives, joint business plans, and other constructs that lock in commitment and unlock spend.</li>
<li>Navigate complex agency structures — holdco vs. opco, regional vs. local P&Ls, media vs. creative vs. social specialists, and split decision rights between Singapore regional teams and in-market India / SEA offices. Know who decides, who influences, who executes, and how a regional recommendation dies or ships in-market.</li>
<li>Act as the primary trusted advisor to priority agencies. Educate teams on X products, audiences, creative, brand safety, and measurement. Arm them to recommend X to their brand clients without you in the room.</li>
<li>Partner with Client Partners and market teams to convert agency relationships into live campaigns, larger statements of work, and multi-market commitments.</li>
<li>Identify whitespace: agencies and pods that should be recommending X and currently are not. Open those doors and create a path to revenue.</li>
<li>Represent X at agency town halls, leadership forums, holding-company reviews, industry events, and in-market working sessions.</li>
<li>Track partnership health and commercial performance. Course-correct quickly. Do not wait for a quarterly review to find out a key agency has gone quiet.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>A self-starter who runs independently. You do not need a playbook handed to you. You build one, socialize it, and execute.</li>
<li>10–12+ years in media sales, agency development, or senior agency-side commercial / client leadership, with a clear record of driving revenue through agency partnerships in APAC.</li>
<li>An existing network you can use immediately — not a list you hope to build. It must already include:</li>
<li>Proven experience structuring commercial deals and working through layered agency decision-making (holding companies, operating companies, local markets, specialist units).</li>
<li>Strong negotiation, communication, and presentation skills. Credible with a regional CEO and useful to a Business Director running a global brand the same week.</li>
<li>Deep understanding of how media, creative, social, and performance agencies plan and buy in APAC.</li>
<li>Comfortable with ambiguity, competing stakeholders, and a fast-moving product environment.</li>
<li>Willingness to travel regularly across Southeast Asia and India.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Thai or Hindi (spoken). Strongly preferred — this will materially increase effectiveness in key markets.</li>
<li>Time spent inside a holding-company network (WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, IPG, Dentsu, Havas) or a major independent, plus platform-side agency development.</li>
<li>Direct experience standing up or resetting an agency partnership in a market where the platform was under-indexed.</li>
<li>Working fluency in how global brands brief regional and local agencies across SEA and India.</li>
<li>Experience with both brand and performance agency models.</li>
</ul><div class="content-conclusion"><p><em>SpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our </em><em><a href="https://x.ai/legal/recruitment-privacy-notice" target="_blank">Recruitment Privacy Notice</a>.</em></p></div>