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POSITION OVERVIEW
The Digital Director leads Edelman Indonesia's digital communications practice, integrating earned media, owned channel strategy, KOL and influencer programming, paid digital amplification, and performance analytics into cohesive client programs. This is a senior practice leadership role with a business development mandate.
The role sits at the intersection of corporate communications and digital strategy. The successful candidate is as credible in a boardroom conversation about reputation risk as they are in a strategic discussion about platform architecture and content performance. They lead clients, grow accounts, and build the capability of the practice team around them.
This position is suited to a senior communications professional who has operated across both agency and in-house environments, brings multi-market Southeast Asia experience, and understands how large Indonesian organisations -- including publicly listed companies and conglomerates -- approach communications investment and reputational governance.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Digital Strategy and Client Leadership
- Develop and lead integrated digital communications strategies for clients across corporate, technology, consumer, and financial sectors, among others.
- Serve as the senior digital counsel in client engagements, advising communications and marketing leadership on channel strategy, content architecture, and platform prioritisation.
- Translate complex corporate and product narratives into clear, platform-appropriate digital content strategies -- particularly for technology and consumer electronics clients.
- Integrate earned media, owned channels, and paid amplification into unified campaign frameworks aligned to measurable client business objectives.
- Oversee digital communications planning across LinkedIn, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, and platforms relevant to target audiences across Indonesia and the broader SEA region.
KOL and Influencer Program Oversight
- Establish and govern KOL identification, vetting, and engagement frameworks spanning full influencer tiers -- macro to micro -- across Indonesia and key Southeast Asia markets.
- Provide strategic direction for end-to-end influencer program management: briefing, agency or team oversight, content review, compliance, and performance evaluation.
- Advise clients on KOL risk assessment, ensuring all influencer partnerships align with brand values and reputational standards prior to commitment.
- Build long-term KOL relationships that position clients as preferred partners for credible advocacy, not transactional placement.
- Maintain current knowledge of the evolving influencer landscape: platform algorithm changes, nano and micro tier dynamics, and disclosure regulatory requirements in Indonesia and key SEA markets.
Social Media Strategy and Governance
- Provide strategic oversight for client social media channels, including channel-specific content strategy, editorial governance, and community management frameworks.
- Set quality, compliance, and brand-consistency standards for digital content production across owned channels, including corporate accounts for listed entities.
- Oversee social listening and monitoring infrastructure to surface emerging issues, audience sentiment shifts, and competitive intelligence.
- Lead social media crisis protocols: advising clients on response timing, messaging hierarchy, and platform-specific escalation procedures.
Paid Digital Media Oversight
- Direct paid media strategy across social and digital platforms, ensuring integration with earned and organic communications efforts.
- Oversee budget approval, agency briefing, audience targeting direction, and campaign performance review processes.
- Set KPIs and measurement frameworks for digital campaigns, with emphasis on outcomes aligned to client business and reputation objectives.
- Provide clients with actionable performance reporting: surfacing insights and translating findings into strategy adjustments.
- Ensure brand safety and audience data compliance across all paid placements, in line with applicable Indonesian and regional data privacy regulations.
Crisis Communications -- Digital Dimension
- Lead digital crisis monitoring and response capability, including social media listening, rapid content deployment, and coordinated narrative management across platforms.
- Advise clients on managing viral negative sentiment and platform-specific escalation, integrating digital response within broader crisis communications frameworks.
- Develop and maintain digital crisis preparedness frameworks and response protocols for at-risk clients.
Business Development
- Contribute to agency new business pitches, providing digital strategy inputs that are commercially credible and differentiated in the Indonesian market.
- Identify organic growth opportunities within existing client accounts by expanding earned-media retainers into integrated digital mandates.
- Represent Edelman's digital capability to prospective clients, drawing on sector knowledge across technology, consumer electronics, corporate, and conglomerate verticals.
Practice Leadership and Team Development
- Build, manage, and develop the digital practice team, raising capability across content, analytics, paid media, and influencer program management.
- Establish agency-wide digital standards, tools, and workflows that ensure quality and consistency across all client accounts.
- Contribute to Edelman Indonesia's positioning as a digitally capable communications partner within the regional network.
AI Integration and Workflow Governance
- Lead the adoption and governance of AI-assisted tools -- including generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot -- within the digital practice's content, research, and productivity workflows.
- Establish clear guidelines for responsible AI use in client work: defining where AI augments the practice, where human judgment remains non-negotiable, and how outputs are reviewed for accuracy and brand safety before deployment.
- Identify opportunities to integrate AI-assisted workflows into social media content production, media monitoring, performance reporting, and campaign planning -- improving practice efficiency without compromising quality standards.
- Advise clients on the communications implications of AI adoption within their own organisations, including reputational considerations and stakeholder messaging.
- Stay current on the evolving AI tools landscape as it applies to communications and digital practice operations, evaluating new capabilities for practical adoption within the team.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
- Minimum 15 years of professional experience in communications, with a track record that spans both agency and in-house environments.
- Demonstrable experience managing communications programs across multiple Southeast Asian markets, with Indonesia as a primary market.
- Proven oversight of KOL and influencer programs across full influencer tiers, including strategy, governance, and performance evaluation.
- Direct involvement in paid digital media at a strategic and oversight level, including budget management, agency briefing, and campaign performance review.
- Experience managing social media strategy and governance for corporate accounts, including listed companies or large private organisations.
- Demonstrated crisis communications experience, including digital crisis response and the integration of social media management within broader crisis frameworks.
- Technology sector literacy: ability to counsel on communications for technology, consumer electronics, or mobility clients, and to translate technical narratives into accessible digital content.
- Experience leading and developing communications teams in an agency or in-house context.
- Proficiency in English and Bahasa Indonesia, written and spoken.
We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t perfectly align with every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
