PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT, VFX/AI

PURPOSE

APR Consulting Co. is a strategic production consultancy at the forefront of the advertising industry and is seeking a Principal Consultant, VFX/AI to join our team. With over 180 strategic advisors worldwide, APR Consulting Co offers unparalleled expertise in production efficiency across local, regional, and international markets, empowering global Fortune 500 marketers to maximize ROI while safeguarding the creative integrity of their projects through APR’s strategic consulting approach.

The Principal Consultant, VFX/AI, serves as a critical client partner, demonstrating strong leadership, oversight, accountability, and vision for their assigned client (s). Leveraging deep expertise in post-production and visual effects advisory, this role drives value for both the client and APR by guiding brands and their agencies in optimizing production budgets and their approaches to making marketing content. This role will develop and grow relationships with client and agency points of contact, partnering with their Senior Managing Advisor, Client Solutions, to act as a liaison between clients and internal teams. The role will identify and define key production consulting engagement opportunities, ensuring the right resources are assigned to the work.

DEFINING SUCCESS FOR THIS ROLE

This position will be successful if they can demonstrate the following objectives and performance targets:

Client Value

●      Increased awareness and belief that APR is a critical strategic partner in helping a client modernize their content creation (fees + omnichannel production) partnerships and approaches.

Revenue and Profit Management

●      Maintain assigned client(s) revenue; mine opportunities for growth through core production consulting and operational engagements.

Team Mentorship and Development

●      Successfully guide and mentor a team of content creation professionals as APR grows our portfolio of services and solutions.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position’s key responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Production Consulting

●      Secure a seat at the table with key client and/or agency stakeholders as they plan and prioritize key production and operations initiatives; clearly articulate how APR can support and help drive those initiatives forward.

●      Partner with client solutions team and APR’s strategy, growth, operations and center of excellence teams to define solutions that drive client value and optimal outcomes.

●      Assess client data, industry benchmarks, and optimal ways of working; provide clear and actionable recommendations to clients to optimize their agency/supplier partnerships and ways of working.

●      Co-lead with client solutions scoped agency partnerships.

●      Oversee project/campaign review work, providing guidance to assigned APR team (Sr Advisor/Advisor/PM/Business Intelligence Analyst).

●      Share recommendations relative to production approaches/options with agency and client, flagging potential risks and providing alternative solutions, as well as cost and process efficiency opportunities.

●      Leverage the data, trends, and insights from the tactical project/campaign to optimize overall partnership health, marketer-agency ways of working, and operational efficiencies for positive impact and transformation.

●      Provide ballpark guidance to support budget management upstream of production estimate review.

●      Ability to support both in-house producers (client and agency) in addition to marketers, requiring different approaches to consultation, guidance, and governance.

●      Understands how specific project/campaign work connects to broader production approaches, ways of working, and the content production ecosystem.

●      Expert at translating industry thought leadership and trends through the lens of the client; ability to consult as to a trend’s relative application.

●      Lead the development, improvement and maintenance of client ad production guidelines and best practices.

●      Update training programs presented to Client(s) and participate as needed in training

●      Proactively manage and respond to all communications.

●      Confidently handle fast-turn, high-priority requests with minimal supervision while maintaining accuracy and quality.

●      Maintain rigorous high standards in monthly, quarterly, and annual data capture and reporting.

●      Prioritize and manage multiple projects independently and meet tight deadlines.

●      Collaborate effectively across teams while thriving in independent work environments.

Post & Production Expertise

●      Ability to engage and support integrated production requirements, at both the tactical and strategic level.

●      Expertise in omnichannel campaign development and management; engage the right resources based on the production type requirements.

●      Ability to understand how production choices impact a brand’s overall business.

●      Thought leadership to optimize client-agency ways of working.

●      Support APR new business development efforts, when needed, providing insight and expertise related to client portfolio and relevant application to new business opportunities.

●      Demonstrates deep, hands-on experience across the entire post-production pipeline, including estimating & budgeting for:

1. Editorial
2. VFX
3. CGI
4. Immersive content
5. Sound design
6. AI-generated content.

●      Experience having previously produced content across varying levels of complexity, with a proven ability to manage budgets, timelines, and resources efficiently.

●      Strong understanding of content creation for a wide range of formats and platforms, including Hero campaigns, social media, influencer collaborations, experiential activations, live-stream events, and digital out-of-home (DOOH).

●      Brings a strategic and informed perspective to the use of emerging technologies, with a particular focus on AI applications, output quality, and workflow efficiencies.

●      Experience in the beauty industry is a strong advantage.

●      Embraces innovation and continuously seeks to integrate new tools and technologies that improve speed, accuracy, and creative potential.

Account Management

●      Manage all aspects of the assigned client(s) day-to-day partnership, providing superior customer service while maximizing business growth opportunities through strong oversight and implementation skills.

●      Responsible for meeting business OKR’s and development of aligned business plans.

●      Establish and grow strong relationships with key client stakeholders through a demonstration of industry expertise, thought leadership, and its application to client content creation challenges and opportunities.

●      Define and oversee reporting (project summary, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, annual, ad hoc).

●      Accountable for managing assigned client scopes of work and associated resource utilization and optimization.

●      Ability to ascertain where client requests present revenue growth opportunities; draft and submit proposals for incremental client requests with Account Director.

●      Proactively stay abreast of industry trends and share knowledge with client and team.

●      Manage and work to exceed client expectations.

Team Management

●      Oversee, and educate multi-disciplinary team of content creation advisors. 

●      Ensure team members are delegated work appropriately for their expertise and client allocation.

●      Full-scale team leadership, including coaching and development, management to client scope.

ABOUT YOU

●      10+ years of experience in post production and data management in advertising production.

●      Eager to scale strategies and solution across client experiences for growth and optimization.

●      Strong strategic thinker, with high levels of organization, and the ability to deliver consistent, high-quality results across multiple priorities and content types.

●      A true client ambassador, advocating on behalf of client opportunities and sharing insights that support APR innovation and growth.

●      Experience in the beauty industry is a strong advantage.

●      Experienced team leader and mentor, ensuring that team members and clients have the resources and tools needed.

●      A self-directed professional with the ability to work independently.

●      Possesses accountability and is capable of owning the quality and accuracy of their work in a sometimes fast-paced, time-sensitive environment.

●      Competitive and collaborative spirit.

●      A desire to build and grow client engagement to drive client and APR value.

●      A natural problem solver; leans into (not away from) challenges and seeks solutions that serve a client’s needs.

●      Comfortable taking educated risks and confident in your ability to make decisions.

●      Verbally articulate; excellent writing skills.

●      Organized, able to handle quantities of disparate information and recognize opportunities.

●      High EQ rooted in a growth mindset.

●      A leader who loves to mentor and drive individual team member success and results.