Overview
The Account Director (AD) is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of client accounts, ensuring high standards are achieved in media planning, client management, and strategic execution. ADs move beyond campaign-level thinking to take a broader view of the client’s overall business and agency relationship, focusing on delivering industry‑leading work and fostering high‑performing teams. They play a pivotal role in ensuring high‑quality outputs, embedding best practices, team leadership and leading planning discussions with clients and internal teams.
Responsibilities
- Client Leadership & Relationship Management – Act as a trusted advisor to mid‑to‑senior level clients, leading conversations with confidence, anticipating challenges, and providing proactive, solutions‑focused guidance.
- Strategic Planning Leadership – Lead the end‑to‑end planning process, ensuring all work is insight‑led, strategically grounded, and delivers full‑funnel media recommendations aligned to business objectives.
- Insight & Audience Development – Generate actionable audience and performance insights using data sources and reporting to shape planning direction and identify growth opportunities.
- Commercial & Financial Accountability – Maintain financial accuracy across accounts, support forecasting and growth plans, ensure contract compliance, and identify revenue opportunities.
- Storytelling & Communication Excellence – Translate media strategy into compelling narratives, delivering clear, confident presentations and written outputs.
- Channel & Media Expertise – Demonstrate strong cross‑channel knowledge (digital and traditional), applying media theory, measurement frameworks, and performance tracking to drive outcomes.
- Quality Control & Governance – Ensure high standards of output, catching errors, maintaining compliance, and protecting revenue.
- Team Leadership & Development – Lead and inspire the immediate team, set clear direction, foster a high‑performance culture, and support the growth of junior team members.
- Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement – Review and refine ways of working, champion best practices, and drive adoption of planning frameworks and tools.
Qualifications
- Proven experience leading end‑to‑end, full‑funnel media planning.
- Strong client leadership skills, with the ability to build trusted senior relationships.
- Strategic and insight‑driven thinker, confident turning data into clear planning direction.
- Excellent storytelling and presentation skills.
- Broad cross‑channel media expertise (digital and traditional), including measurement and performance frameworks.
- Commercially astute, with experience managing budgets, forecasting, and compliance.
- Strong team leadership capability, driving quality, accountability, and development.
- Proactive, solutions‑focused mindset with a track record of identifying growth opportunities.
Additional Information
Starcom has fantastic benefits on offer to all of our employees, full details of which are shared when you join. This includes the classics like Pension, Life Assurance, Private Medical, as well as Reflection Days, Shared Parental Leave, and spans other initiatives like:
Please check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG’s (Employee Action Groups).
Starcom is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.
We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs—e.g. related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition—please let us know. We’ll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.
Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change—building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.
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