Account Director

Overview

M&C Saatchi World Services is part of the M+C Saatchi Group, a global creative solutions company headquartered in the UK, with major hubs across Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Guided by the belief that cutting-edge communications and technologies can change the world, we help our clients solve some of the world’s most complex challenges — operating at the intersection of strategy, creativity, and impact to shape narratives, influence behaviour, and deliver meaningful real-world outcomes.

About the role

As an Account Director at M&C Saatchi World Services in London, you’ll play a central leadership role in delivering high-impact communications campaigns focused on social change and complex global issues. You will lead the full lifecycle of integrated communications projects, from shaping briefs and strategic direction through to overseeing production and delivery. You’ll ensure work is delivered to the highest quality, on time and within budget, while driving strong commercial and creative outcomes. This is a role for someone confident and forward-leaning: comfortable leading senior stakeholder relationships, steering strategic conversations, and translating complex geopolitical and societal issues into clear, compelling communications.

What you'll do

• Lead delivery: Take ownership of timelines, budgets, scopes, and resourcing across projects. Ensure efficient delivery, proactively managing risk, identifying opportunities, and driving best-in-class output across all workstreams.
• Set the standard for the work: Champion creative excellence and strategic rigour. Ensure all outputs are insight-driven, on brief, and delivering meaningful impact, while constructively challenging teams and clients to push the work further.
• Own senior client relationships: Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders. Lead conversations with confidence, provide clear recommendations, manage feedback effectively, and navigate challenges with a solutions-focused mindset.
• Drive strategy: Partner closely with strategy and creative teams to define direction, shape briefs, and ensure clarity and focus across all projects. Bring strong perspectives on audiences, channels, research, and evaluation.
• Build and lead teams: Foster strong cross-agency collaboration and create a positive, high-performing team environment. Provide clear direction, support, and mentorship to more junior colleagues.
• Contribute to agency growth: Identify opportunities for organic growth within accounts, support new business efforts, and contribute to shaping agency initiatives, culture, and ways of working.
• Lead up and down: Provide clear leadership across teams while maintaining strong alignment with senior stakeholders. Escalate issues appropriately and act as a reliable, accountable lead across delivery.

About you

You’ll have significant experience in a commercial communications role or similar environment, and be confident operating at a senior level with responsibility for both client relationships and project delivery. You’re organised, articulate, and strategically sharp, with the ability to lead high-profile, high-stakes projects. You take ownership seriously — for the work, for the client relationship, and for the agency’s reputation.

• A degree in Politics, History, International Relations, Marketing, Communications, or a similar field (or equivalent experience)
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence engaging and influencing senior stakeholders
• Strong commercial acumen and experience managing budgets, scopes, and forecasting
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams)
• A strong interest in geopolitics and global affairs
• The legal right to work in the United Kingdom
• Willingness to travel internationally and work independently
• 5+ years of experience working in a communications agency

Bonus points if you have

• Spanish language skills (working knowledge or fluency)

About M+C Saatchi World Services

M&C Saatchi World Services is a specialist division of M+C Saatchi Group, the world’s largest independent communications network. Our specialists work in office hubs across six continents, grounding our global expertise in local nuance. We offer award-winning commercial communications capabilities, which are utilized by global organizations to address the world’s most complex problems across defence, development, diplomacy, homeland and national security, law and order, health, education, and the environment.

We work with clients that want to help the hardest-to-reach, hardest-to-influence audiences. This includes a range of Western Government departments, such as DOS and USAID; partner governments, including the U.K. and Australia; and prominent IGOs/NGOs such as the U.N. We are a comms agency that works on behaviour change projects typically focused on issues related to Security, Defence and Stabilization. Whether it’s producing critically acclaimed feature films in Africa, to TV shows in the Middle East, to pop music videos in Asia, we have a record of leveraging creativity to access communities anywhere in the world.

M+C Saatchi Group was founded in 1995 and is now the biggest Independent creative agency group in the World. Founded on one core principle, Brutal Simplicity.

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