Senior Account Director

Role Overview

• Serve as senior client lead on select key accounts
• Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders and decision-makers
• Navigate complex conversations around scope, priorities, expectations, and trade-offs
• Anticipate client needs and identify opportunities for expanded engagement
• Serve as escalation point for complex client situations across the studio
• Model best practices in client communication and expectation management and relationship building
• Partner closely with creative and strategy leads to deliver strong outcomes
• Provide senior oversight on scoping, pricing, and contracts across all studio projects, not only those you directly lead
• Review new scopes and contracts for clarity, feasibility, margin, and alignment with studio capacity
• Flag risks, ambiguities, or misalignment early and partner with leadership to resolve them
• Pressure-test assumptions around effort, timing, and complexity before commitments are made
• Help maintain consistent use of scoping templates and best practices while allowing for customization
• Lead or support new business pitches and proposals alongside studio leadership
• Collaborate with the Design/Innovation Director to translate ambitious creative vision into realistic scopes and delivery models
• Help frame engagements strategically, ensuring creative ambition is matched with achievable project structures
• Translate high-level opportunity into clear phases, deliverables, resourcing plans, and pricing
• Support contract and pricing structures that protect both creative quality and profitability
• Ensure proposals reflect how the studio actually works and delivers value
• Ensure new clients are onboarded strategically and thoughtfully
• Help define kickoff structures, governance models, roles, and decision frameworks
• Align internal teams around objectives, success metrics, and ways of working
• Work with Design/Innovation Director to establish creative process expectations and collaboration rhythms
• Set projects up for momentum, clarity, and confidence from day one
• Identify early warning signs and course-correct engagements as needed
• Provide oversight and mentorship to Account Managers
• Support team members in managing scope, client expectations, and delivery
• Raise the overall consistency and quality of client engagement across the studio
• Contribute to improving studio processes and operational clarity
• Foster collaborative working relationships between account, strategy, and creative teams

Requirements

• 10+ years in senior account leadership roles within creative or design agencies
• Proven experience overseeing scoping, pricing, and contracts across multiple projects
• Strong understanding of agency economics, resourcing, risk management, and margin protection
• Confidence leading senior client relationships and high-stakes conversations
• Ability to partner effectively with creative leadership
• Experience mentoring Account Managers and supporting team development
• A genuine respect for design craft, creative process, and design-led thinking
• Strong communication skills and ability to bridge creative and business conversations.