Art Director

Role Purpose
The Account Director leads the entire Account team and is accountable for both company business growth and project delivery performance. This role owns senior client relationships, revenue, profitability, pipeline, and delivery standards across the client portfolio.
This is not a traditional Account Service role. The Account Director must be hands-on in Strategy Planning-helping define the business problem, shape the strategic direction, and translate strategy into an actionable communication plan. Strategic responsibility cannot be limited to coordination or delegated entirely to the Strategy team.
Key Responsibilities
· Lead the entire Account team: set the structure, resource allocation, objectives, ways of working, and quality standards; directly manage, coach, and develop team members.
· Own business performance: build and execute the revenue plan; manage pipeline, forecasting, fees, margins, collections, and profitability across the client portfolio.
· Drive growth: retain and expand existing clients; identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities; lead or contribute to new business, pitches, proposals, and commercial negotiations.
· Own project operations: establish governance and control scope, timeline, budget, resources, risks, and quality; resolve escalations and ensure commitments are delivered.
· Participate directly in Strategy Planning: interrogate briefs; analyze the business, brand, consumer, and category; define the core problem, insight, strategic direction, communication architecture, channel roles, and measurement framework.
· Co-own strategic quality: partner closely with Strategy, Creative, Digital, Media, PR, and Production; review and challenge outputs before client presentation.
· Lead senior client relationships: act as a strategic business partner; advise, challenge, and defend professional recommendations based on evidence and business objectives.
· Standardize Account operations: build processes, tools, dashboards, reporting cadences, and cross-functional working practices; continuously improve efficiency and client experience.
· Report to leadership on business performance, project health, client risks, team capacity, and action plans; ensure issues are surfaced early and resolved fully.
Decision Authority and Scope
· Recommend and decide Account resource allocation based on business priorities and project complexity.
· Approve account plans, project governance, and output quality before client presentation; escalate commercial exceptions in line with company policy.
· Represent the Account team in cross-functional decisions and critical business or strategy meetings.
Key Performance Indicators
· Revenue, gross margin/profitability, forecast accuracy, and pipeline quality.
· Client retention, client satisfaction, organic growth, pitch/new-business win rate, and collection effectiveness.
· On-time/on-budget delivery, scope control, output quality, and escalation volume/risk.
· Account team performance, capability, engagement, and succession readiness.
Required Experience and Capabilities
· 8-10+ years of experience in agency, marketing, brand, or communications, including at least 4-5 years leading senior client/account work and teams.
· Demonstrated accountability for revenue, P&L/account profitability, client growth, and new-business leadership.
· Proven hands-on Strategy Planning capability, with direct experience developing and presenting communication strategies, campaign plans, or integrated marketing plans.
· Strong business and strategic thinking, connecting business challenge → consumer insight → strategy → creative/communication solution → measurement.
· Strong leadership, coaching, change-management, and decision-making skills; confident communication and negotiation with Marketing Director/Business Director-level stakeholders and above.
· Solid understanding of brand, creative, digital, social, media, PR, and production; professional English proficiency for client work and presentations.