Account Director (12-Month Contract)

About the role

We’re looking for an Account Director to join our Client Services team on a 12-month contract, covering maternity leave and supporting a wide range of exciting client accounts. You’ll be a proactive, natural multitasker with the confidence to work well under pressure and lead projects at pace. You will know when to ask the right questions and have an excellent eye for detail.

You’ll bring at least five years of client-facing agency experience, ideally across both B2C and B2B clients, and know how to manage teams, engage with clients and keep projects running smoothly.

Responsibilities 

• Leading a portfolio of clients and overseeing the Account Management team
• Building strong, transparent relationships with clients, acting as their first port of call for strategic and creative conversations
• Ensuring the highest standards across our strategy, media, creative and tech work
• Acting as the link between client ambitions and agency delivery, ensuring projects stay on track, on budget, and on brief
• Demonstrating real leadership qualities by ensuring best practice account management skills, as well as contributing to an inspiring and constructive working environment

See a more detailed breakdown of responsibilities by department below.

Your skills and experience

As a member of the AgencyUK Client Services team, you will be required to:

• Be a welcoming and professional face or voice of the agency when dealing with clients or suppliers, whether on the phone, online or in person
• Build open and honest relationships with clients, based on trust and transparency
• Understand AgencyUK’s project delivery process and follow internal approval procedures
• Demonstrate excellent project management skills – efficient, proactive, commercially aware and detail-focused
• Foster strong relationships with colleagues and contribute positively to agency life

In-depth departmental responsibilities

Client

• Have a deep understanding of each client’s business, sector and key trends
• Act as the first point of contact on all major strategic, creative and resourcing issues
• Write clear, structured proposals, reports and briefs
• Ensure deadlines are met and expectations are managed effectively
• Build strong, enduring relationships with clients, both professionally and socially
• Proactively look for opportunities to add value and strengthen client partnerships
• Represent the client’s business within the agency, and the agency in all client interactions
• Act as the Business Director’s first port of call for all account-related questions

Creative

• Provide the creative team with the right context by ensuring a strong understanding of the client’s business and objectives
• Act as the senior day-to-day contact for the creative department, offering clear vision and direction for work
• Demonstrate sound judgement of creative ideas, and present or defend them persuasively both to the client and wider agency 
• Keep the Creative Director informed of all relevant client or account developments

Finance

• Contribute to the creation of business and key account plans
• Maximise billings and income opportunities across accounts while ensuring fair value for clients
• Support the financial health of the agency by monitoring billing procedures, profitability and potential write-offs
• Submit accurate, up-to-date timesheets and ensure the same from team members

Traffic/Production

• Ensure projects have the right resources and sufficient time allocated for quality delivery
• Help clients understand the importance of allowing enough time for creative development

Strategy

• Maintain strong relationships with the Strategy team
• Develop insightful strategies and excellent briefs in collaboration with strategists
• Lead the creation of new business proposals and pitches, coordinating departments to deliver work that answers the brief

Media, SEO and Tech

• Oversee the team’s output, ensuring quality and effective resource management
• Stay up to date with developments in media, SEO and technology, promoting best practice in research, planning and execution
• Keep department heads informed of relevant client and account matters
• Lead reporting workstreams, reviewing and improving outputs where needed

Management

• Ultimately responsible for the smooth running of accounts – operationally, creatively and financially – answering to both clients and directors
• Create an environment where outstanding work can thrive, ensuring the right time and resources are in place to deliver this within the client’s timeframe
• Build respect and loyalty from colleagues across the team and wider agency
• Manage, coach and mentor junior team members to support their growth and development
• Delegate effectively at all levels, upwards and downwards
• When appropriate, escalate issues to directors in a timely and constructive way

Culture

• Share knowledge and insights openly across the team
• Help raise the standard of the Account Management team
• Act as an ambassador for AgencyUK, contributing to a positive agency reputation
• Strive for long-term partnerships and help foster a positive, collaborative team spirit

Key performance indicators

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of each client’s business, sector and key trends
• Contribute to sound financial management, profitability and accurate billing across accounts
• Develop insightful strategies and enable outstanding creative ideas
• Share knowledge and intelligence actively across the team
• Elevate the Account Management team through leadership and example
• Contribute to a positive, innovative agency culture
• Build and maintain excellent client relationships
• Act as an ambassador for AgencyUK, strengthening our reputation

About AgencyUK

We’re an award-winning integrated brand and communications agency. Privately owned and proudly independent, we work with brands we truly believe in to help them mean more.

Since 2008, our exceptional creative, strategy, web, media and client services teams have helped some of the world’s biggest consumer, B2B and healthcare brands connect with their audiences and achieve their goals, from kitchenware and confectionery to life-changing clinical research.

Our bustling Beehive Yard office is set in the heart of Bath’s artisanal district, surrounded by outstanding independent creative businesses and just a stone’s throw from the city’s historic Roman centre. We have strong connections to Bristol and the South West, but our clients are based all over the globe, including the United States, Belgium, India and beyond.

We are proud to be a certified B Corp, demonstrating our commitment to be a force for good in business and operate with people, purpose and planet at heart, as well as a founding member of the West of England Good Employment Charter and a certified Real Living Wage employer.

We’re a friendly bunch and enjoy spending time together with regular opportunities for learning and development as well as socialising. Our local community and charities are important to us, and we’re always doing our bit to help – we even have our own beehives on site!

We’ve won some awards too:

• Brand Strategy Agency of the Year – The Drum Recommends 2020
• Best Social Media & FMCG Campaign – Independent Agency Awards 2022
• Best Advertising Agency (Under 40 Staff) – The Drum Recommends 2019
• D&AD Pencil – D&AD Awards 2016
• and (quite a few) more!

What we offer

• 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, with the option to buy an additional 5 days per year
• Hybrid working
• Free tea, coffee, fruit and breakfast in the office
• Regular social events, including summer trips, BBQs, Christmas parties, Quiz Nights etc.
• Opportunities to join training courses, including first aid and mental health training and nutrition and disability awareness

If you would like to work for a nimble, dynamic agency, then we would love to hear from you.

Closing summary

AgencyUK is committed to ensuring our workforce reflects the community we represent. 

We welcome applications from all sections of the community and encourage applications from underrepresented backgrounds, including race, ethnicity, social background, disability, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, or national origin. We shall support requirements for reasonable adjustment where possible during the recruitment process. Information can be provided in alternative formats when requested.

Contact Information

Telephone: 01225 429 928

Email: hello@agencyuk.com
Address: AgencyUK, Units 2 and 5, The New Workshops, Beehive Yard, Bath, BA1 5BT