Account Director

Liwa Content.Driven; Dubai; On-site; AED 350,000 - 700,000; Full time

Job summary

Liwa Content.Driven is seeking an experienced Account Director who can build strong client partnerships and act as a strategic marketing consultant to clients in the UAE. This role demands leadership across strategy, creative, content, digital and production, with responsibility for account growth, profitability and mentoring a servicing team.

The candidate will manage and grow key accounts in the UAE and be open to opportunities in international markets where relevant, driving client success

Qualifications

• 6–8 years of advertising, creative, digital, content or integrated agency experience.
• Proven ability to lead senior client relationships.
• Strong strategic and consultative approach to client management.
• Excellent written and spoken English; Arabic an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Build strong, trusted relationships with key clients and senior stakeholders.
• Act as a marketing consultant and strategic partner, not just receiving briefs.
• Lead cross-functional teams to develop integrated solutions.
• Grow account revenue while maintaining profitability.
• Mentor Account Managers and Account Executives.
• Lead strategic reviews and new business opportunities in UAE.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Client leadership

Business understanding

Integrated marketing knowledge

Commercial awareness

Team management

Presentation & negotiation

Job description

We are looking for an experienced and commercially minded Account Director who can build strong client partnerships and act as a strategic marketing consultant and problem-solving partner to our clients.

This is not simply an account servicing role. The Account Director should be able to understand a client's business, identify the real marketing or communication challenge behind a brief, and work with internal teams to develop effective, relevant and commercially viable solutions.

The role requires a combination of strategic thinking, client leadership, business understanding, integrated marketing knowledge, commercial awareness and team management.

The Account Director will primarily manage and grow business in the UAE, while also being open to identifying suitable opportunities in international markets where relevant.

1. Consultative Client Leadership

• Build strong, trusted relationships with key clients and senior client stakeholders.
• Act as a marketing consultant and strategic partner, rather than simply receiving and executing briefs.
• Develop a strong understanding of each client's business, industry, customers, competition and commercial objectives.
• Identify the underlying business or marketing problem and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Confidently challenge or refine client briefs when required.
• Bring proactive ideas and recommendations to clients rather than waiting for briefs.
• Conduct regular strategic and business reviews with key clients.
• Anticipate potential issues and resolve client concerns before they affect the relationship.

2. Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving

• Translate business challenges into clear marketing and communication strategies.
• Work with strategy, creative, content, digital and production teams to develop integrated solutions.
• Provide strategic input into campaigns, brand positioning, content strategies and communication programmes.
• Understand changing consumer behaviour, market trends and emerging communication platforms.
• Help clients determine what they actually need, rather than automatically delivering what has initially been requested.
• Present strategic recommendations clearly and persuasively to senior client stakeholders.

3. Account Growth & Client Retention

• Take ownership of the health, retention and organic growth of assigned client accounts.
• Develop annual account plans identifying opportunities, risks and growth potential.
• Identify opportunities to introduce additional services and solutions where they genuinely add value to the client's business.
• Build deeper relationships across different departments and decision-makers within client organisations.
• Protect long-term client relationships while ensuring that accounts remain commercially sustainable.

4. Integrated Marketing, Content & Technology

• Maintain a strong working understanding of brand and advertising, creative campaigns, content and social media, digital marketing, video and film production, integrated campaigns, and emerging technologies and AI.
• Be comfortable discussing these areas with clients and bringing the appropriate specialists into the conversation.
• Understand how AI and technology are changing marketing, content creation, consumer engagement and agency efficiency, and remain curious about new solutions that can benefit clients.

5. Briefing, Creative & Campaign Leadership

• Convert client business requirements into clear, inspiring and actionable internal briefs.
• Ensure creative and strategy teams understand the business objective - not merely the deliverables.
• Participate actively in creative and strategic reviews.
• Evaluate work from both the client's business perspective and the agency's creative perspective.
• Oversee major campaigns and projects from brief through delivery.
• Maintain high standards of strategic, creative and executional quality.

6. Commercial & Financial Management

• Take responsibility for the commercial health and profitability of assigned accounts.
• Understand project scopes, budgets, margins and resource requirements.
• Ensure projects remain within agreed commercial parameters.
• Identify and manage scope changes appropriately.
• Provide accurate account revenue forecasts.
• Work closely with finance on invoicing, collections and outstanding payments.
• Balance client requirements with the commercial interests of the agency.

7. New Business & Market Development

• Support the agency's new-business initiatives and participate actively in pitches.
• Identify potential business opportunities through existing relationships, referrals and industry networks.
• Contribute strategic thinking and client insight during pitches and proposals.
• Help convert appropriate opportunities into long-term client relationships.
• Primarily focus on the UAE market, while remaining open to commercially viable opportunities in international markets.
• This is not a pure business-development role. Client leadership, consultancy and account growth remain the primary responsibilities.

8. Team Leadership

• Lead and mentor Account Managers and Account Executives.
• Provide clear direction, priorities and accountability to the client servicing team.
• Develop stronger strategic and commercial thinking within the team.
• Encourage the team to move beyond order-taking towards proactive client consultancy.
• Review team performance and support individual development.
• Ensure effective collaboration between account management, strategy, creative, content, digital, production and finance teams.

Experience & Profile

• Approximately 6-8 years of relevant advertising, creative, digital, content or integrated agency experience.
• Strong candidates with around 6-7 years' experience who demonstrate the required maturity and capability will be considered.
• Previous experience independently managing significant client relationships.
• UAE/GCC agency experience is preferred.
• Strong strategic and consultative approach to client management.
• Demonstrated ability to grow and retain client accounts.
• Good understanding of integrated marketing, creative, digital, content and production.
• Commercially aware and comfortable managing budgets, scopes and profitability.
• Strong presentation, negotiation and relationship-management skills.
• Experience managing or mentoring account servicing teams.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Arabic or other additional languages are an advantage but not a requirement.
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial agency environment.

The Person We Are Looking For

• Thinks before executing and asks the right questions to get to the real business problem.
• Can sit across the table from a senior client and confidently advise them.
• Is strategic but remains hand‑on.
• Is commercially responsible without becoming purely sales-driven.
• Understands creativity and knows how to protect good creative work.
• Can build trust internally as well as externally.
• Is proactive and does not wait for the client to provide every opportunity.
• Is curious about AI, technology and the future of marketing.
• Can develop younger account management talent.
• Takes ownership when things go wrong rather than passing responsibility.
• Wants to build long‑term client partnerships rather than simply manage projects.

What Success Looks Like

• Client retention and satisfaction.
• Organic account growth.
• Quality of strategic thinking and recommendations.
• Account profitability.
• Quality and consistency of campaign delivery.
• Development of strong senior client relationships.
• New opportunities generated from existing relationships and networks.
• Contribution to relevant new‑business wins.
• Development and performance of the account management team.
• Increased adoption of a consultancy‑led approach across client relationships.