Account Director

Havas Life London; Greater London; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Havas Life London is seeking an Account Director to lead complex projects, align cross-functional talent, and drive high-quality client outcomes. You will manage budgets, milestones, and expectations across a fast-paced health communications landscape, leveraging AI tools to optimise delivery.

Your role requires strong leadership, strategic thinking, and exceptional stakeholder management to ensure alignment with client briefs and agency standards.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in project management within a creative, digital, or agency environment.
• Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, including client-facing relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, budgets and resources effectively.

Responsibilities

• Strategically align talent-to-task across complex projects, ensuring governance and planning.
• Define accountability for an insights-led brief as a foundation for success.
• Lead planning, initiation and execution of projects and manage budgets and milestones.
• Maintain project foundations and tools, including timelines and deliverables.
• Champion use of approved network AI tools to drive efficiency and consistency.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder management

Budgeting

Client-facing

Leadership

Tools

AI tools

Job description

Havas Life London is not just evolving; we’re reimagining what a health and wellness agency can be. We’re building a destination for the brightest minds, the boldest ideas, and the kind of creativity that reshapes industries.

We’re a collective of curious thinkers, courageous makers, and kind collaborators. The culture we’re building is fast, fearless, and future-facing, driven by a belief that creativity is the most powerful force for growth.

We are vibrant collaborators, smart decision-makers, and believers in a win-or-learn mindset. Our emerging creative culture is built on curiosity, courage, and kindness. We expect more from ourselves and those who join our high-performance team.

As part of the Havas Health network, we’re pushing boundaries, embracing AI and emerging tech, and reimagining how strategic creativity can unlock new value for clients across the globe. We’re here to make London the beating heart of global health communications. Be the go-to creative strategic partner for our network colleagues and client partners alike.

The role

Partnering with Client Relations and cross-functional talent, the Account Director has dynamic problem-solving skills, strong commercial insight, and the ability to understand and align client expectations with internal capabilities. Through deep client relationships and harnessing processes, talent, and technology, project management at Havas Life London will enable ideas to be transformed into impactful outcomes, consistently upholding the highest standards of quality and client satisfaction.

The Account Director is responsible for ensuring the delivery of successful complex projects, aligning talent through a shared vision and clear expectations based on client need, and managing project scope, budgets, and milestones. Managing client discussion on all project aspects and driving excellence across all project phases, from inception to execution and continuous improvement, the Account Director will partner across functions to ensure project performance, alignment to client requirements, and meeting the agency’s highest standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with cross-functional leads to strategically align talent-to-task across complex projects, incorporating governance and talent planning to support delivery excellence, cost-effective delivery and operational efficiency and operational efficiency
• Ensure alignment of project vision and define accountability for an insights-led brief as a foundation for success and potential to deliver award-winning work
• Actively participate in and influence conversations around project outputs, ensuring creativity and innovation are protected during the project and aligned to the client’s brief
• Nurture trusted cross-functional internal relationships, managing diverse stakeholders and fostering seamless collaboration
• Lead the planning, initiation, and execution of projects, ensuring alignment with client expectations and agency standards
• Lead effective project kick-offs and briefings internally and with the client to ensure alignment on the shared project vision, expectations and success metrics
• Develop project foundations and maintain project management tools (job codes, timelines, defined deliverables, budget, trackers)
• Manage project workflow to drive momentum for delivery, monitoring project quality and project health at all phases
• Lead project wrap-ups internally and with the client to review overall project health, wins and learns, and client satisfaction
• Proactively drive continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to refine processes and enhance team performance
• Oversee talent allocation and talent planning across projects, resolving conflicts and ensuring optimal delivery capacity through weekly talent reviews
• Champion talent development, identifying skill gaps and opportunities for growth to support evolving project needs and agency ambitions
• Serve as a senior point of contact for clients, providing strategic guidance and assurance across all aspects of project delivery
• Lead the client discussion on all project aspects, providing clarity and assurance, ensuring appropriate engagement of cross-functional specialists
• Partner with the Client Relations Lead, building and maintaining strong, trust-based relationships through clear communication and structured Project Management, and identifying and nurturing organic growth opportunities
• Develop and manage project budgets, monitor financial performance, project recoverability and on-budget delivery through monthly reconciliations
• Champion use of approved network AI tools to drive operational efficiencies, consistency and task automation
• Effective management of direct line reports, including timely completion of annual reviews

About you

• Proven experience in project management within a creative, digital, or agency environment with a bias towards medical communications
• Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, including client-facing and relationship skills
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, budgets, and resources effectively
• Excellent communication abilities, including active listening and clear articulation of plans, updates, and issues
• Strategic and analytical thinking to support problem solving and decision making