Account Director

Publicis Groupe ANZ; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Life Assurance

Private Medical cover

Reflection Days

Shared Parental Leave

Job summary

Starcom in London is seeking an Account Director, Deployment Lead to drive regional deployment for Pet Nutrition Europe, uniting media, influencer, production and analytics across Mars brands such as Pedigree, Whiskas and Sheba.

You will own the annual planning laydown, translate strategy into actionable plans and manage cross-market teams while maintaining clear visibility of asset needs and budget allocation.

Qualifications

• Strong client communication and relationship-building with senior stakeholders.
• Implementational and tactical planning to translate strategy into media plans.
• Ability to create clarity from complexity by aligning multiple disciplines.
• Excellent collaboration and influencing to bring teams together across markets.
• Strong organization and deadline management across multiple workstreams.
• Practical understanding of media platforms and data to inform decisions.
• Proactive, solutions-focused mindset for testing and optimization.

Responsibilities

• Own the regional deployment plan and translate media strategy into actionable recommendations and budget allocation.
• Lead annual planning laydown for allocated brands, coordinating media, influencer, production, analytics and commerce teams.
• Present recommendations to regional clients and guide tactical changes throughout the year.
• Connect planning across markets, consolidate inputs and resolve inconsistencies and risks.
• Ensure influencer activity, paid media, production and creative needs are integrated and visible.
• Drive in-year planning and optimization with cross-functional teams to align with brand priorities.
• Foster operational excellence and strong cross-team relationships across regions and markets.

Skills

Client communication

Planning expertise

Strategic planning

Collaboration

Attention to detail

Media platforms

Data insights

Problem solving

Stakeholder management

Job description

Company description

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the centre of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, we are the flagship Publicis Media agency that uses our ‘Power of One’ business model, with teams that span multiple disciplines across clients such as Aldi, P&G, Primark, Samsung, Stellantis, and Visa.

We place a huge focus on our People, and have driven flagship D&I and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential, and we encourage everyone to make “Brave Plays” in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work for five years in a row, Media Week's Agency of the Year 2025 and one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025.

Overview

Account Director, Deployment Lead – Pet Nutrition Europe

We are hiring an Account Director, Deployment Lead to join OneMars, Publicis Groupe’s bespoke agency partnership for Mars, working across Pet Nutrition Europe and iconic brands including Pedigree, Whiskas and Sheba. You’ll play a pivotal role in turning regional media strategy into clear, actionable plans that connect markets, capabilities and teams. Working at the heart of an integrated model spanning media, production, data and technology, social, influencer and commerce, you’ll help Mars create joined-up consumer experiences while supporting its marketing transformation journey.

Responsibilities

• Own the regional deployment plan, translating media strategy into clear implementational recommendations and tangible budget allocation decisions across Pet Nutrition Europe.
• Lead the annual planning laydown for your allocated brands, bringing together media, influencer, production, analytics and commerce specialists around one coherent and executable direction.
• Be a trusted partner to regional clients, presenting recommendations, explaining the thinking behind decisions and guiding tactical changes and optimisations throughout the year.
• Connect planning across markets, consolidating inputs, maintaining key multi‑market plans and proactively resolving inconsistencies, risks or gaps.
• Bring capabilities together, ensuring influencer activity, paid media, production and creative requirements work as an integrated whole and that teams have clear visibility of asset needs.
• Drive in-year planning and optimisation, coordinating tactical updates and working with activation, analytics, production and influencer teams to keep deployment aligned with evolving brand priorities.
• Champion operational excellence, building strong relationships across regional and market teams while sharing learnings and creating consistent, effective ways of working.

Qualifications

What are we looking for?

• Strong client communication skills, with the confidence to present complex plans, explain recommendations clearly and lead constructive conversations with senior stakeholders.
• Implementational and tactical planning expertise, with experience turning strategic direction into practical media plans, deployment requirements and briefs.
• An ability to create clarity from complexity, bringing specialist perspectives together and translating them into coherent, actionable planning frameworks.
• Excellent collaboration and influencing skills, with a mindset that brings people together across disciplines and markets, even when you don’t have direct authority.
• Strong organisation and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams, stakeholders and deadlines while maintaining high‑quality outputs.
• A practical understanding of media platforms and data, and the curiosity to use insights, platform capabilities and emerging opportunities to strengthen planning decisions.
• A proactive, solutions-focused mindset, comfortable spotting risks, adapting plans as priorities change and continually looking for opportunities to test, learn and improve.

Additional information

Starcom offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees. Full details are shared when you join, but highlights include core benefits such as Pension, Life Assurance, and Private Medical cover, alongside enhanced policies like Reflection Days and Shared Parental Leave. You’ll also have access to a range of additional initiatives, including:

Please check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG’s (Employee Action Groups).

Publicis Groupe works primarily from the office or our clients' office four days per week.

At Starcom, we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.

We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We’ll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.

Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.