Account Director

Starcom; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Life Assurance

Private Medical

Reflection Days

Shared Parental Leave

Inclusive Benefits

Job summary

Starcom is seeking an Account Director to lead the UK media planning on a major global account. You’ll shape UK plans and connect activity with Greece, Portugal and Spain, working closely with regional teams.

The role combines hands-on planning, client servicing and market coordination across multiple brands and channels. The candidate will oversee cross-market collaboration, ensure plan relevance to local markets, and guide teams across AV, OOH, social, search and programmatic.

Qualifications

• Strong communications planning experience in a media agency or closely related environment.
• Deep knowledge of the UK media landscape with experience delivering integrated plans across channels.
• Ability to translate briefs into clear planning recommendations and actions.
• Experience coordinating multiple teams, workstreams or markets to keep delivery aligned.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of integrated UK media plans from brief to delivery.
• Own client briefs across multiple consumer healthcare brands and translate needs into recommendations.
• Coordinate with teams across Western Europe to align activity for local markets.
• Guide planning across AV, OOH, social, search and programmatic with activation specialists.
• Manage hub-UK team overlap with clear ownership and communication.

Skills

Strong communications planning

UK media landscape

Integrated campaigns

Client liaison

Multi-market coordination

Job description

Company Description

With a history that dates back over 80 years,

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

We are hiring an Account Director to take a leading planning role on an exciting new account for a leading global consumer healthcare brand. You’ll shape UK media plans and connect them with activity across Greece, Portugal and Spain, working closely with established teams in each market. The role combines hands-on planning, client servicing and market coordination across multiple brands and a broad channel mix. It could suit an established Account Director or an experienced Account Manager ready to take the next step.

Responsibilities

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead the development of integrated UK media plans, applying clear planning principles from brief through to delivery.
• Take ownership of client briefs across multiple consumer healthcare brands, turning business needs into focused communications recommendations.
• Coordinate with teams across Western Europe to align activity while ensuring plans remain relevant to each local market.
• Guide planning across AV, out-of-home, social, search and programmatic, working closely with relevant activation specialists.
• Manage the overlap between the central hub and UK team, creating clear ownership, communication and ways of working.
• Take responsibility for the quality of team outputs, supporting Account Managers and Executives through useful feedback and clear direction.
• Support the Business Director with client servicing, account development and the transition of the newly won business.

Qualifications

Skills we’re looking for:

• Strong communications planning experience, gained within a media agency or a closely related environment.
• Good knowledge of the UK media landscape, with experience developing integrated plans across a range of channels.
• The ability to turn complex briefs into clear planning responses, recommendations and actions.
• Experience coordinating multiple teams, workstreams or markets and keeping delivery aligned.
• Confidence working directly with clients and explaining planning decisions in an accessible way.
• A supportive approach to developing others and maintaining consistently high standards across team output.
• Consumer healthcare or pharmaceutical experience would be useful, but it is not essential where relevant planning experience can be demonstrated.

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.