Account Director - 12 months FTC

VML South Africa; London; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job description

Department: Client & Business Leadership

Location:

Last Updated: 4/16/2025

Requisition ID: 9920

Who We Are:

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

The Account Director role is fundamental to the success of our client partnerships. You play a pivotal role in leading the smooth running and delivery of our client relationships and projects, through close collaboration at all times. As an experienced integrated Account Director, you will be responsible for and take ownership of the successful running of several large projects, armed with your experience and ability to think and do, to drive our client's business forward and of course, produce work to be proud of.

You will work closely with the Business Director in particular, to understand your client’s strategy and areas of opportunity, be responsible for the financial management of your projects, and most importantly be a lynchpin for the team, working closely with internal and client teams. You will be working on one of the agency’s long-standing and most awarded accounts, responsible for leading key strategic and creative projects. You’ll work alongside a Senior Account Director and Senior Account Managers, dividing projects between you, with the assistance of an Account Manager.

What you'll be doing:

• Creating superb client & inter-agency relationships: You will be running key day-to-day relationships with existing and new clients, leading and owning the key relationships, to guide the development of the account. Our Clients quickly need to see you as the lynchpin of this part of the business.
• Delivering successful integrated campaigns: Primarily an ATL account, you will be responsible for protecting and growing the business ensuring the impeccable delivery of all existing projects, across brand, partnership and product communications. The account is becoming increasingly integrated, and this will involve you managing new revenue streams, especially in digital, social, data, technology and delivering projects. This will require you to leverage the agency’s broad range of capabilities as well as manage interagency relationships.
• Taking commercial responsibility: You will be responsible along with your project director to ensure the successful running of the projects you are responsible for, working closely to with clients to manage the budgets effectively and efficiently for them and the agency.
• Managing challenges and resolutions: When challenges arise, you will be the first person the team goes to, tackling challenges head on, problem solving in the moment, feeling empowered to escalate when required and finding solutions and managing the communication with the client, or agency leaders to resolve, and continuously find areas for improvement.
• Making work to be proud of: This is a highly strategic and creative account, with great opportunities for excellent work. You’ll be collaborating closely with all client teams to ensure we deliver the best solution to the client's business problem, championing the work internally and externally.
• Supporting wider Client Team: You will have line management responsibility within the team, help with setting the vision for the client's business and contribute to a fantastic team dynamic for all team members across all departments.

What you'll need:

• Creative & strategic passion: You will have at least 18 months experience at AD level of delivering brand and product campaigns within an agency environment, for UK clients, including digital projects. Financial services or experience with regulated industries a bonus.
• Smart but also practical: Understanding the vision for your accounts and know how to execute against it. Knowing when to push clients creatively but also knowing when to sit back and listen. Adept at unearthing client’s challenges you will be able to go into their business, gain respect and understanding and look at opportunities to grow our relationship.
• Solutions focused: You work well under pressure, keeping your cool when challenges arise and looking for resolutions. Not afraid to make the case for what you believe in, you speak convincingly and know how to get people excited about the work we do, and the opportunities ahead.
• A team player: This means developing deep and honest relationships with Clients, becoming trusted advisors, whilst inspiring and leading a team of multi-disciplinary experts on projects to deliver on our commitments, and ensure everything we do exceeds expectations.
• A clear communicator: You will have a great communication style, comfortable leading client meetings, discussing creative, and giving feedback to agency teams. Diligent and organised, everything you do will have clear outcomes, next steps and bring people on the journey with you.

#LI-EMEA

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.