Account Director - Planning

Medialab Group; England; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

22 days holiday

Hybrid working

Career growth

Private medical insurance

Parental leave pay

Charity days

Retail discounts

Job summary

Medialab Group in the UK is seeking a Planning Account Director to drive strategic thinking and planning across a diverse client portfolio. You will own planning delivery, collaborate with senior leads, and ensure work is sharp, effective and well thought through.

You will lead cross-channel campaigns, shape opportunities, and mentor teams to deliver results while embracing data-driven and innovative approaches within a supportive, meritocratic environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in media and communications planning across categories.
• Strong cross-channel planning expertise aligning digital and AV for full-funnel impact.
• Experience leading and coaching teams with a collaborative leadership style.
• Ability to translate briefs into clear, sharp planning recommendations using planning frameworks.
• Comfort with using planning tools and evidence-based approaches to improve efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic client partnerships as senior day-to-day contact across priority accounts.
• Shape commercial and strategic opportunities by guiding briefs, renewals and client alignment.
• Lead cross-channel campaign planning and delivery with KPI-aligned reporting.
• Coach planning teams in digital and offline media strategy and audience-first planning.
• Ensure timely planning timelines and high-quality outputs across client engagements.

Skills

Media planning

Cross-channel planning

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Job description

Medialab is the UK’s leading independent media agency, and one of the fastest growing in the industry. We’re a media agency that’s made differently: purpose-led, data-driven, founder-run and proudly independent.

Our entrepreneurial spirit means success is recognised and rewarded. There are no limits to what you can achieve here, which our employees agree with, evidenced by being a Campaign Best Place to Work for six consecutive years and one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025. As well as this, we’re Campaign’s Independent Agency of the Year 2024 and Media Week’s Independent Agency of the Year 2025.

We are IPA Effectiveness accredited, an IPA People-First agency, and All In Champions, with industry-leading work recognised by double-gold at the 2024 IPA Effectiveness Awards for our work with Laithwaites and a 2025 Effie for our work with Alzheimer’s Society.

Our independence means we can focus 100% on doing the right thing to secure success for our clients and our brilliant people. We work with a wide variety of clients including Hovis, IG, Sharps Bedrooms, SunLife, Standard Life, Ancestry, Laithwaites Wine, Save the Children, Guide Dogs, Alzheimer’s Society, RNLI and Clearscore.

OUR VALUES

• Commit to Doing the Right Thing (Act with integrity and accountability)
• Help People Flourish (Invest in people)
• Dig Deeper to Understand Better (Data driven curiosity)

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

Working at Medialab comes with lots of perks including all the usual things you would expect, such as a competitive salary package, pension, season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, weekly social events and big summer / end of year parties.

On top of that, we offer extra benefits, which make life at Medialab even more rewarding:

• Time to Unwind – 22 days holiday (+ Christmas holiday closure), a day off for your birthday, holiday buying scheme, flexi-hours and work abroad scheme.
• Hybrid Working – Balance between home and office (3 Days In the Office). We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements from the commencement of employment.
• Career Growth – A meritocratic approach to progression with quarterly reviews, CPD Platinum accredited training, mentoring and leadership support.
• Health & Wellbeing – Private medical insurance, health cash plan, gym discounts, wellbeing apps Mental Health First Aiders and free professional counselling.
• Supporting Families – Enhanced parental leave pay, flexible working and life assurance.
• Giving Back – Paid charity days and sustainability initiatives.
• Perks & Rewards – Retail discounts, long-service trips and an unforgettable team culture.

YOUR NEXT CHALLENGE

We’re looking for a Planning Account Director to bring strategic thinking and clarity to one of our client planning teams. You’ll work closely with senior leads while taking ownership of planning delivery across a defined set of clients, helping ensure work is consistently sharp, effective and well thought through.

You’ll be a key day-to-day planning lead and trusted partner to Account Directors, Managers and Execs, working across a varied mix of clients – working with one of the agency’s largest client accounts in the charity sector, delivering Brand Strategy, Performance campaigns and building bespoke Partnerships. Your role is to translate briefs into clear planning responses, elevate thinking within the team, and help create the conditions for great work to happen.

We’re looking for someone with solid cross-channel knowledge, a strong planning instinct, and a collaborative, supportive leadership style. Someone who can guide and develop others, ask the right questions, and help the team deliver work that genuinely drives results.

HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT

• Lead strategic client partnerships, acting as senior day-to-day contact across priority accounts.
• Shape commercial and strategic client opportunities by proactively identifying growth areas, influencing briefs, and ensuring alignment with client ambition and business goals.
• Optimise agency impact by supporting Business Directors in value articulation, renewals, and commercial planning.
• Identify and deliver key agency opportunities: Whether these are commercial opportunities or efficiency opportunities they have a clear focus on supporting agency growth.
• Supports commercial delivery, working with BD’s + Ops/Finance on forecasting, margin tracking, and pipeline visibility.
• Lead cross-channel campaign planning and delivery, ensuring cohesion, performance alignment to KPIs, and consistent reporting.
• Shape the media response to briefs by setting the strategic direction, supporting innovation and optimisation-led approaches, and overseeing planning timelines.
• Coach teams in digital and offline media strategy, embedding audience-first, insight-led planning approaches and encouraging cross-channel thinking.
• Shape a forward-looking planning culture, encouraging teams to stay ahead of market developments.
• Support channel leads and planners to feed into client-facing trend decks and strategic updates, with a focus on delivering best-in-class thinking.
• Promote automation and efficiency, advocating for smart use of AI tools and scalable planning practices that raise standards in documentation, collaboration and productivity.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TEAM

• Proven experience in media and communications planning, ideally across a variety of categories and business objectives, with the ability to balance brand-building and performance-driven thinking.
• Strong cross-channel planning expertise, with a clear understanding of how digital and AV channels work together to deliver full-funnel impact.
• Demonstrated experience in leading and supporting teams, with a collaborative and inclusive leadership style that prioritises development, constructive feedback, and coaching at the right moments.
• Confidence using planning tools and effectiveness frameworks (such as Touchpoints, media principles, and measurement approaches), and the ability to apply them practically in day-to-day planning.
• A track record of delivering clear, strategic thinking, able to simplify complex challenges, interrogate briefs effectively, and translate insight into sharp, actionable recommendations.

At Medialab we are committed to fostering a culture that celebrates creative thinking, different perspectives and the many different cultures that exist. We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and identities. All qualified applicants will receive fair consideration, regardless of age, disability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, belief, marital status, social mobility or any other protected characteristic.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to make our recruitment process more accessible for you, please reach out to our Head of Talent Acquisition and Inclusion at [e-mail]. Requesting a reasonable adjustment will not affect your application.