Planning Account Director

ipa.co.uk - Jobboard; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading media agency in the UK seeks a Senior Planner to lead media strategy for prominent accounts. The role involves client account management, proposal development, and team training. Candidates should possess strong presentation and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to nurture junior talent and manage client finances. Benefits include a competitive salary, flexible working, and unique perks designed for personal growth. Join an innovative environment that encourages creativity and integrity.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Uncounted holiday

Discretionary performance-related bonus

Flexible & hybrid working

Personalised training plan

Gym membership

Optional private medical insurance

Wellbeing days

Profit share scheme

Electric Vehicle scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in leading account management and media planning.
• Ability to train and develop junior team members.
• Capability to manage finance challenges with clients.

Responsibilities

• Lead the client team for day-to-day account management.
• Deliver best in class media planning proposals.
• Develop the media planning proposal and coordinate the agency team.

Skills

Excellent inter-personal skills

Presentation skills

Communication skills

Leadership of new business pitches

Job description

The Role

You’ll join us as a senior member of the Planning team, leading strategy across several high‑profile accounts, spanning FMCG (Health & Beauty) and a utility brand.

This role sits at the heart of our brand‑new planning team, giving you a rare opportunity to help shape our ways of working, define best‑in‑class planning practices, and contribute to the culture from day one. It’s an incredible moment to join the7stars as we evolve and innovate, building a future‑fit planning function designed to set new standards for the industry.

As well as leading the overall media approach, you will closely liaise with the specialists across the business to ensure we develop the right audience, measurement and activation strategies for our clients driving best‑in‑class collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the client team across day‑to‑day account management & media planning work.
• Focus on delivering best in class media planning proposals & maintaining excellent industry leading relationships.
• Work closely with Planning BD to share and build your client knowledge that informs great media planning responses clearly aligned to the client's needs.
• Responsible for developing the media planning proposal and managing the coordination of agency team, i.e. specialist contribution to planning proposals, client meetings and campaign reviews & supporting analysis.
• Managing your equivalent clients; supporting and challenging them as necessary to build a true partnership.
• Supporting the BD in shaping & delivering relevant proactive work to Marketing leads which goes beyond the brief and steers the relationship away from becoming transactional.
• Champion and integrate agency tools and tech to supercharge planning responses.
• Responsible for training and development of junior planning team members in areas of media planning, category learning, insight gathering & analysis of results to generate clear learnings & recommendations.

Requirements

• Able to represent the agency planning framework & ethos and train up team members to do the same.
• Actively participate in and support the leadership of, agency new business pitches.
• You are the escalation point for internal and client finance challenges.
• You’ll have excellent inter‑personal, presentation and communication skills to support the relationships you build across the team, with your clients and across the agency.
• You’ll be confident in both nurturing and challenging junior team members so that they grow and fulfil their potential.

The Package

• Competitive salary
• Uncounted holiday
• Discretionary Performance related Summer profit share & Christmas bonus
• Flexible & hybrid working
• Personalised training plan & access to coaching
• Wellbeing days
• Flexible pension plan through Royal London (8% employer contribution under £35k)
• Optional private medical insurance (Vitality) & cash back plan (Medicash)
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Work from anywhere up to 2 weeks each year
• Paid for gym membership with a choice of 5 gyms
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Personal finance advice & support
• Life Assurance & Critical Illness cover
• Income protection
• Profit share scheme (after 3 years’ service)
• Electric Vehicle scheme
• Nursery Partnership
• Tech & Cycle to Work scheme
• Season ticket loans & expensed Railcard
• Company bar
• New Business Bonus eligible in your first year as a the7stars employee

the7stars is unlike any other agency. The distinction started the day we launched in 2005 when we named ourselves after a pub, but more importantly when we made a promise that we were going to do things differently.

And this commitment has stuck with us. It guides how we work, how we think and how we treat one another and can be expressed in a single word.

Freedom.

Our Freedom philosophy lives across our entire business from people, product and planning. It means we plan & buy media how we want, develop careers how we want, take holiday when we need it, invent tools when we need them, give people a platform to speak up, question and express themselves freely - but more importantly it has allowed us to create an amazing place to work.

We have a unique working environment and open structure which encourages personal development through client contact, team work, training, exposure to all media and internal teams – and a “sky’s the limit” approach to your growth within the agency.

the7stars is 300 passionate media people that are able to focus purely on creating great work for our clients.

If thinking freely and with integrity is your bag, then the7stars is an agency you should meet.

Apply if you want to…

• Join the largest independent, free‑thinking, fast‑moving media agency in the UK
• Be challenged to learn and grow every day
• Join a business that does more than just media – that gives 5% of its profits back into the community
• Be part of a culture that encourages creativity, entrepreneurialism and most importantly of all…fun

the7stars is committed to creating a diverse environment, where employees feel empowered to share different ideas, perspectives and experiences in a collaborative and creative work environment. Equality and inclusion are at the heart of our culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.