Account Director (Client Partner)

IW Group Inc.; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

IW Group Inc. in Los Angeles is seeking a Client Partner (Account Director) to lead strategic client relationships and drive integrated campaigns across automotive brands.

You will guide teams across strategy, creative, media, production, experiential, and social to deliver culturally relevant work that meets client objectives. The ideal candidate is a proven leader with 7+ years in account management, automotive experience, and a track record of growing key relationships while managing budgets,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Advertising, Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field preferred, or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years of account management or client services experience within an advertising, integrated marketing, digital, or communications agency.
• Automotive account experience required, with demonstrated experience supporting integrated automotive marketing initiatives.
• Experience managing senior client relationships and complex, high-profile accounts.
• Experience leading integrated campaigns across strategy, creative, media, social, production, digital, and/or experiential.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain trusted client relationships, serving as a strategic partner and senior day-to-day point of contact.
• Develop a deep understanding of the client’s business, brand, audiences, competitive landscape, and marketing objectives.
• Translate business challenges and cultural insights into clear strategic recommendations and integrated marketing solutions.
• Anticipate client needs and proactively identify opportunities that strengthen the client’s business and agency partnership.
• Provide clear, confident counsel and navigate complex client conversations, feedback, and changing priorities.
• Lead client meetings, presentations, campaign reviews, and strategic discussions.
• Build strong working relationships with external agency partners and stakeholders.
• Lead integrated campaigns from briefing and strategy through creative development, production, launch, and measurement.
• Partner closely with strategy, creative, media, social, production, experiential, and other disciplines to deliver cohesive work.
• Champion culturally relevant ideas and ensure audience and cultural insights are meaningfully reflected in the work.
• Establish clear scopes, timelines, deliverables, responsibilities, and milestones across multiple workstreams.
• Champion creative excellence while ensuring work remains strategically sound, culturally relevant, executable, and aligned with client objectives.
• Identify risks, resolve issues, and remove roadblocks before they impact campaign quality, timing, budget, or client relationships.
• Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships through new initiatives, capabilities, audiences, and scopes of work.
• Maintain oversight of account budgets, scopes, timelines, staffing needs, and overall account health.
• Partner with agency leadership and internal teams to ensure resources are appropriately aligned with account needs.
• Proactively communicate changes that may affect scope, budget, resources, or timing.
• Support the development of scopes of work, estimates, annual planning, and financial forecasting.
• Contribute to organic growth initiatives, agency presentations, and new business opportunities as needed.
• Partner with strategy, media, and other teams to establish campaign KPIs and measurement frameworks.
• Lead the development of campaign recaps, performance reports, business reviews, and recommendations.
• Use campaign results, audience insights, and market trends to identify opportunities for optimization and future growth.
• Provide clear direction and mentorship to junior and mid-level account team members.
• Foster collaboration and accountability across internal departments and external agency partners.
• Ensure teams understand client expectations, priorities, and the broader business context behind assignments.
• Partner with department leadership to identify resource needs and workload concerns.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Automotive marketing knowledge

Client relationship management

Executive presentation

Integrated marketing

Cross-functional leadership

Budget & scope management

Leadership under ambiguity

Communication skills

Organizational discipline

Education

Bachelor's degree in Advertising/Marketing/Communications

Tools

AI-enabled productivity tools

Job description

We’re looking for aClient Partner (Account Director)who can lead client relationships, guide integrated campaigns, and turn business challenges into strategic opportunities.

Reporting to the VP, Senior Client Partner, this role serves as a senior day-to-day client lead and is responsible for the health, growth, and successful delivery of a key automotive account. The Client Partner works across strategy, creative, media, production, experiential, social, and other agency disciplines to ensure teams are aligned and delivering culturally relevant work that meets client objectives.

The ideal candidate is a strong relationship builder and strategic thinker with automotive experience who understands how to balance client needs, creative ambition, cultural relevance, timelines, budgets, and business results and lead the team.

What You’ll Do

Client Leadership & Strategy

• Build and maintain trusted client relationships, serving as a strategic partner and senior day-to-day point of contact.
• Develop a deep understanding of the client’s business, brand, audiences, competitive landscape, and marketing objectives.
• Translate business challenges and cultural insights into clear strategic recommendations and integrated marketing solutions.
• Anticipate client needs and proactively identify opportunities that strengthen the client’s business and agency partnership.
• Provide clear, confident counsel and navigate complex client conversations, feedback, and changing priorities.
• Lead client meetings, presentations, campaign reviews, and strategic discussions.
• Build strong working relationships with external agency partners and stakeholders.

Integrated Campaign Leadership

• Lead integrated campaigns from briefing and strategy through creative development, production, launch, and measurement.
• Partner closely with strategy, creative, media, social, production, experiential, and other disciplines to deliver cohesive work.
• Champion culturally relevant ideas and ensure audience and cultural insights are meaningfully reflected in the work.
• Establish clear scopes, timelines, deliverables, responsibilities, and milestones across multiple workstreams.
• Champion creative excellence while ensuring work remains strategically sound, culturally relevant, executable, and aligned with client objectives.
• Identify risks, resolve issues, and remove roadblocks before they impact campaign quality, timing, budget, or client relationships.

Account Growth & Business Management

• Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships through new initiatives, capabilities, audiences, and scopes of work.
• Maintain oversight of account budgets, scopes, timelines, staffing needs, and overall account health.
• Partner with agency leadership and internal teams to ensure resources are appropriately aligned with account needs.
• Proactively communicate changes that may affect scope, budget, resources, or timing.
• Support the development of scopes of work, estimates, annual planning, and financial forecasting.
• Contribute to organic growth initiatives, agency presentations, and new business opportunities as needed.

Measurement & Team Leadership

• Partner with strategy, media, and other teams to establish campaign KPIs and measurement frameworks.
• Lead the development of campaign recaps, performance reports, business reviews, and recommendations.
• Use campaign results, audience insights, and market trends to identify opportunities for optimization and future growth.
• Provide clear direction and mentorship to junior and mid-level account team members.
• Foster collaboration and accountability across internal departments and external agency partners.
• Ensure teams understand client expectations, priorities, and the broader business context behind assignments.
• Partner with department leadership to identify resource needs and workload concerns.

What You’ll Bring

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Advertising, Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field preferred, or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years of account management or client services experience within an advertising, integrated marketing, digital, or communications agency.
• Automotive account experience required , with demonstrated experience supporting integrated automotive marketing initiatives.
• Experience managing senior client relationships and complex, high-profile accounts.
• Experience leading integrated campaigns across multiple disciplines, including strategy, creative, media, social, production, digital, and/or experiential.
• Experience working within a multi-agency or integrated agency environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets, scopes of work, timelines, and multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Experience contributing to organic account growth and identifying opportunities within existing client relationships.
• Experience developing multicultural or culturally driven marketing initiatives strongly preferred.
• Luxury automotive or premium/luxury brand experience preferred.

Skills & Abilities

• Strong strategic thinking with the ability to connect client business objectives to actionable marketing recommendations.
• Strong understanding of the automotive marketing landscape and consumer journey.
• Exceptional client relationship management and account leadership skills.
• Ability to confidently present, influence, and provide counsel to senior clients and agency partners.
• Strong understanding of integrated marketing across strategy, creative, media, social, production, digital, and experiential.
• Strong cultural awareness and curiosity, with an understanding of how culture and audience behaviors influence marketing.
• Ability to navigate complex client organizations and multiple agency partners while maintaining alignment and momentum.
• Strong financial management skills, including budgets, scopes, estimates, and resource planning.
• Ability to lead teams through ambiguity, changing priorities, and fast-moving client environments.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and listening skills.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Collaborative leadership style with the ability to motivate and develop team members.
• Strong judgment, problem-solving skills, and ability to remain composed under pressure.
• Comfortable using modern collaboration, project management, presentation, and AI-enabled productivity tools.
• Sound judgment regarding the appropriate and responsible use of AI and emerging technologies in client and agency work.
• Ability to travel approximately 25%, depending on client and business needs.
• Ability to attend client, industry, community, and agency events as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Luxury automotive or premium consumer brand experience.
• Experience developing campaigns for multicultural audiences.
• Experience working with national brands and complex integrated agency teams.
• Understanding of automotive consumer behavior and the broader automotive marketing landscape.
• Experience across brand campaigns, product launches, experiential activations, social and digital programs, partnerships, and culturally relevant initiatives.
• Strong interest in automotive, luxury, culture, technology, and evolving consumer behaviors.