Creative Account Director

RR Donnelley & Sons; New York (NY); On-site; USD 107,000 - 171,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k) with match

Paid time off

Parental leave

Tuition assistance

Employer/partner discounts

Job summary

Williams Lea in New York seeks a Creative Account Director to establish an in-house global creative services offering. This role blends new business, account direction, and project management within a highly regulated brand environment.

You’ll lead client communications, align creative delivery with campaigns and business goals, and drive operational excellence. A creative background in design, motion, or film and strong leadership are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Seasoned Creative Account Manager ready for next step.
• Pragmatic adopter and approach to AI.
• Capable of developing and implementing strategic objectives.
• Strong commercial awareness, ability to plan and negotiate.
• Detail-orientated outlook.
• Self-motivated, able to work autonomously.
• Understands Williams Lea company values and business objectives and is able to deliver against them.
• Able to manage, motivate and develop a diverse team.

Responsibilities

• Gather and analyze client feedback to inform creative process improvements
• Partner with client leads to identify growth opportunities and improve delivery
• Responsible for strategic planning across the account
• Identity new services and manage those from sale through to implementation and management
• Implement tools and systems to improve team efficiency and visibility
• Responsible for Operational Excellence and client satisfaction
• Oversee the creative workflow, working into the Global CD, highlighting potential risks to the client
• Analyses data and reports that give insight into how to adjust to improve the service
• Proven experience in growing services and identifying new ones
• Track Williams Lea and client budgets and POs across all creative projects
• Work on month-end activities and invoicing
• Responsible for contractual governance

Skills

Strategic thinker

Personable

Good listener

Confident speaker

Inspirational leadership

Self-motivated

Detail-oriented

Team leadership

Job description

Company Description

RRD provides marketing, packaging, print, and business services to the world's most respected brands. The company's proprietary technology, advanced data analytics, and expertise fuel organizational decision-making from strategy through execution, delivering sustainable solutions with the lowest possible environmental impact. Global organizations and regulated industries trust RRD to reduce complexity and drive audience connections across the entire customer journey.

Job Description

Purpose of role

It's not every day that an opportunity comes along as big as this. Williams Lea are looking for a Creative Account Director to help establish an in-house global creative services offering in New York, that's already going great guns in other regions. The brand is one of the world's leading banks, so corporate experience would be ideal or design / creative agency experience.

We're looking for someone that will promote and spearhead a new location, sharing the services of the team already producing great in-house creative work around the globe. You'll be a combination of new-biz, account direction, project management, and all through a lense of creativity in a highly regulated environment with strict brand guidelines. You'll know your social media from your ATL, motion graphics from print, and be happy having creative conversations with clients, working as part of a global team with the Global CD - who is based in EMEA. But you won't be alone.

You'd be responsible for maintaining excellent day-to-day communications with clients, while aligning creative delivery across broad campaigns and business objectives, with oversight of delivering operational excellence. And while you won't be expected to do any designing, you'll need to understand the design-process and executional excellence across an entire suite of mediums.

The Creative Account Director is a strategic and operational leader who will connect creative ambition with operational excellence, communicating a vision for how we at Williams Lea best serve our clients across our multiple service offerings. It's someone who works with the Global CD to empower and enable their team to bring that vision to life. They would be responsible for maintaining excellent day to day communications with clients. The role focuses on aligning creative delivery across broad campaigns and business objectives, with oversight of delivering operational excellence, implementing optimized cost to serve models, applying continuous improvement initiatives, and team growth and development.

The ideal candidate will have a creative background, not on the tools, but in the environment to include design, motion graphics, and film, alongside strong leadership, organizational and communication skills and a proven track record of project management delivery.

Client management skills will be critical as we define and build new operating models and key stakeholder engagement will assist Williams Lea in shaping a service delivery team that is fit for the emerging business changes and growth plan.

The Williams Lea business supports a wide network of clients, with a dedicated team and is supported by the wider Williams Lea senior management team. The scope of services currently delivered, combined with the support of Williams Lea leadership engagement enables the account management team to truly take ownership in running their business, driving innovation and best practice, while delivering a world class business support service.

Key responsibilities

• Gather and analyze client feedback to inform creative process improvements
• Partner with client leads to identify growth opportunities and improve delivery
• Responsible for strategic planning across the account
• Identity new services and manage those from sale through to implementation and management
• Implement tools and systems to improve team efficiency and visibility
• Responsible for Operational Excellence and client satisfaction
• Oversee the creative workflow, working into the Global CD, highlighting potential risks to the client
• Analyses data and reports that give insight into how to adjust to improve the service
• Proven experience in growing services and identifying new ones
• Track Williams Lea and client budgets and POs across all creative projects
• Work on month-end activities and invoicing
• Responsible for contractual governance

Personal attributes

• Strategic thinker
• Must be personable
• Good listener, inquisitive and inwardly questioning - searches for underlying truth - questions if unsure
• Confident speaker - happy to lead a conversation
• Inspirational leadership attributes - the post holder will need to lead their teams through challenging and busy times whilst maintaining the Williams Lea values

Essential skills

• Experienced Creative Account Manager ready for next step into a demanding role
• Pragmatic adopter and approach to AI
• Capable of developing and implementing strategic objectives
• Strong commercial awareness, ability to plan and negotiate
• Detail-orientated outlook
• Self-motivated, able to work autonomously
• Understands Williams Lea company values and business objectives and is able to deliver against them
• Able to manage, motivate and develop a diverse team

Key Competencies

• Proven project management and delivery skills
• Fluency across the marketing ops stack - creative production and campaign delivery
• Quality communication at all levels
• Client Focus
• Leading the Team
• Planning and Organizing
• Delivering against strategic objectives

Additional Information

RRD's current salary range for this role is $107,000 to $171,200/ year. The salary range may be adjusted based on the applicable geographic location of the hired employee, and the range may change in the future.At RRD, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions may vary based upon, but not limited to education, skills, experience, proficiency, performance, shift and location. Depending on the role, in addition to base salary, the total compensation package may also include participation in a bonus, commission or incentive program. RRD's benefit offerings include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, disability insurance, 401(k) with company match, life insurance and other voluntary supplemental insurance coverages, plus parental leave, adoption assistance, tuition assistance and employer/partner discounts.

Shift:Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm

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RRD is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans

At RRD, we value innovation, authenticity, and integrity. To uphold the security and fairness of our hiring process, we ask that candidates refrain from using AI tools during interviews to ensure an authentic and secure experience. We appreciate your cooperation as we work to maintain a transparent and equitable hiring process.

All employment offers are contingent upon the successful completion of both a pre-employment background and drug screen.