Head of Accounts

twentysix; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 63,000 - 82,000; Full time

Job summary

AKQA in São Paulo seeks a Head of Accounts to lead client services and partner with creative leadership to deliver bold, culture-driven work for local and global brands. The role blends entrepreneurship with studio leadership, shaping how the team operates and drives profitable growth.

Based in São Paulo with a hybrid in-office schedule, you will manage senior relationships, build the client services team, and lead strategic engagements across markets within a global network.

Qualifications

• Senior client leadership experience within an agency environment.
• Entrepreneurial operator who reshapes how a business or team works.
• Deep campaign and big-idea experience with culture-moving work.
• Ability to bring process and structure to ambiguity without stifling creativity.
• Strong commercial acumen across forecasting, scoping, resourcing and profitability.
• International experience navigating global networks and cross-market collaboration.
• Fluent in English to lead conversations across global stakeholders.
• Relationship-builder with substance, follow-through and sound judgment.
• Flexible, adaptive, and resilient in evolving environments.
• Leader focused on growth of the team and studio culture.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall health, growth, and profitability of the studio's client portfolio, serving as the most senior client leadership voice across all accounts.
• Lead and develop the client services team, setting clear expectations and creating an environment for career-best work.
• Bring structure and operational clarity to the studio's ways of working and internal alignment.
• Partner with creative leadership to ensure client relationships are built around big ideas and bold thinking.
• Drive new business and organic growth with tailored proposals and strategy.
• Serve as a trusted senior partner to clients at the most senior levels, including CMO and executives.
• Lead campaigns from a client leadership perspective, from conception to measurement.
• Oversee commercial management: scoping, forecasting, resourcing, and margin performance.
• Act as a general manager for client services, balancing client needs with team wellbeing and business outcomes.
• Represent the studio externally within the network and unlock global opportunities for local work.

Skills

Senior client leadership

Entrepreneurial operator

Big-idea campaigns

Process and structure leadership

Forecasting & profitability

International experience

Fluent English

Relationship building

Strategic yet practical

Team growth & culture

Job description

At AKQA, we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we create work that captures the imagination and delivers impressive returns for our clients.**Client leadership at AKQA builds trusted partnerships, provides cross-functional direction, and ensures our teams deliver exceptional work that meets both client ambition and cultural relevance. The Head of Accounts is the most senior client leader in the studio, responsible for the health of every relationship, the strength of the commercial pipeline, and the operational rigor that allows great creative work to thrive. Equal parts entrepreneur, general manager, and creative partner, they set the standard for how the studio shows up for its clients.

We are seeking a Head of Accounts to lead client services for Casa, AKQA's São Paulo studio. Casa is a vibrant and highly creative studio with a deep history of extraordinary and affecting work that captures attention and propels its clients toward success. This is a genuinely entrepreneurial opportunity: the chance to shape how the studio operates, to build and deepen client relationships across both local and global brands, and to help write the next chapter of a studio with real cultural weight and creative pedigree. You will have the backing and reach of a global network, and the freedom to lead like a founder.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• Own the overall health, growth, and profitability of the studio's client portfolio, serving as the most senior client leadership voice across all accounts

• Lead and develop the client services team, setting clear expectations, building capability, and creating an environment where people are motivated to do the best work of their careers

• Bring structure and operational clarity to how the studio works, establishing process, ways of working, and internal alignment that make ambitious creative work achievable and repeatable

• Partner closely with creative leadership to ensure client relationships are built around big ideas, bold thinking, and work that earns attention

• Drive new business and organic growth, developing tailored proposals, shaping pitch strategy, and building relationships that translate into meaningful, long-term partnerships

• Serve as a trusted senior partner to clients at the most senior levels, including CMO and executive stakeholders, with the credibility to advise, challenge, and align

• Lead campaign and integrated engagements from a client leadership perspective, understanding how great work is conceived, sold, produced, and measured

• Oversee commercial management across the portfolio, including scoping, forecasting, resourcing, and margin performance, in close partnership with studio and network leadership

• Act as a general manager for the client services function, making pragmatic decisions that balance client needs, team wellbeing, creative ambition, and business outcomes

• Represent the studio externally and internally within the broader network, building connectivity across markets and unlocking global opportunities for local work

QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

• Significant senior client leadership experience within an agency environment, with a track record of leading portfolios and teams rather than individual accounts

• An entrepreneurial operator; you have built, restructured, or meaningfully reshaped how a business or team works, and you are energized rather than daunted by that kind of challenge

• Deep campaign and big-idea experience, with a genuine love of creativity and an instinct for the work that moves culture

• Proven ability to bring process and structure to ambiguity, without smothering the creative energy that makes a studio special

• Strong commercial acumen across forecasting, scoping, resourcing, and profitability

• International experience, with fluency navigating global networks, cross-market collaboration, and multinational client organizations

• Fluent in English, with the confidence to lead conversations across global stakeholders and partner studios

• A natural relationship builder who leads with substance, follow-through, and sound judgment rather than performance

• Comfortable partnering with introspective, considered creative leadership; you bring momentum and decisiveness without steamrolling

• Flexible, adaptive, and resilient; you move easily between the strategic and the practical and you thrive in environments that are evolving

• A leader people want to follow, invested in the growth of the team and the culture of the studio

Location

• This role is based in São Paulo. Candidates must live within a commutable distance of the Casa studio.

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

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular 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.

About WPP**

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.