Account Director in London

Account Director

We’re looking for an experienced Account Director to join AVANTGARDE and lead key client relationships across eBay, Chery / Omoda Jaecoo and potentially other major accounts including Renault and Miele.

This is a senior Client Services role for someone who knows how to build trust, create clarity and turn client ambition into progressive Brand Experience work. You’ll be the senior day-to-day client lead across assigned accounts, understanding what clients need, connecting the right agency specialists around the opportunity, and ensuring everyone is clear on where we are going, why it matters and what success looks like.

Working closely with Strategy, Creative, Digital, Live, Production, Finance and Business Development teams, you’ll help shape great work from brief through to delivery. You’ll protect the commercial health of the account, support growth opportunities, and make sure client relationships are retained, strengthened and developed over time.

Salary: To be discussed at interview

Basis: Permanent Full-time

Location: Hybrid (AVANTGARDE London Bridge Office + 1 day WFH)

You’ll act as the senior day-to-day point of contact across accounts including eBay and Chery / Omoda Jaecoo, with the potential to support other major brand accounts. You will:

- Build trusted, open and commercially healthy client relationships.

- Understand each client’s business, brand, stakeholders, internal pressures and wider market context.

- Create a clear working rhythm with clients, ensuring communication, expectations and next steps are well-managed.

- Handle senior client conversations with confidence, empathy and sound judgement, escalating risks or sensitivities where required.

You’ll help retain, strengthen and grow assigned client relationships. You will:

- Identify opportunities for additional projects, expanded scopes, new workstreams and wider AVANTGARDE services.

- Turn relationship knowledge into clear account priorities, actions and growth opportunities.

- Play an active role in proposals, credentials, pitch responses and client development conversations.

- Work with Business Development and senior Client Services colleagues to shape responses to new opportunities.

You’ll protect the commercial health of assigned accounts and projects. You will:

- Support revenue targets, profitability, forecasting, billing and account growth.

- Work with internal teams to scope accurately, ensuring deliverables, resource, timings and assumptions are clear.

- Support the creation of SOWs, retainers, budget templates and commercial documentation.

- Escalate commercial risks early and avoid committing the agency to unrealistic timings, budgets, scopes or deliverables.

You’ll help turn client briefs and business challenges into clear agency direction. You will:

- Translate client objectives into focused internal direction for Strategy, Creative, Digital, Live and Production teams.

- Support project kick-offs, ensuring expectations, responsibilities, timings and handovers are clear.

- Balance creative ambition with practical delivery needs, helping work move forward without losing sight of the client objective.

- Review key client-facing documentation so it is clear, accurate and appropriate for the relationship.

You’ll bring clarity, pace and positive energy to the accounts you lead. You will:

- Build strong working relationships across all internal teams.

- Share relevant client context, project learnings and account priorities so internal teams are well informed.

- Bring the right people into conversations at the right time, ensuring roles, responsibilities and decisions are clear.

- Support junior team members through clear direction, useful feedback and good working habits.

You are a confident, commercially aware Account Director who understands how to lead complex experiential work within a fast-paced agency environment.

You are:

- Experienced in managing senior client relationships with confidence, empathy and sound judgement.

- Commercially sharp, with strong understanding of scopes, budgets, retainers, forecasting and profitability.

- Clear and calm in your communication, especially when projects are complex, fast-moving or sensitive.

- Skilled at turning client ambition into focused internal direction.

- Comfortable working across creative, strategic, digital and live production teams, with a clear understanding of how experiential connects with wider marketing activity.

- Proactive in spotting growth opportunities and moving them forward.

- Detail-aware without losing sight of the bigger picture.

- Confident challenging unrealistic timings, budgets, scopes or expectations constructively.

- Experience in an Account Director, Senior Account Manager or similar Client Services role within an experiential, brand experience, events or integrated agency environment.

- Strong experience delivering experiential work, particularly event activations, brand experiences or integrated campaigns.

- Experience managing complex client relationships and multiple stakeholders across B2B and / or B2C accounts.

- Strong understanding of the wider marketing mix and the role experiential plays within it.

- Good understanding of how strategy, creative, digital, content, live and production elements come together to deliver Brand Experience work.

- Strong commercial awareness across scopes of work, budgets, retainers, forecasting, billing and project profitability.

- Experience supporting proposals, pitches, account development or organic growth opportunities.

- Strong written, verbal and presentation skills.

AVANTGARDE is an award-winning Brand Experience agency. We exist to create powerful brand experiences that shape brand relevance. Our mission is crafting stories, shaping spaces, creating fans.

When we established AVANTGARDE 40 years ago, starting out in the fashion industry, we had no idea that we would grow to become the successful, global agency we are now, but what remains true to this day, is at the core of our work is our creativity, consumer insight and pursuit of emerging trends and technologies.

Our world has changed and the powerful experiences we create now exist in person and online, we connect the consumer to the brand across multiple channels and touchpoints. We are proud to do this for a host of brands including Audi, Bulgari, Porsche, eBay, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Bridgestone, Heineken, to name only a few.

Our name carries both promise and responsibility.
It drives us to challenge convention, forge new paths, and imagine beyond.
To create bold, transformative moments that open minds and shift perspectives.
This is what defines us.
We are AVANTGARDE.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a culture of inclusivity across the Group. All employment decisions are made based on qualifications, relevant experience, merit, and business need. If you need assistance or an accommodation made due to a disability, please let your recruiter know, or contact our HR Director at lydiaj@avantgarde-uk.com