Senior Account Director in London

OLIXIR is a next‑generation healthcare agency, created by uniting FCB Health London and McCann Health London as part of Omnicom Health’s evolving European structure. By bringing our teams together and combining our strengths, we’re building something entirely new: a more agile, more connected, and more ambitious partner for healthcare brands. OLIXIR blends award‑winning creative excellence with deep scientific expertise, strategic thinking that drives meaningful brand growth, and fully integrated production at scale. We’re also unlocking new innovation opportunities, powered by AI and future‑focused ways of working.

While our name is new, our people, values, and commitment are not. You’ll find the same trusted teams, the same high standards, and the same passion for creating work that makes a real difference to patients and healthcare professionals, alongside new possibilities to grow, innovate, and shape what’s next. OLIXIR is built for the future of healthcare communications - and this is just the beginning.

Job summary: Working closely with Business Unit Lead, you will lead the strategic development of the brand/s to deliver engaging and creative work for our clients, building strong partnerships with clients and delivering inspiring leadership for the team.

Job responsibilities:

• Client Management/Relationships: Principal and strategic client business partner for designated clients. Continue to cultivate relationships with senior clients. Act as strategic client business partner, acting as their trusted advisor. Constantly look for ways to build and improve the client relationship (e.g. face-to-face meetings, value added projects). Provide concrete understanding of client internal stakeholders, and partner with client on how to manage these relationships to deliver success. Lead client calls and oversee weekly status reporting.
• Business Acumen: Ownership of agency capabilities and outputs. Confident in selling-in agency work. Identify opportunities to showcase other agency expertise to client e.g. expert team, social science etc. Proactively identify opportunities for agency partnerships across the network. Work with strategy and creative leads to provide proactive solutions to client challenges. Ensure you and your team are ahead of the client in terms of marketing, media, strategy, creative, data, and technology.
• Financials: Oversee and drive scope conversations (with PM). Provide direction and guidance to team on managing finances. Alongside the Project Manager/Project Director, oversee forecasting and revenue, keeping senior leadership informed of any issues/significant changes. Work with senior leadership to start to recognise iTBG and growth targets.
• Day-to-day Delivery: Ownership and oversight of agency deliverables/outputs. Ensure kick-off meeting is in place for all projects. Lead the meeting, providing clear direction and ensuring clarity on expectations, and R&Rs. Work with PD to ensure agency processes are followed. Review and input into written briefs. Initiate ideas and creative solutions above and beyond what is being asked to solve client business challenges. Able to critically assess work and make recommendations to improve and push boundaries. Take ownership in managing issues and seek solutions, escalating when required. Provide direction and guidance to team on managing timelines/deadlines. Ensure wash-up is in place for all projects and learnings applied to future work. Attendance of weekly resource planning, helping PM to ensure all bookings are in place. Helping overcome issues/complications and escalating where necessary.
• Business Development: Proactively drive organic growth, working with team to leverage opportunities and develop proposals. Act as lead for new business pitches.
• Leadership and Direction: Provide clear direction and inspiring leadership for designated accounts. Successfully lead cross-functional team.
• Line Management and Team Development: Line management of Business Coordinators (in conjunction with the Project Manager) and Account Managers. Start to work with the Business Director to manage team workflow, identifying areas of growth and opportunities.

Knowledge, skills and abilities: Track record of developing and maintaining excellent relationships with clients, exceeding targets and expectations. Conversant with and experienced in digital and integrated marketing. Conversant with ‘upstream’ pharma marketing disciplines and programmes such as market access, med ed and medcomms. Experienced in running and winning pitches. Cross-medium creative awareness and understanding of new technologies. Gravitas with a strong work ethic and desire to be the best in a competitive environment. Demonstrable experience of building multi-layered client relationships and growing brands. Passionate about the healthcare sector and delivering high quality creative work. Significant leadership, interpersonal and influencing skills. Excellent organisational skills and ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing. Excellent ability to self-manage and work on own initiative.