Biddable Account Director in London

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the centre of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, we are the flagship Publicis Media agency that uses our ‘Power of One’ business model, with teams that span multiple disciplines across clients such as Aldi, P&G, Primark, Samsung, Stellantis, and Visa.

We place a huge focus on our People, and have driven flagship D&I and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential, and we encourage everyone to make "Brave Plays" in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work for five years in a row, Media Week's Agency of the Year 2025 and one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025.

The client is Mars, a recent client win for Starcom, the account is set to be incredibly dynamic to deliver on performance objectives of lead generation, traffic and awareness to its consumer audience. Activity runs across Social, Search and Programmatic channels across the EMEA region. As an Account Director, you will be responsible for delivering the strategic direction and best in class execution for your accounts and ensuring campaigns go live appropriately, playing a pivotal role in building relationships with key client and internal stakeholders. Additionally, you will have responsibility for day-to-day running of the team, ensuring all members are trained, knowledgeable and executing every aspect of their duties within the agreed scope of work.

• Own strategic performance and commercial delivery.
• Be accountable for Search and Social performance across assigned EU accounts, ensuring activity delivers against client business objectives, commercial targets and agency standards.
• Act as the strategic lead on Search and Social, demonstrating deep understanding of the client’s business, category dynamics, competitive landscape and growth ambitions, and translating these into clear, long-term channel strategies.
• Own budget stewardship and financial governance, including annual planning, forecasting, investment allocation, margin management and risk mitigation, in partnership with senior account and finance stakeholders.
• Define and oversee strategic roadmaps, including innovation, testing frameworks, automation and platform evolution, ensuring continual improvement and scalable impact across markets.
• Serve as the primary senior point of contact for Search and Social, building trusted relationships with client stakeholders.
• Establish and embed best‑in‑class ways of working across Search and Social teams.
• Identify gaps/inefficiencies in a timely manner and create improved processes for the team.
• Own the Search and Social product vision within the account remit, including testing priorities, beta adoption, innovation pilots.
• Ensure quality control across all outputs.

• Experience in planning, activating and reporting on Paid Search & Paid Social campaigns.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Aptitude in maintaining relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Exemplary track record in managing activation excellence + delivering strategic workstreams.
• Ability to deliver a high standard of work with strong attention to detail within an agreed deadline.
• Experience in managing members of a team and delegating tasks in a fast‑paced environment.
• Experience delivering automated solutions to manual tasks to improve account efficiency.
• Line management experience and delivery of appraisals.
• Experience driving innovation through Test & Learn.
• Knowledge of all digital elements.

Starcom offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees. Full details are shared when you join, but highlights include core benefits such as Pension, Life Assurance, and Private Medical cover, alongside enhanced policies like Reflection Days and Shared Parental Leave.

At Starcom, we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic. We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We’ll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.

Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.