At Digitas Health, London, we’re here to help brands re-imagine the ideal health experience and deliver it now. We are an idealistic bunch with bold ambition and a passion for innovative work – and we know that great work is dependent on great teamwork and client partnerships. We are looking for a Senior Account Director to join our small-but-mighty agency team on managing and growing existing accounts. 

The role

The Senior Account Director role continues to carry out many similar tasks as an Account Director whilst taking some responsibilities of the Associate Director role.  The role takes ownership for specific accounts whilst proactively identifying, challenging and seeking solutions to grow the team, the business and the agency. 

The role will have significant experience across a broad range of therapy areas, meeting a range of client needs and the role holder will be comfortable they have the tools, skills, and experience to handle most conversations with client, without needing more senior support. The role holder will have experience in managing teams and be able to make their own recommendations about how best to staff the business. Whilst the role holder will be responsible for their own specific accounts, the role will give greater consideration to the agency as a whole and building business acumen.

Account management: Responsible for defining and owning the strategy for the client. Responsible for managing the client within the SOW and running client health checks, service reviews and leading Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR’s). Partners with the project management team to ensure successful delivery of projects within time, budget and scope. Influences the client with regards to their marketing strategy and leads client meetings to drive client agenda.  Accountable for client deliverables.  Is a driver for creative excellence. Responsible for identifying opportunities to grow accounts through cross sell / up sell.

Finance management: Works with project team and client to agree budget, scope and timeline.  Responsible for revenue forecasting and delivery. Ensures the project management team deliver timely financial reports.  Will have oversight of purchase orders, ITI, PO, invoice approvals and SOWs reconciliation.  Ensures that the team effectively manages the finance reporting /trackers both for fee and out of pocket costs.  Ensures regular and timely timesheet submission and approval for billing.

Relationship management: Owns the overarching relationship with the client. Ensures stakeholder management at all levels. Takes responsibility for issue resolution.

Process management: Leads continuous improvement initiatives as projects progress and conducts post project completion reviews to identify areas for continual improvement. Able to identify continuous improvement opportunities through evidence-based decisions.

Leadership: Is the leader of direct team (people management) and leads virtual team of those responsible for client deliverables outside of the immediate function.

Data & GDPR Management: Manages any GDPR project issues.  Ensures data policies are internally ratified within SOW/ Contract.

Communication planning: Communicates internally / externally in a timely, clear and concise manner.  Is comfortable having difficult conversations within internal teams.  Facilitates open and transparent communication, supporting the team as needed.

How you do it

The key Publicis Health competencies will apply to the way you do perform this role:

• Planning - measures performance against goals; evaluates results;
• Customer focus - serves as a strategic partner to build, grow, and maintain profitable and long-lasting relationships
• Collaboration - builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives
• Drive for results - readily takes action on challenges.  Identifies and seizes new opportunities
• Innovation - creates new and better offerings and/or ways of doing things by moving beyond the traditional ways of doing things

For people managers, we also look at these additional competencies:

• Developing talent - holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; will take on those who need help and further development
• Managing vision and purpose - makes the vision sharable by everyone; can inspire and motivate individuals; talks beyond today; talks about possibilities; is optimistic

We assess potential through the AIM framework.  Further details are available in the Career Conversations tool. The following are some examples, however in practice the whole framework will apply:

• Acumen - notices when things change and anticipates problems or issues that will need to be overcome
• INFLUENCE - excellent insight into how to get things done
• Motivation - maintains confidence and drive in the face of ambiguity