Who Is Curiosity? 
Curiosity is an independent full-service collective of curious minds blending culture and data to craft distinctive, high-growth brands. With creative, media, strategy, and analytics as our superpowers, our agency runs on questions to find better answers for clients like P&G, DUDE Wipes, Native, Stop & Shop, and Holland America Line.

Our hardware includes national wins from Effie, Adweek, Campaign US, and Ad Age – including three wins for Ad Age Small Agency of the Year and two appearances on Ad Age A-List.

Position Overview: The Account Director serves as the lead of key client relationships within the agency, championing client business objectives, long-term partnership, and mutual success across a group of client accounts. This role requires a growth-minded strategic thinker and skilled communicator who bridges client business objectives with agency capabilities. The Account Director fosters collaboration across internal and partner teams and ensures flawless execution, operational efficiency, and ultimately, the success and growth of client relationships. The Account Director is also responsible for maintaining the overall health of client accounts in terms of deliverables, revenue, and profitability.

Key Responsibilities:

Client & Prospect Leadership

• Act as the lead point of contact for your clients, nurturing strong and strategic relationships that position Curiosity for continued growth.
• Gain a deep understanding of your client’s business goals, market dynamics, and industry challenges to provide strategic counsel and ensure Curiosity has earned a “seat at the table” with senior client teams.
• Proactively identify client needs and opportunities, understanding how to align Curiosity’s offerings with client business objectives and nurture lasting client-agency partnerships.
• Serve as an advocate for the client within the agency and a point of escalation for appropriate client concerns, ensuring trust and resolving issues efficiently.
• Participate in new business pitches, leading or supporting proposal development, contributing to pitch development, and leading relevant elements of final pitch presentations with prospective clients.

Revenue and Account Growth

• Own the financial health of your accounts, including budgeting, forecasting, and understanding and managing against profitability targets.
• Identify and drive opportunities for organic growth, working with cross-functional Business Leads on each account to develop and propose new project ideas that keep Curiosity sticky with our key clients.
• Lead scope/contract development, negotiations, and renewal discussions, clearly positioning all agency deliverables to address client business value.
• Monitor account revenue and profit performance, ensuring targets are met and exploring ways to exceed expectations by driving organic growth.

Strategic Planning

• Translate complex strategic goals into actionable plans and deliverables for the agency team.
• Provide input and support input on strategy, creative, media, and campaign approaches to ensure alignment with broader client business goals.
• Stay informed on industry trends, market changes, and competitor activities to anticipate client needs and adapt strategies accordingly.

Cross-Functional Team Leadership

• Act as the team “quarterback,” ensuring clear communication and alignment across strategy, creative, media, analytics, and other internal teams.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving among cross-functional team members and ensure collective ownership of client success.
• Act as a player-coach, with a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities led by Account Team members below Director. Be able to flex down and support team members in delivery of work when needed.
• Facilitate clear and consistent communication between internal teams and clients to ensure alignment and shared understanding of goals.
• Mentor and develop direct reports by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, professional development guidance, and performance evaluations.

Operational Excellence and Risk Management

• Oversee the execution of work, ensuring it meets client business objectives and delivers clear value.
• Identify and mitigate potential risks in project execution to proactively address challenges to maintain smooth operations.
• Implement best practices and process improvements to enhance efficiency and scalability and ensure high-quality deliverables.
• Coordinate, negotiate, and manage agreements with external vendors and partners as needed to meet project requirements and deadlines.

Key Characteristics and Attributes:

Leadership and Vision

• Strategic thinker who can anticipate client needs and be seen as a trusted advisor.
• Confident decision-maker with the ability to balance client priorities with agency goals.
• Inspirational leader who motivates and aligns teams toward shared objectives.

Collaboration and Communication

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to navigate complex relationships, build trust, and articulate complex ideas clearly and persuasively to clients, internal teams, and agency leadership.
• Strong collaborator who fosters teamwork and ensures seamless coordination across disciplines.
• A confident and polished presenter capable of leading high-level discussions, pitches, and negotiations.

Problem-Solving and Adaptability

• Resourceful and proactive in identifying solutions to challenges and overcoming obstacles.
• Agile and adaptable, capable of navigating changing priorities and fast-paced environments.

Client-Focused

• Deeply invested in understanding client industries, challenges, and goals to deliver exceptional value and identify opportunities to grow each relationship.
• Committed to building long-term client relationships based on trust, transparency, and results.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field
• 8-10 years of experience in account management or a similar role within a marketing or advertising agency.
• Proven track record of managing high-profile accounts, growing revenue, and delivering successful integrated campaigns.
• Strong understanding of strategic development processes, integrated marketing, creative development / production, and media (traditional and digital preferred).
• Proficiency in project management tools and agency finance processes (e.g. forecasting, revenue recognition).
• Local candidate preferred.