Account Director

Account director- 12 month FTC (likely to become a permanent role)

London | Hybrid

Iris is a global integrated agency driven by one simple philosophy: Participate or Perish. We create ideas that earn attention and inspire people to interact with brands in meaningful ways. Working with some of the world’s most ambitious brands, we combine strategy, creativity, technology, and media to deliver impactful campaigns.

We’re looking for an Account Director to join our Client Leadership team, someone that can combine strategic thinking and commercial rigour with a genuine passion for brilliant work and great client relationships.

The role

As an Account Director, you’ll be the strategic and commercial engine of your accounts, making clients feel genuinely partnered with and teams feel genuinely led.

You’ll take ownership of the health and growth of your portfolio, building trusted relationships with senior clients and challenging them to think beyond what they’ve asked for. You’ll bring together the breadth of IRIS's capabilities to create work that solves real business problems, while ensuring the accounts you lead are commercially healthy and set up for growth.

This is a role for someone who wants to be more than a delivery lead. You’ll be a business partner, creative challenger, commercial owner and people leader , with the opportunity to make a real impact both within your accounts and across the wider agency.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead senior client relationships: build genuine trust, challenge briefs and influence clients beyond the immediate ask, becoming the person they turn to when something important happens
• Own the commercial health of your accounts: manage forecasting, scope, resourcing and SOW negotiations, ensuring your accounts are commercially strong and contribute to agency profitability
• Drive account growth: identify whitespace, spot opportunities to broaden our remit and connect clients with the right IRIS specialisms to turn opportunities into commercial growth
• Raise the creative and strategic bar: challenge work at every stage, from brief and insight through to idea and execution, and champion work that is more ambitious, distinctive and effective
• Develop brilliant people: create a high-performance environment through clear expectations, coaching, honest feedback and genuine investment in the careers of your team
• Bring culture and technology into the conversation: stay ahead of cultural shifts, emerging technology and new ways of working, using them to bring fresh thinking to clients and the agency
• Manage upwards effectively: keep senior leadership informed, engaged and aligned, while surfacing risks, opportunities and areas where the agency can add greater value
• Make IRIS better beyond your accounts: contribute to new business, training, thought leadership and cross-agency initiatives that raise the standard of how we work

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for an experienced agency Account Director who is comfortable operating at a senior level and who combines commercial confidence with creative and strategic ambition .

You’ll be someone who:

• Builds trusted, senior-level client relationships and is confident challenging and influencing clients
• Understands how an agency makes money and takes genuine ownership of commercial performance
• Has a track record of growing accounts and identifying opportunities to expand an agency’s remit
• Cares deeply about the quality of the work and is comfortable challenging creative and strategic thinking
• Can lead and develop high-performing account teams, giving clear feedback and creating an environment where people can thrive
• Is culturally curious and brings an informed point of view to client and agency conversations
• Is excited by technology and actively explores how new tools and ways of working can improve both the work and the relationship
• Can operate confidently in ambiguity and manage complex client and team situations with composure
• Wants to contribute to the wider agency, not just their own accounts

Why IRIS?

IRIS is built around the belief that integrated thinking creates better work and better business outcomes . We bring together different disciplines, perspectives and capabilities to solve problems in ways that go beyond traditional agency boundaries.

We’re looking for people who bring the same mindset.

Our culture is built around three things: Passion, Proactivity and Performance . We want people who care deeply about what they do, take the initiative to make things happen and hold themselves and others to a high standard.

Equal Opportunities

Iris is an advocate for equal opportunity in the workplace. We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disabilityand gender identity. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.