Lead strategic client relationships and grow agency accounts while ensuring profitability, strong delivery, and high-quality creative work. Oversee account strategy, forecasting, budgets, scoping, and client satisfaction. Mentor internal account teams, collaborate with creative, strategy, and project leaders, identify organic growth opportunities, and support new business pitches. Serve as a trusted senior advisor to clients and guide long-term account planning.
About BRAINS
BRAINS is an independent creative agency and proud B-Corp. We're a group of no-a**hole, roll-up-our-sleeves creatives, united by a mission to spark market and cultural impact and connect people around shared values and passions. We partner with mission-driven brands looking to rethink and rewrite industry norms.
About the Role
We're looking for a contract Account Director who will be responsible for overseeing client relationships, ensuring that accounts are profitable, strategically led, and delivering high-quality work. You'll act as a trusted advisor to senior clients and a leader for the internal account team. While we encourage everyone to apply, we have a specific need for candidates on Pacific time for this gig.
Key Responsibilities
Client Leadership & Relationship Management
- Lead and grow key client accounts, ensuring retention and organic growth.
- Serve as the senior point of contact for assigned accounts, building deep trust and lasting partnerships.
- Understand your clients’ businesses inside and out—their goals, challenges, customers, and competitive landscape.
- Act as a strategic partner, translating business objectives into creative and marketing opportunities.
- Proactively identify ways to add value, presenting ideas, insights, and solutions that drive results.
Strategic Account Growth
- Lead the strategic direction of your accounts, aligning Brains’ services with client ambitions.
- In collaboration with leadership, identify opportunities for organic growth and develop plans to expand agency involvement.
- In collaboration with leadership, drive long-term account planning, ensuring we’re looking ahead, not just executing the project as it is now.
Team Collaboration & Leadership
- Collaborate with creative, strategy, and project management leads to ensure integrated solutions.
- Mentor and develop the account team, setting performance goals and providing feedback.
- Ensure assigned account teams have what they need to succeed—clarity of goals, context, and constructive feedback.
Business & Financial Stewardship
- Oversee financial health of accounts: budgets, forecasting, and profitability.
- Lead client forecasting and ensure accurate scoping in collaboration with project and discipline leads.
- Maintain awareness of scope and team health, flagging risks and collaborating on solutions early.
New Business & Agency Leadership
- Support new business efforts with insights, relationship-building, and strategic leadership in pitches.
Who You Are
- A Strategic Partner
You think beyond briefs. You connect client needs with creative potential, and you bring sharp insight to every conversation. - A Relationship Builder
You know how to build trust, navigate complexity, and make clients feel seen, supported, and challenged (in the best way). - A Business-Minded Leader
You balance vision with pragmatism, guiding work that is creatively ambitious and commercially effective. - A Confident Communicator
You bring clarity, warmth, and integrity to how you present ideas, manage feedback, and guide decisions. - A Collaborative Force
You believe the best work comes from integrated teams, and you know how to rally talent around a shared goal. - A Growth Driver
You grow accounts. You see what’s next and move toward it with purpose.
Experience
- 5+ years in account management or client services, preferably within a creative, brand, or marketing agency.
- Strong client-facing and strategic leadership skills.
- Proven track record of leading strategic client engagements and growing business.
At BRAINS, we believe in the power of partnership, creativity, and clarity. As an Account Director, you’ll lead with empathy and insight, helping our clients grow, our teams thrive, and our work resonate.
Similar Jobs
Big Data • Information Technology • Software • Analytics • Energy
Handles incoming owner-relations calls involving revenue, land, division orders, joint interest billing, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. Logs and follows up on inquiries, resolves customer issues, builds client trust, manages difficult interactions professionally, and provides accurate, timely responses by phone and email. The role also involves cross-training and collaboration to improve customer experience and business operations.
Top Skills:
Case Tracking SystemMS OfficeOil And Gas Software Programs
Fintech • Information Technology • Insurance • Financial Services • Big Data Analytics
Manages strategic partnerships with benefits technology firms to drive sales growth, market expansion, partner enablement, data integration, and go-to-market initiatives. Owns partner relationships, develops joint business plans, coordinates cross-functional teams, manages pipeline development, and tracks performance metrics. Requires experience in group benefits or insurance distribution, benefits administration platforms, relationship management, and strategic stakeholder influence.
Top Skills:
AIAPIsBenefits Administration PlatformsHcm SystemsPayroll Systems
Fintech • Information Technology • Insurance • Financial Services • Big Data Analytics
Leads operational risk management activities supporting Mexico and South America within MetLife’s Global Customer Service & Operations organization. Maintains risk and control data in OpenPages, performs non-financial risk assessments and control environment reviews, supports issue and control-metric identification, evaluates AI opportunities, and produces executive and detailed risk reporting. The role partners with regional stakeholders, Global Risk Management, Internal Audit, and Compliance while requiring fluent Spanish and English.
Top Skills:
Microsoft CopilotExcelMicrosoft PowerpointMicrosoft VisioOpenpages
What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene
San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area attracts more startup funding than any other region in the world. Home to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, leading VC firms and several of the world’s most valuable companies, the Bay Area is the place to go for anyone looking to make it big in the tech industry. That said, San Francisco has a lot to offer beyond technology thanks to a thriving art and music scene, excellent food and a short drive to several of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas.
Key Facts About San Francisco Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
- Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
- Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
