Account Director

CLYDE is a fast-paced, impact agency committed to delivering innovative, strategic, and visually compelling communications solutions for our diverse portfolio of clients. We work with clients who want to make a difference by moving the world forward – helping them do it through earned, owned, and paid media programs, creative solutions, and smarter, informed strategies. We are passionate about pushing the boundaries of design while staying grounded in strategy, brand integrity, and results. We are seeking a talented and dynamic Account Director to join our growing team and bring our Values to life.

As an Account Director at CLYDE, you will be at the forefront of shaping and executing fully integrated campaigns that build upon both marketing and communications tactics to make a tangible impact for our clients. With your experience and expertise, you’ll excel at the intersection of these two disciplines, bringing the right tools, insights, and strategies together to meet our clients’ goals and move the needle. You will lead and support diverse teams to craft and implement creative strategies designed to reach and engage key audiences—ranging from consumers to thought leaders and opinion elites.

You will work directly with clients, proactively identifying ideas and solutions for their challenges while building and nurturing strong, long-term relationships and while serving as a strategic advisor to guide them through complex challenges. Your leadership will extend to supervising and mentoring 1-3 team members, helping them grow professionally while also ensuring they deliver the highest quality work. Your deep understanding of industry trends will inform your approach to driving innovation while your business development acumen will play a critical role in expanding CLYDE’s portfolio and winning new business.

In this role, you’ll be instrumental in helping shape the direction of the firm, supporting the agency’s goals, and ensuring that your team continues to grow and evolve in alignment with client and market needs. 

Our Core Values:

• Be Better Than We Were Yesterday
• Our Clients’ Success Defines Ours
• Be The Blueprint
• Creativity is Our Idea of Fun
• We Want to Go Far, So We Go Together

What you will be doing:

• Serve as a trusted strategic partner across a diverse portfolio of clients, building strong relationships, anticipating client needs, and delivering thoughtful, proactive counsel that advances each client’s business, brand, and communications goals.
• Lead the development and execution of integrated creative communications programs, including, but not limited to, earned media, thought leadership, research-driven storytelling, influencer programs, internal communications, digital and social campaigns, and AI/GEO-informed strategies, events, ensuring all work is insight-driven, compelling, and aligned with client objectives.
• Identify emerging issues, opportunities, and trends—from policy shifts, to audience behaviors, communications channels, to AI advancements—and confidently recommend strategy pivots, new angles, or risk mitigation approaches that keep clients ahead of the curve.
• Ensure excellence across deliverables by driving clarity, quality, structure, and deadlines—reviewing and refining writing, messaging, pitches, research frameworks, presentations, and client-facing documents with the level of polish expected of a senior client lead.
• Manage day-to-day coordination across complex, fast-moving workstreams, keeping cross-functional teams organized, aligned, and on track; ensuring resourcing is efficient; and maintaining seamless communication across internal partners and client stakeholders.
• Lead account operations and financials, including SOW development, budget management, forecasting, monthly reporting, billing, and assessing client profitability and team utilization, identifying opportunities for organic growth within existing accounts.
• Stand up new client accounts with confidence and structure, building onboarding plans, messaging frameworks, editorial processes, reporting dashboards, and other systems that set teams and clients up for success from day one.
• Develop and deliver high-quality presentations that communicate insights, strategy, and recommendations clearly and persuasively to executives, SMEs, and cross-functional teams.
• Drive new business efforts, including proposal development, case study creation, pitch writing, and participation in finalist presentations, bringing creative and strategic thinking to help win new work.
• Manage and mentor junior team members, providing regular feedback, coaching, capacity planning, and skill development to help team members grow and excel.
• Support broader CLYDE initiatives such as award submissions, agency visibility programs, internal knowledge-sharing, thought leadership development, AI/GEO education, and contributions to improving agency processes and playbooks.

Our Core Competencies:

• Client Service
• Communications
• Critical/Strategic Thinking
• Professional Development
• Leadership

Position Expectations:

• Model accountability and operational excellence, ensuring direct reports follow firm policies, workflows, and quality standards.
• Proactively support business development, tapping personal networks and identifying opportunities that advance CLYDE’s growth.
• Collaborate respectfully and constructively, helping teams work through differences and maintain strong relationships.
• Contribute ideas that strengthen CLYDE’s mission, vision, culture, and internal processes.
• Demonstrate strong emotional intelligence with clients, colleagues, and vendors; navigate challenging dynamics with maturity.
• Build motivating relationships across functions, inspiring teams through clarity, steadiness, and a solutions-first mindset.
• Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion as a core part of the workplace and client work.
• Present confidently, communicating clearly in front of groups of any size.
• Provide clear direction and assignments, ensuring teams understand expectations and success criteria.
• Bring fluency in modern digital, social, and multi-channel strategies, including analytics and performance insights.
• Write exceptionally well, with mastery of AP style and the ability to elevate content quickly.
• Navigate sensitive client issues with poise, offering thoughtful counsel and clear options.
• Anticipate risks before clients see them, raising concerns constructively with recommended solutions.
• Offer strategic recommendations that help grow CLYDE beyond day-to-day client work.

Qualifications/Required Skills:

6-8 years of integrated communications experience. This leadership role helps shape and execute strategies for CLYDE clients. Supports account teams or major projects, implementing creative and contemporary communications strategies to advance our clients’ goals through their target audiences. 

• Direct supervisor for 1-3 team members.
• Supervises regular client calls, finding opportunities for junior team members to speak and stepping in as needed.
• Plays a critical role in account management and moving deliverables forward. Develops working relationships with clients, and actively identifies opportunities to solve client problems and proactively advance ideas, including beyond those for which the client has asked.  Strongly collaborative with other team members and departments in bringing these opportunities to life.
• Plays a support role to the overall client lead on overall business operations, including resourcing and budget stewardship.
• Play a meaningful role in the business development process. Understands outcomes over outputs, and can move from tactical execution to strategic development. 
• Plays a significant role in guiding the professional development of members on the account team. 
• Strongly focus on self-guided development. Particularly oriented towards relevant industry/client trends and continuously works to understand contemporary communications strategies and activations.
• Has a strong understanding of client onboarding materials and can set up accounts effectively, delegating to team members their roles and putting account, finance, and activations in place.

The salary range for this position is $88,300 - $127,200.