Account Director

With a history that dates back over 80 years, Starcom is a global communications planning and media leader. We are an agency still grounded in our founding principle that people are at the centre of all we do. Each day, we apply this belief to harness the transformative power of data and technology to inspire and move people and business forward. With more than 7,000 employees in over 100 offices around the world, we are the flagship Publicis Media agency that uses our ‘Power of One’ business model, with teams that span multiple disciplines across clients such as Aldi, P&G, Primark, Samsung, Stellantis, and Visa.

We place a huge focus on our People, and have driven flagship D&I and L&D programmes within Publicis Media; our goal is to help every individual reach their fullest potential, and we encourage everyone to make “Brave Plays” in how they approach their work and their own career development. As a result, we have an exceptionally energised and committed talent base, all of us proud of our welcoming and supportive culture, as evidenced by our recognition as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work for five years in a row, Media Week's Agency of the Year 2025 and one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025.

Overview

We’re hiring an Account Director to lead media planning and client partnerships across Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo and Spoticar. You’ll join The Collective, Publicis’ bespoke agency for Stellantis, bringing together media, data, technology and creativity to shape distinctive work across the customer journey. This is an opportunity to influence ambitious automotive brands while developing trusted relationships and helping a collaborative team do its best work. You’ll combine strategic thinking with strong operational and commercial judgement, turning client ambitions into effective, insight-led plans.

Responsibilities

What will you be doing?

Lead the day-to-day client relationship, providing clear direction and building trusted partnerships with senior stakeholders.

Own the end-to-end media planning process, connecting audience insight, strategy and channel thinking to clients’ business goals.

Turn complex media recommendations into clear, persuasive stories and lead structured, productive client meetings.

Bring together specialists across strategy, digital, CRM, data and technology, performance and investment to deliver integrated work.

Maintain high standards across planning outputs, campaign governance, financial accuracy, forecasting and contractual requirements.

Identify opportunities to strengthen client growth, expand relevant services and improve ways of working across the account.

Support colleagues’ development through thoughtful feedback, clear goals, effective onboarding and access to relevant training.

What are we looking for?

Experience leading media planning and client relationships, with the ability to take a broad view of a client’s business and priorities.

Strong communication and presentation skills, with a talent for making strategic and technical thinking accessible.

A collaborative leadership style that provides clarity, encourages contribution and helps people develop.

Sound commercial judgement, including experience of budgets, fees, forecasting, billing or account governance.

An insight-led approach, using audience, category and performance data to form useful hypotheses and guide decisions.

Broad knowledge of media channels, full-funnel planning principles and performance measurement, with curiosity to keep learning.

An organised, solutions-focused mindset and the confidence to challenge constructively, improve processes and take ownership.

Starcom offers a wide range of benefits to support our employees. Full details are shared when you join, but highlights include core benefits such as Pension, Life Assurance, and Private Medical cover, alongside enhanced policies like Reflection Days and Shared Parental Leave. You’ll also have access to a range of additional initiatives, including:

📖 Please check out the Publicis Career Page which showcases our Inclusive Benefits and our EAG’s (Employee Action Groups).

Publicis Groupe works primarily from the office or our clients' office four days per week.

At Starcom, we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, citizenship, relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.

We are committed to providing a fair, accessible, and inclusive recruitment process. If you have any access needs - for example, related to disability, neurodivergence, or a health condition - please let us know. We’ll work with you to ensure the process works for you. Sharing this information will never impact your application.

Guided by our values, we listen with empathy, uplift each other, take responsibility, and embrace change - building a culture where everyone feels seen, respected, and genuinely included.#LI-RC1