Account Director
About The Position
FutureBrand is seeking an Account Director to lead and grow important client partnerships. This is a strategic business-partner role that calls for a consultant mindset, the ability to navigate complexity and connect disciplines, and knowledge of implementing design in physical spaces. The role operates across strategy, creativity, commercial impact, and execution, bringing clarity to ambiguity and momentum to ideas. The Account Director builds trusted client relationships, translates client needs and business challenges into strategies, creative direction, and actionable briefs, and leads client engagements from retail audits and construction planning through design presentations, installs, and final walkthroughs. The role is accountable for account financial health, including scoping, estimating, forecasting, billing, budget monitoring, risk management, and identifying growth opportunities. It also leads vendor relationships and cross-functional teams, partners with Strategy, Design, and Project Management, and ensures work is feasible, high-quality, on time, within budget, and aligned with a cohesive vision. The position is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, or Syracuse, New York. Travel may be required up to 50% of the time. Employees are generally required to work in the office at least three days per week, subject to local law and agency or manager direction.
Requirements
- Experience executing spatial design projects.
- Strong strategic thinking and a deep understanding of brand, design, and business.
- Proven ability to lead complex client projects in a fast-paced environment with changing dynamics.
- Strong organization skills and ability to manage multiple projects and priorities at different stages of creative execution.
- Commercial mindset and accountability for revenue and growth.
- Comfort navigating ambiguity and driving clarity.
- Excellent problem-solving skills and desire to continuously improve.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field.
- 5–7+ years of experience in marketing, communications, design consultancy, construction, or another related discipline.
- Demonstrated success managing and growing client relationships.
Responsibilities
- Build trusted client relationships that drive influence and action.
- Lead clients through ambiguity with clear recommendations.
- Translate client needs into actionable strategies and creative direction.
- Lead client engagements, including retail audits, construction planning meetings, design presentations, installs, and final walkthroughs.
- Assess final work professionally to ensure it meets project needs and FutureBrand standards.
- Maintain excellence in the quality of work and coordinate feasibility checks with production team members throughout execution.
- Own account financial health, including scoping, estimating, forecasting, and billing.
- Monitor project performance against budgets and proactively manage risks or variances.
- Identify and define opportunities for growth and incremental scope.
- Lead client meetings, presentations, strategic work sessions, and vendor engagements.
- Manage vendor relationships from bidding and selection through execution, ensuring accurate, timely, and on-budget deliverables.
- Develop clear briefs with measurable KPIs to guide cross-functional teams.
- Translate business challenges into actionable briefs and direction.
- Partner with Strategy, Design, and Project Management to deliver strong work.
- Champion creative ideas internally and externally and drive team alignment from concept to delivery.
- Ensure outputs align with a cohesive vision.
- Identify and improve internal processes to enhance efficiency and output.
- Maintain leadership visibility into account health, risks, and opportunities.
- Engage in contingency planning, recommend solutions, and identify watchouts that could affect project parameters.
- Lead cross-functional teams with clarity, energy, and accountability, and refine ways of working to be more agile and effective.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
