Account Director - Experiential & Live Events

Imagination•New York, NY

8h•$130,000 - $140,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Imagination is hiring an Account Director to lead experiential marketing and live event programs for global brands from its New York studio. This agency-side client services leadership role serves as the client’s trusted partner and senior day-to-day lead, owning relationships, driving account growth, and delivering brand activations, exhibitions, product launches, and immersive experiences at scale. The role leads account managers and coordinators and works alongside strategy, creative, and production leads to take briefs from proposal through production and on-site delivery, while remaining accountable for project revenue and profitability. It is not a sales, SaaS, or media account role.

Requirements

At least 8 years of account management experience at an experiential, live events, brand experience, or integrated marketing agency.
Experience across events, experiential activations, exhibition design, digital and social, screen content production, and marcomms programs.
Experience leading, mentoring, and developing account teams.
Commercial experience owning project budgets, revenue targets, fees, and change orders.
Ability to manage multiple projects and prioritize resources to deliver work on time and on budget.
Excellent presentation, written, and verbal communication skills, with confidence engaging senior client stakeholders.
Strategic thinking and creative problem-solving, leading through behavior and attitude.
Strong relationship-building skills with clients, internal teams, and suppliers.
Flexibility and adaptability as client needs and market conditions change.
Ability to work occasional weekends and holidays around client workload and travel internationally for up to two weeks at a time.

Responsibilities

Serve as the trusted partner and senior point of contact for clients, developing a deep understanding of their brands, businesses, and priorities.
Provide responsive client service and maintain high levels of client satisfaction.
Lead reverse briefs and propose initiatives that sustain and grow client accounts.
Identify and pursue organic growth opportunities across clients’ businesses.
Build relationships with clients’ other agency partners.
Manage client communications, status updates, and briefings, keeping clients informed about delivery schedules.
Act as Client Lead or Project Lead on projects and lead client debriefs.
Lead, mentor, and develop account managers and coordinators; provide guidance and review the quality of their work.
Work with Resource Management to plan and forecast client workload.
Ensure the team follows creative, financial, and system processes.
Represent the client internally from proposal through live delivery.
Define and manage project scope and deliverables.
Develop briefs, timelines, and workback schedules with creative, production, and third-party suppliers, ensuring departments have what they need to deliver.
Work with Production Leads to deliver events, activations, exhibitions, and content.
Own agendas, meetings, and client calls.
Lead internal debriefs and manage case study production for the case study library.
Oversee budget creation and schedules, and review and approve project budgets in line with delivery timelines.
Own project revenue and meet or exceed client revenue targets, monitored and reported monthly.
Manage budgets, fees, and change orders, and track spend against budget.
Ensure timely financial reconciliation and client communication.
Partner with the Client Services Director on the growth and development of clients.