Senior Account Director, Client Leadership
About Criterion Global
Criterion Global is a paid media agency for companies managing growth across markets, brands, and channels. Privately held and founder-owned, Criterion Global is not tied to a holding-company network, media reseller, or preferred vendor stack. That matters when the job is to find duplicate spend, challenge inherited plans, and make media decisions in the interest of enterprise value.
We help companies expand into new markets with speed, rigor, and local intelligence. Our clients work with us because we combine senior-level thinking, agile global coverage, and hands-on execution across digital, TV, CTV, OOH, and sponsorship-led media.
The Role
Location: Miami, Florida strongly preferred
Employment Type: Full-time
Compensation: $135,000–$155,000 base salary, plus performance-based bonus
Work Authorization: Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
We are seeking a senior agency leader to own and grow a portfolio of sophisticated client relationships.
The Senior Account Director, Client Leadership sits at the intersection of client strategy, media, commercial leadership, and agency operations. This person will be responsible for understanding the client’s business deeply, ensuring that the agency’s work is excellent, anticipating problems before they become problems, and helping both clients and internal teams make better decisions.
This is a senior role for someone approaching Group Account Director level: an independent client leader who can manage complex relationships, lead cross-functional agency teams, contribute meaningfully to strategy, and command the confidence of senior client stakeholders.
The right candidate will be able to move comfortably between a CEO-level business question, a CMO’s investment decision, a campaign performance discussion, a difficult scope conversation, and the practical details required to make sure work gets delivered properly.
Responsibilities
Client Leadership
- Own senior relationships across a portfolio of agency clients and become a trusted strategic partner to client leadership.
- Develop a deep understanding of each client’s business model, commercial priorities, competitive environment, internal stakeholders, and growth objectives.
- Lead client meetings, quarterly business reviews, annual planning processes, campaign recaps, and strategic working sessions.
- Ensure that every client interaction moves the work forward and that presentations, meetings, and reports answer the questions that matter.
- Anticipate client needs, identify opportunities and risks early, and establish clear paths toward decisions.
- Navigate difficult conversations with candor, judgment, and professionalism.
- Build strong relationships across client organizations—not only with the agency’s primary day-to-day contact.
Integrated Media and Strategy Leadership
- Work closely with strategy, planning, performance, activation, analytics, finance, and ad operations teams to turn business objectives into actionable media programs.
- Maintain sufficient media fluency to challenge recommendations, ask strong questions, recognize strategic gaps, and ensure that execution remains connected to the client’s business goals.
- Help clients understand the role of different media channels and how investments work together across the customer journey.
- Partner with strategic and activation leads on budget allocation, audience strategy, geographic priorities, measurement frameworks, optimization decisions, and post-campaign learning agendas.
- Ensure that reporting emphasizes implications, learning, and next actions—not simply campaign activity.
Account and Commercial Management
- Own the overall health of assigned client relationships, including retention, growth, scope management, profitability, and client satisfaction.
- Understand contracted scope and identify scope expansion or scope-creep issues early.
- Work with agency leadership to develop proposals, scopes of work, annual renewals, and expanded engagements.
- Identify organic growth opportunities based on genuine client needs and agency capabilities.
- Ensure internal resources are aligned appropriately with client requirements and commercial realities.
- Contribute to new business pitches and senior prospect conversations.
Team Leadership
- Lead cross-functional account teams with clarity and accountability.
- Create clear internal briefs, assign ownership, establish realistic deadlines, and ensure that teams understand the business context behind their work.
- Develop more junior account and strategy team members through direct feedback, coaching, and increased responsibility.
- Create a culture in which problems are surfaced early and solved collaboratively.
- Maintain high standards for written communication, presentation materials, meeting preparation, follow-up, and client service.
What We’re Looking For
- 8+ years of relevant agency experience, ideally within media, integrated marketing, advertising, or a closely related discipline.
- Substantial experience independently leading complex client relationships.
- Experience working with senior client stakeholders and presenting strategic recommendations.
- Strong understanding of paid media strategy and the contemporary media ecosystem.
- Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams across strategy, planning, activation, analytics, and operations.
- Strong commercial judgment, including experience with scopes, fees, staffing, profitability, and account growth.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
- Excellent organizational judgment: the ability to distinguish what is urgent, what is important, what needs escalation, and what can simply be solved.
- Experience with international, multilingual, multi-market, or culturally complex business challenges is strongly preferred.
- Professional proficiency in Spanish and/or another language in addition to English is highly valued.
The Person Who Will Thrive Here
- You are a grown-up in the room without needing to dominate the room.
- You are excellent with clients because you listen carefully, think ahead, and do what you say you will do.
- You understand that client service does not mean saying yes to everything. It means helping clients make better decisions and building the trust necessary to have honest conversations.
- You can see the difference between a delivery problem, a strategy problem, a relationship problem, and a scope problem.
- You are highly organized without being bureaucratic.
- And you enjoy an agency environment where senior people are expected to contribute directly rather than manage from several layers away from the work.
Apply for Senior Account Director, Client Leadership
Notes
Criterion Global is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees, which means we are committed to creating and celebrating diverse thoughts, cultures, and backgrounds throughout our organization.
Employment at Criterion Global is based on substantive ability, objective qualifications, and work ethic—not an individual’s race, creed, color, religion, sex or gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, alienage or citizenship status, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or sex offenses, reproductive health decision, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law.
Base pay is based on market location and may vary further depending on individualized factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and other objective business considerations. Depending on these same considerations, the total compensation package may also include other elements, including bonuses or additional awards, along with healthcare, educational, and/or other benefits (subject to eligibility criteria such as 401(k) participation). Details of any benefit plans will be provided if an offer is extended.
If hired, employment will be at-will, and the company reserves the right to modify base salary and any discretionary compensation or benefits programs at any time based on individual performance, department performance, company performance, or market factors.
Disclaimer
Fake job scams are increasingly common, and scammers may impersonate personnel to seem more convincing. Criterion Global does not use instant messaging to contact prospective employees or conduct interviews. We never require prospective employees to send personal information or incur fees as part of our recruiting process.
If you believe you have been the victim of a scam, please call +1 646 330 4673.