Group Account Director

POSITION OVERVIEW

As the Group Account Director, you will lead and nurture a critical cluster of pharmaceutical accounts, serving as the primary strategic partner for senior clients and a mentor for your account teams. This pivotal role combines deep industry expertise with robust leadership, focusing on driving account growth, ensuring the flawless execution of complex campaigns, and proactively identifying opportunities to expand the agency's value and market presence within the pharmaceutical sector.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Take ownership and lead a group of accounts.
Manage the internal team including account directors for a collection of brands to ensure the proper planning and management of activities, resources, forecasting and revenues
Develop new business opportunities within assigned brands and identifies new opportunities for growth within the pharmaceutical market at large
Be responsible for the growth and development of their team
Actively involved in the day-to-day management of the Client Services department assisting the VP Client Services to proactively identify, manage, resolve issues among the group or operations

Client Management:

Develop a deep understanding of the strategic/tactical needs of each brand under their responsibility and participates in the development of the strategic and tactical brand plans with their Account teams
Develop and maintain long-term partnerships with both the brand team and senior management
Meet regularly with senior positioned clients to assess status of the partnership and intervene quickly to resolve any identified issues
Manage the execution and delivery of outputs for a portfolio of brands by identifying and securing the resources to achieve this

Business Management Leadership:

Approve the forecasting, revenue phasing and tracking for a portfolio of brands
Execute regular touch points (one-on-ones) with direct reports to ensure continuous delivery of high quality deliverables
Train and coach their Account team as well as Clients Services in terms of operations process and finance
Be responsible for the continuous improvement of Tank processes and policies and manage the impact they may have on team performance
Work with the team to continuously improve the Tank processes and policies

Account Team Leadership:

Provide leadership by anticipating opportunities and roadblocks in order to optimize team performance and intervene accordingly
Act as a role model and coach to the account directors and other direct reports
Actively meet with account directors and their teams to ensure the management of projects are running smoothly
Be actively involved in ensuring the cross-fertilization of best practices within their teams and the Client Services group as a whole
Provide guidance and clarity in identifying team priorities and gaps
Contribute in employee recruitment, management of performance issues and termination when necessary

Business Development:

With a focus on growing the agency’s business, develop new business opportunities within current client base and potential prospects
Network within the industry with the goal of building relationships
Identify and enable initiatives to expand our value with clients and make us an indispensable partner to their business
Recognize and activate opportunities that can expand on the Tank value with present clients

Key Internal Leader and Partner:

Monitor the performance of projects and programs, serving as a change manager to optimize the process
Manage processes through internal teams, clients and suppliers
Ensure that client mandates are successfully carried out
Provide clear and timely information to any internal resources involved in projects
Ensure clear, open and respectful communication between directors and associates

Personal Leadership and Accountability:

Commit to excellence, personal and professional growth, and continually expand knowledge for themselves and their direct reports
Implement new ways to do things better that are grounded in a passion for the business and the agency
Work with integrity on all projects and holds him/herself accountable for delivering on expectations
Seek feedback, listen, and act on it
Stay current with industry news and the competitive environment
Assist in creating and building an agency culture that reinforces high levels of client service, operational excellence, commitment, respect and team spirit
Collaborate to ensure that work produced is consistently of the highest quality

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Bachelor degree in a relevant discipline
10 to 15 years of pharma agency experience
5 years of experience as account director including management of major accounts
Experience in building and managing teams including coaching and mentoring
Proficiency and understanding of operations including the Tank process
Excellent knowledge of the trends of the communication and marketing industries
Strong strategic ability
Business savvy and financial acumen
Great communication and persuasion skills
Self-starter aptitude and ability to work autonomously
Inspirational leadership with ability to propose effective solutions and make decisions
Emotional intelligence
Ability to build trust relationships
Passion about getting things done within stringent internal/external timelines and deadlines
Multitasking ability and capacity to work under pressure in fast-paced evolving and growing internal/external environments
Desire to be an important member of business growth
Planning and organizational skills