Account Director - Experiential & Live Events

Imagination is looking for an Account Director to lead experiential marketing and live event programs for global brands from our New York studio. You will be 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.

Leading a team of account managers and coordinators, and working alongside our strategy, creative and production leads, you will take every brief from proposal through production and on-site delivery, while staying accountable for project revenue and profitability.

This is an agency-side client services leadership role – not a sales, SaaS or media account role.

Is This Role for You?

• You have led experiential, live event or brand experience programs at an agency for 8+ years.
• You have managed, mentored and grown account teams.
• You are commercially minded and comfortable owning budgets, change orders and revenue targets.
• You get energy from growing client relationships and spotting the next opportunity.

Key Responsibilities

Client Leadership & Account Growth

• Act as the trusted partner and senior point of contact for clients, with a deep understanding of their brand, business and priorities that helps us influence their thinking.
• Provide highly responsive client service and maintain very high levels of client satisfaction.
• Lead the reverse-brief process and propose new initiatives that sustain and grow the account.
• Identify and pursue organic growth opportunities across the client’s business.
• Build strong relationships with your clients’ other agency partners.
• Manage client communication, status updates and briefings so clients always know the delivery schedule.
• Play Client Lead or Project Lead on all projects, and lead client debriefs.

Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of account managers and coordinators, providing guidance and checking quality of work.
• Work with Resource Management to plan current and forecast client workload.
• Ensure the team follows creative, financial and system processes.

Experiential Program & Project Delivery

• Act as the internal voice of the client at every stage, from proposal to live delivery.
• Define and manage project scope and deliverables lists.
• Develop briefs, timelines and workback schedules with creative, production and third-party suppliers, and make sure every department has what it needs to deliver.
• Work closely with our specialist Production Leads to deliver events, activations, exhibitions and content.
• Own agendas, meetings and client calls.
• Lead internal debriefs and manage case study production so your clients’ work is added to our case study library.

Financial & Commercial

• 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 burn against budget.
• Ensure timely financial reconciliation and client communication.
• Partner with the Client Services Director on the growth and development of your clients.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• 8+ years of account management experience at an experiential, live events, brand experience or integrated marketing agency.
• A strong track record 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 at once, prioritizing resources so work is delivered on time and on budget.
• Excellent presentation, written and verbal communication skills, with confidence in front of senior client stakeholders.
• A strategic thinker and creative problem-solver who leads by behavior and attitude, not title.
• Strong relationship-building skills across clients, internal teams and suppliers.
• Flexible and adaptable as client needs and market conditions change.
• Able to work occasional weekends and holidays around client workload, and travel internationally for up to two weeks at a time.

Benefits

What we can offer you:

• Work with a state-of-the-art product and deliver it to exciting and innovative brands
• Learning and development opportunities that contribute to professional growth
• A fun, engaging work culture
• Be part of a mission-driven team that values agility, integrity, and excellence
• Opportunity to contribute to large-scale, high-impact projects from day one

Benefits and perks offered:

• Comprehensive paid time off benefits
• Hybrid work model, where our team comes into the office a minimum of 3 days per week
• Generous parental leave
• Up to 4% safe harbor company 401k match
• Comprehensive, low-cost health benefits