Group Account Director

Company description

Heartbeat is a full-service agency for healthcare Challenger Brands. Challengers are playing a high-stakes game—they must battle behemoth market leaders, upend ingrained treatment habits, or transform a “me-too” product into “yes-please.”

The agency is known for serving up distinctive strategies and differentiating approaches, ensuring clients’ market positions are uniquely owned. Heartbeat designs their organization around a 100% integration model, housing media, strategy, med comms, creative, technology, and even point of care/population health under the same roof for the tightest, most integrated campaigns possible. They price work based on outcomes, not outputs. Their innovative model delivers not only alignment, but powerful orchestration, greater efficiency, and maximum impact for every dollar spent—all the necessary elements for Challengers to triumph.

That’s the philosophy, here’s the creds: 250+ employees between NYC & LA; 6 agency leaders with decades of tenure; a pile of awards from the likes of the Mannys, MM&M Awards, OMMAs, and Clios; an industry-leading commitment to diversity and inclusion (with a Med Ad News D&I Champion nod to match); and a President who dared to be quoted as saying, “We celebrate people who stand up and say, ‘You know what? This is dumb.' Damn straight.

Overview

We’re Heartbeat, the marketing agency for Healthcare Challenger Brands and the brave clients behind them. And hopefully you’re our next Group Account Director helping us to deliver game-changing campaigns for consumers & HCPs.

Read on to learn more about what qualities we’re looking for in a new member of the crew and why you’re gonna dig working with us.

Responsibilities

What you’re bringing with you:

These are the core skills you’ve totally nailed:

Agency Operations

• Finances: Understands agency revenue and profitability model. Ensures work is completed within budget by project. Owns the revenue and forecast for the brand. Determines and negotiates budget needs; provides input to fee development. Vigilantly seeks to optimize agency service and internal resources
• Trouble shoot: Keeps management informed of account status, problems, plans, and meetings and gets senior management involved as needed.
• Team Leadership: Serves as team leader to both integrated agency team and to client. Provide assistance related to agency/team/management policies and practices
• Best practices: Advances best practices in agency process
• Develops staff, mentors

Knowledge

Approaches brand from holistic marketing perspective. Integrates emerging technologies into client recommendations.

• Comprehensive understanding of client's business
• Thorough understanding of industry business trends. Alert to changes in clients’ marketplace. Has broad knowledge of what’s going on in the marketplace to offer solutions to clients
• Cultivates relationships with appropriate thought leaders to help maintain solid knowledge of client’s business
• Expert in multi channels and multi audiences – enough knowledge to be able to act agnostically when making decisions on behalf of the client.

Strategy

Owns the brand strategy.  Owns and communicates to the extended internal team, the overall client vision and the vision for all marketing programs for client’s business

• Vision: Responsible for overseeing brand strategy and tactics. Sought as strategic leader by team.
• Planning: Spearheads the presentation to client of annual plans and significant interim programs.
• New Business: Responsible for new business opportunities and driving growth on assigned brands

Tactics and Execution

Communicates strategy and tactical plan effectively. Ultimately responsible for flawless execution.

• Direction: Provides clear strategic direction to agency team. Evaluates creative product against strategic direction, and provides constructive feedback.
• Holistic Perspective: Approaches brand from holistic marketing perspective, looks at all media and forms of digital marketing, communications and advertising to develop outcomes that meet client objectives.
• Coordination: Proactively coordinates and integrates across all agencies at BAL’s direction, as needed
• PHCG Offerings: Solid knowledge of PHCG businesses, offerings, and tools

Client Relationship

Owns the client relationship on assigned brands. Effectively sells the creative product to the client.

• Relationship: Very client facing. Outstanding client service & relationship building. Proactively manages relationship with clients and seeks opportunities to strengthen/build new relationship as needed.
• Agency Champion: Seeks opportunities to showcase agency work among current and prospective clients
• New Business: Seeks opportunities to grow business within current accounts and into new accounts
• Leader Role: Be and be seen as point person for senior client.
• Presentations: Expert presentation skills
• Adaptable: Demonstrates ability to adapt to various client corporate cultures
• Problem solving: Solves client issues, independently moderates conflicts with  significant complexity and political sensitivity

How you’ll grow with us:

Group Account Director is where you’ll start, but we’re always planning for where you’ll go. Our GADs are all expected to hone skills that will help build on their careers. Those skills include:

• Channel Agnostic as exhibited by experience in at least two functional areas: professional, consumer, digital, pr, med ed, etc
• Proactive and action oriented. Great multi-tasker.
• Exhibits Integrity and Trust
• Exhibits Self Development

Hell yes, I want to do all of that. But tell me more about Heartbeat…

Heartbeat is a healthcare marketing & creative agency, headquartered in NYC and powered by ~300 smart people all over the US. In the past four years, we’ve been named a 4-time “Best Place to Work” by AdAge and MM+M and a “Diversity & Inclusion Champion” by MedAdNews.

We care about three big things:

1. Empowering Challenger Brands
We work with marketers who have big mountains to climb and the ambition to make it happen. As their sherpa and sidekicks, we must relentlessly deliver on our core values: insightful, inventive, and courageous.

2. Being the Best Place You’ll Ever Work

This isn’t all pool tables and Bagel Fridays — it’s about giving you the support to do and be your best. Examples include the ability to work wherever (forever), unlimited PTO, and self-care stipends. We also love to let loose, whether through selfie scavenger hunts or bouts of companywide bingo that would shock even the rowdiest retirement communities.

3. Fostering a Diverse & Caring Community

We’re the most diverse agency in healthcare, by design. No matter your story, you’ll find representation and amplification — through our affinity groups, cultural celebrations, and unwavering support no matter what society throws at us. We’re proud to say that you can be anything you want at Heartbeat (as long as it’s not an a**hole).

There’s a reason 1/3 of Heartbeaters have been here for 4+ years and we have a 90% retention rate. We hope you’ll experience it for yourself.

Qualifications

What you’re bringing with you:

• Across 10+ years of experience, you know what it takes to slay Client Services. 

Additional information

Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent.

Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact [email protected].

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

 

Compensation Range: USD $121,315.00 - USD $194,220.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 10/19/2026.