Proven experience leading both account management and project management functions within an agency setting.
Proven client gravitas, including being trusted by senior clients, staying calm under pressure, and managing needs, expectations, and difficult conversations.
Deep fluency in agency systems and processes, including briefs, scopes, timelines, budgets, and approvals.
Experience overseeing integrated creative work across disciplines such as design, video, experience, and strategy.
A track record of building teams, standards, and processes, and developing junior and mid-level talent into confident leaders.
Sophistication in proposals, scopes of work, and pitch craft.
Budget fluency across varied project types and commercial models, including retainers.
Responsibilities
Lead, build, cultivate, and professionally develop the Account Management and Project Management teams.
Create standards, best practices, and a point of view for managing client relationships and delivering projects.
Define clear roles and handoffs between account managers and project managers, and build systems and processes for moving projects through the agency.
Build repeatable structures for kickoffs, status meetings, debriefs, standups, sprints, and cross-team integration.
Lead Account Management team meetings and develop fluency in every agency service to lead as an informed voice.
Personally own select key client relationships, serving as senior account lead on large-scale accounts.
Manage client needs, questions, and requests with timeliness, professionalism, and calm authority.
Nurture client relationships throughout the account lifecycle and build trusted-partner relationships.
Ensure account managers move projects through the agency’s systems and processes with clarity and consistency, from brief to approval to launch.
Create best practices for ongoing retainer work and mentor account managers in that standard.
Set standards for project managers to deliver work on time and on budget, from task planning through final delivery.
Oversee project management systems, timelines, and budgets across the team’s active work.
Partner with account managers on accounts to align client expectations with realistic scope, schedule, and budget.
Identify and resolve delivery risks early, escalating and problem-solving before issues reach the client.
Champion tools and processes that keep tasks, timelines, and budgets visible and accountable across the team.
Structure proposals, presentations, scopes of work, and pitch decks, and set standards for them.
Lead or collaborate with key leaders on proposal development and scoping for new opportunities.
Train account managers and project managers to build realistic, on-brand scopes, timelines, and budgets that represent the agency’s intended delivery.
Manage workflow and own resourcing decisions across the Account Management and Project Management teams.
Partner with the Leadership Team to make decisions on new projects and allocations.
Maintain a bench of trusted contract partners for large-scale account and project needs.
Build fluency in budgets across project types to steward accounts and guide the team’s commercial judgment.
Coach and mentor the Account Management and Project Management teams, and oversee performance and career development.
Model client stewardship and delivery discipline.
Identify team gaps with Leadership and drive candidate consideration, interviews, and hiring decisions.
Contribute to internal initiatives and investment in the agency’s culture.
Join brainstorms and ideation across the agency.
Contribute to the agency’s inspiration and creative growth, and provide support where needed.
Role Overview The Director of Account Management (DAM) leads our Account Management discipline (we call it Project Leadership) and is one of the agency’s most senior client leaders. Their primary responsibility is to build and develop two connected teams — Account Managers and Project Managers — who together move client work from kickoff to delivery with rigor and care.
At Brand Apart, Account Managers own the client relationship. They are the client’s primary point of contact, championing the client’s vision and guiding every project through the agency’s systems and process from brief to launch. Project Managers own the delivery — ensuring every project stays on time and on budget by planning, tracking, and completing the tasks that get the work done. The DAM defines how these two disciplines work together, sets the standard for each, and develops the people who practice them. The DAM is also a practitioner, not just a builder. They personally own a small number of the agency’s key client relationships — serving as senior account lead on no more than one large-scale account at a time — where their client gravitas and account management skill set the bar for the team.
The role sits at the intersection of clients, delivery, and craft: partnering with vertical leads across Design, Video, Experience, and Strategy to ensure work is led the “Brand Apart way” — with consistency, care, and creative excellence.
Key Responsibilities TEAM LEADERSHIP & STANDARDS
Lead, build, cultivate, and professionally develop Brand Apart’s Account Management and Project Management teams.
Create the standards, best practices, and point of view for how Brand Apart manages client relationships and delivers projects.
Define clear roles and handoffs between account managers and project managers, and build the systems and order for how projects move through the agency’s process.
Build repeatable structures for kickoffs, status meetings, debriefs, standups, sprints, and cross-team integration.
Lead all Account Management team meetings, and pursue fluency in every Brand Apart service to lead as an informed, equipped voice.
CLIENT RELATIONSHIP OWNERSHIP
Personally own select key client relationships, serving as senior account lead on large-scale accounts.
Bring senior client gravitas: manage client needs, questions, and requests with timeliness, professionalism, and calm authority.
Nurture client relationships across the entire lifecycle of an account (and beyond), earning a seat as a trusted partner rather than a vendor.
Ensure account managers are moving projects through the agency’s system and process with clarity and consistency, from brief to approval to launch.
Create best practices for ongoing retainer work, elevating how Brand Apart cares for and stays ahead of its most valued ongoing clients — and mentor growing account managers in that standard.
PROJECT DELIVERY OVERSIGHT
Set the standard for how project managers keep work on time and on budget, from task planning through final delivery.
Oversee project management systems, timelines, and budgets across the team’s full slate of active work.
Partner with account managers on every account to align client expectations with realistic scope, schedule, and budget.
Identify and resolve delivery risks early, escalating and problem-solving before issues reach the client.
Champion the tools and processes that keep tasks, timelines, and budgets visible and accountable across the team.
NEW BUSINESS & PROPOSALS
Exhibit sophistication and acumen in structuring proposals, presentations, scopes of work, and pitch decks — and take the lead on setting the Brand Apart standard for them.
Lead or collaborate with key leaders on proposal development and scoping for new opportunities.
Train account managers and project managers to competently and confidently build scopes, timelines, and budgets that are realistic, on-brand, and representative of the work the agency would deliver.
RESOURCING, WORKFLOW & CLIENT ACUMEN
Manage Account Management and Project Management workflow and own resourcing decisions across both teams.
Serve as a key decision maker, in partnership with the Leadership Team, on new projects and allocations to set every engagement up for success.
Maintain a bench of trusted contract partners for large-scale account and project needs.
Build fluency in budgets across project types to properly steward accounts and guide the team’s commercial judgment.
PEOPLE LEADERSHIP & TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Serve as people leader for the Account Management and Project Management teams: coaching, mentorship, performance, and career development.
Model the client stewardship and delivery discipline both teams are built on.
Support hiring: identify team gaps with Leadership and drive candidate consideration, interviews, and decisions.
Pursue personal and professional development — staying inspired, and inspiring the Brand Apart team.
Beyond the Role Brand Apart’s culture is core to its business — Curiosity, Drive, Brilliance, and Care run through every part of the work. The DAM is expected to invest in that culture, not just operate within it:
Contribute to internal initiatives and investment in Brand Apart’s culture.
Join brainstorms and ideations across the agency.
Contribute to Brand Apart’s inspiration and creative growth — and raise a hand wherever help is needed.
Qualifications & Experience
Proven experience leading both account management and project management functions, within an agency setting.
Proven client gravitas: trusted by senior clients, calm under pressure, and skilled at managing needs, expectations, and hard conversations.
Deep fluency in agency systems and process — briefs, scopes, timelines, budgets, and approvals.
Experience overseeing integrated creative work across disciplines such as design, video, experience, and strategy.
Track record building teams, standards, and processes — and developing junior and mid-level talent into confident leaders.
Sophistication in proposals, scopes of work, and pitch craft.
Budget fluency across varied project types and commercial models, including retainers.
What Success Looks Like
Account managers and project managers each lead with clarity and craft in their own discipline, while operating as one seamless team.
Key clients feel deeply cared for, and see Brand Apart as a trusted partner well beyond any single project.
Every project moves through the agency’s system and process smoothly, landing on time and on budget.
There is a clear, consistent “Brand Apart way” of managing accounts and delivering work, felt across every vertical and every engagement.
The discipline scales: the right people, the right resourcing, and ready successors as the agency grows.