Strategic Account Director, Media Buying

About this role

The Strategic Account Director is the senior relationship and strategy owner for one to two of 829’s most important enterprise advertisers — high-value clients running 6- to 7-figure monthly media budgets across CTV, OLV, display, native, audio, and emerging digital channels. The role sits within 829’s Enterprise Media Buying practice and serves as the executive-level point of contact for client leadership, including CMOs, VPs of Marketing, and senior media decision-makers.

This is a true player/coach role. You are accountable for the relationship, the strategy, and the commercial outcomes — and equally accountable for the day-to-day quality of the work. Early in the role you will operate with a deliberately lean, integrated team supporting a single high-value account. As the practice and your portfolio scale, dedicated resources scale alongside it — but the standard does not change. This role owns net revenue retention, and the long-term trajectory of every account on its desk.

The Strategic Account Director is part executive sponsor, part strategic advisor, and part commercial owner — the person clients trust to translate media performance into business outcomes, and the person 829 trusts to grow these relationships into multi-year, performance-accountable partnerships.

What You'll Do

Executive Client Leadership

- Serve as the senior strategic lead and executive point of contact for one to two high-value enterprise clients

- Build and sustain trusted partnerships with C-suite, VP-level, and senior marketing leadership at the client organization

- Lead executive-level conversations including QBRs, annual planning, business reviews, strategic planning sessions, and renewal discussions

- Act as the primary escalation point for complex client, operational, or strategic concerns

- Connect media performance — across CTV, OLV, display, native, audio, and emerging channels — to client business objectives, marketing organization priorities, and broader commercial outcomes

- Maintain a high standard of executive communication, professionalism, and relationship management across all client interactions

Strategy & Business Impact

- Develop and lead long-term account strategy across the full programmatic stack, in close partnership with the assigned media strategist, media buyers, operating leadership, and analyst(s).

- Translate performance insights and analytics into actionable, executive-ready recommendations

- Anticipate organizational shifts, market changes, and competitive pressures that may impact client priorities or partnership health

- Guide clients through annual and quarterly planning cycles, budget reallocations, and channel expansion conversations (e.g., CTV scale-up, retail media, audio, DOOH)

- Ensure agency recommendations align with enterprise client realities — approval structures, brand safety standards, measurement frameworks, and procurement timelines

- Stay fluent in the broader programmatic landscape — DSP changes, supply-path optimization, privacy regulation, attention metrics, AI-driven optimization — and translate the implications into client strategy

Retention, Growth & Commercial Ownership

- Own retention, NRR, and account satisfaction across the assigned portfolio

- Identify and convert strategic growth opportunities tied to client business needs, performance trends, and evolving media priorities

- Lead scope expansion conversations — additional channels, increased budgets, adjacent service lines — in partnership with practice leadership

- Own renewal strategy and forecasting; partner with agency leadership on commercial planning, pricing, and structural agreement evolution

- Co-own the client’s staffing and resource budget — making intentional, accountable decisions about how dedicated and shared resources are deployed in service of client outcomes and engagement profitability

- Maintain visibility into engagement profitability, resource allocation, and delivery quality across the account

Account Leadership & Player/Coach Execution

- Operate as a player/coach on the account — leading the relationship and the strategy while remaining directly involved in the work

- Hold accountability for delivery quality, on-time execution, and integrated work product across media strategy, buying, creative, and analytics

- Own day-to-day meetings and client communication, in conjunction with project management and media strategists.

- Set the cadence, the standards, and the priorities for the integrated team supporting the account; create the conditions for a focused, distraction-free team

- Scale the engagement model thoughtfully as the book of business grows — bringing on additional dedicated resources as account complexity warrants, never ahead of need

- Escalate and resolve operational risks, delivery challenges, and stakeholder concerns proactively

- Help establish scalable best practices for senior-led, performance-accountable account leadership as the practice grows

Portfolio Scope

- 1 - 2 enterprise client relationships

- Co-ownership of the client staffing and resource budget with Media Buying President and Leadership.

- Full accountability for retention, NRR, account health, and expansion contribution

- Direct executive reporting line into client C-suite and senior marketing leadership

Twelve months into the role, the Strategic Account Director has succeeded when the following retention and revenue outcomes are demonstrably true across the assigned portfolio:

Retention & Net Revenue Retention (Primary)

- 100% gross logo retention across the assigned portfolio at the 12-month mark

- 115%+ Net Revenue Retention across the book of business in the first full year

- All assigned accounts have completed renewal or extension at or above original contract value

- No material churn risk indicators on any active engagement at the 12-month mark, validated through documented account health reviews

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