Strategic Account Director, Media Buying

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

• Documented expansion roadmap for each account with quantified opportunity sizing and a clear path to year-two NRR targets

Strategic Account Health (Supporting)

• Active, codified relationship with at least two senior stakeholders per account (CMO/VP plus a secondary executive sponsor)

• QBR cadence established and consistently delivered at or ahead of client expectation

• Strategic plan presented and adopted by client leadership within the first 90 days of account ownership

• Engagement profitability and resource budget managed within target ranges; staffing decisions demonstrably tied to client outcomes

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of experience in agency client services, account leadership, or strategic account management with a focus on performance media or programmatic buying

• Demonstrated history of owning enterprise client relationships at significant scale, with clear ownership of retention, expansion, and revenue outcomes

• Direct experience leading clients through programmatic media strategy — CTV, OLV, display, native, audio — at the executive level

• Working fluency (not necessarily hands-on execution) in major DSPs (The Trade Desk, DV360, Amazon DSP, Xandr, or similar), supply-path optimization, attribution and incrementality frameworks, and brand safety standards

• Proven track record of driving NRR and expansion within named enterprise accounts

• Comfort operating as a player/coach — willing to lead the relationship and stay close to the work, with the maturity to scale that posture as a team grows around them<