Digital Account Director

Who we are

We’re The Kite Factory, an independent media agency that fuses Heart, Art, and Science to craft creative media ideas that deliver. We’re here because we spotted a gap: too many agencies focus either on bold ideas or on measurement, but rarely both. We believe the magic happens when you bring them together. Smart, strategic, and creative media that doesn’t just look good on paper but delivers in the real world.

Our roots are in measurement, but our craft is in turning insight into action. That’s how we drive real results for ambitious commercial and third sector organisations like White Claw, Skin+Me, WaterAid, Lovehoney, David Lloyd Clubs, Triodos Bank, and Little Freddie.

We’re now over 100 specialists strong - strategists, planners, creatives, and data geeks, united by curiosity, craft, and a passion for growth - yours, ours, and our clients’. In the past five years, we’ve grown fast, winning major clients and industry accolades including Campaign’s Independent Agency of the Year 2024 and Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024 and 2025.

People love working here, and it shows. We’re proud to hold IPA Platinum status and be consistently named a Campaign Best Place to Work.

We place a strong focus on training and development at The Kite Factory, as such we ensure all our team have a personalised development plan with clear objectives, which are reviewed and refreshed every 6 months. We provide ongoing on the job training, knowledge share sessions, department hops, external training (IAB, IPA, NABs) and partner training. We are IPA CPD platinum accredited – only 1% of UK agencies have this.

What we are looking for

We’re looking for a commercially minded, collaborative and forward-thinking Digital Account Director to join our paid media agency’s Digital team. You’ll thrive in this role if you’re passionate about driving digital growth for clients, excited by innovation in paid media, and are confident in leading teams and conversations at a senior level.

You’ll bring a solid track record of delivering successful multi-channel and multi-funnel digital campaigns across all traditional and emerging digital channels that truly integrates on and offline strategies to drive growth for clients. Just as importantly, you’ll be a natural relationship builder who can spot incremental opportunities, articulate digital strategy clearly to senior stakeholders and inspire your team to deliver best-in-class work.

You’ll have proven retention of client accounts and have upheld long-term client relationships, as well as the ability to work closely with senior internal stakeholders to manage broader account and agency projects.

We expect Digital Account Directors to be extremely proactive and to lead on the management and training of the wider department alongside their core teams – always seeking to uphold excellence in all digital outputs across the agency whilst supporting the development of all Executive – Senior Account Managers.

Your role

Your core daily responsibilities will be to lead and manage the online media activity across a portfolio of client accounts and multiple teams. You will oversee and support 1-2 digital pods to ensure high-quality delivery across all campaigns, whilst building strong relationships with senior client stakeholders, becoming their trusted advisor on all things digital and upkeeping senior 1:1s to proactively address any issues and to spot opportunities.

You will actively identify opportunities to grow your client accounts that contributes to agency income targets, drive measurable results across a portfolio of KPIs and reporting sources, whilst upkeeping weekly financial forecasting of your clients to be reported back to the business.

As a Digital Account Director you will consistently be required to collaborate with offline media teams to deliver fully integrated, cross-channel strategies, providing clients with innovative, forward-thinking digital recommendations that align with their business goals. You will demonstrate expert knowledge in your client industry sectors and stay at the forefront of their business challenges and goals. You will also often liaise with agency senior leadership and c-suite level stakeholders to contribute to discussions on business level income targets and growth projects.

In addition, you will maintain operational excellence and ensure best practices are followed across all accounts within our department, working closely with the wider Digital Director team on managing the department’s training, resource, processes, workstreams, best practices guidelines and overall operations. You will be seen as a senior leader amongst the department and will run department meetings independently, inspiring all team members to be collaborative and deliver best-in-class work.

The main responsibilities of the role are:

• Identify under-performing areas across accounts and implement strategies to improve performance.

• Maintain oversight of BAU and organic business forecasts, managing risk and resource allocation across your patch.

• Create growth cases and development organic proposals for accounts that seeks to drive incremental income for the business and showcase upselling opportunities of other agency tools.

• Seek to improve digital value for current and prospective clients, leading on and developing agency-level projects and educational outputs.

• Ensure effective time utilisation, remit management, and clear accountability within all teams.

• Provide department-level support, including resource management, training, and best practice management alongside overseeing all operational process.

• Lead monthly 1:1s with senior clients, integrating deep business sector understanding into digital strategy and performance planning.

• Apply commercial and sector knowledge to guide campaigns, optimise performance, and inform client recommendations.

• Support wider agency initiatives such as thought leadership, PR, and new business pitching.

• Maintain key partner relationships, upkeep regular quarterly meetings and maintain effective ways of working, ensuring we stay at the forefront of testing opportunities, trading incentives as well as driving the most value from partner deals.

We require someone who has the passion, drive and tenacity to really make a difference and support the growth of our developing digital department across key client verticals.

Skills and experience

Experience:

• A minimum of 4.5 - 5 years' experience within paid digital media across all core and emerging channels and platforms.

• Must have worked at an independent media agency and held a previous Senior Digital Manager, or Digital Account Director role, across multiple accounts.

• Must have solid understanding of strategy development and be proactive in keeping up with industry trends.

• Must have extensive experience across the funnel – specifically in direct response media, with proven performance optimising towards a CPA / ROI / LTV.

• Must have experience in building client relationships, senior stakeholder management and in increasing the profitability of client accounts.

• Must have commercial acumen and experience in business financial forecasting management.

• Must have experience line managing internal people, with a focus on learning and development, task management and effective team utilisation.

• Must be a confident communicator, be able to engage internal and external senior stakeholders and present complex ideas clearly.

Key Skills

• Strong communication skills and ability to build your internal and external profile

• Ability to work well under pressure & multi-task large projects

• Forward and holistic level thinking that integrates strategies across on and offline channels

• Solutions orientated mindset and ability to problem-solve complex issues

• Multiple level people management and ability to develop individuals

• Process and operations management and ability to identify improvements

• Autonomous and confident in independent decision making

• Highly effective communicator – both written and verbal

• Presenting with confidence up to new business pitching level

• Wider commercial and trade understanding at a business and market level

• Ability to instil rational thinking and calmness amongst teams during periods of high pressure

Key Behaviours

• Proactively on top of emerging trends, challenges and opportunities within digital

• Influential and authoritative

• Opinionated

• Proactive, diligent, ambitious, entrepreneurial

• Adaptability, flexibility & can-do attitude

• Independent, accountable, decisive

• Empathetic & personable

• Embraces challenges

Our Culture

We’re immensely proud of the vibrant culture at The Kite Factory. Our commitment to continuous improvement is reflected in our quarterly pulse surveys, which create a valuable feedback loop, allowing us to evolve and refine our agency's operations. Here, every voice is heard and valued. We've diligently built and embodied our core values: Think Freely, Aim Higher, Stay Smart, Get Involved, and Win Together.

Our people are our greatest asset, and the connections they forge with one another are the foundation of our success. To strengthen these relationships and foster a supportive and inclusive environment, we offer several committees that everyone is encouraged to join, including Social, Diversity & Inclusion, and Environmental Impact. These groups play a crucial role in shaping our culture and ensuring that we not only work together but thrive together.

What’s in it for you?

As well as working with some of the best people in the industry, we offer a competitive salary, a range of benefits, a huge focus on training and development with dedicated training time, partnerships with industry specialists, and the opportunity to progress and develop your career with the support of a fantastic team.

Inclusivity and belonging

At The Kite Factory, we welcome applications from all walks of life including those who are under-represented in our industry. We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive place to work where everyone feels they can belong and celebrate each other's differences. It’s so important to us that all voices are heard and listened to so that we can truly create an inclusive place to work where our teams can thrive.