Senior Account Director – Retail Print & POS

West Yorkshire
Permanent Full-time
Competitive salary benefits

We’re working with an established and highly successful print and marketing services business that is looking to appoint an experienced Senior Account Director to take the lead on one of its major retail accounts.

This is a significant senior client services position and we’re looking for someone who genuinely understands the pace, complexity and demands of large-scale retail print and POS.

You’ll take overall ownership of the client relationship, commercial performance and strategic development of the account, while overseeing the delivery of a high-volume, time-critical print programme.

You’ll need to be equally comfortable sitting in front of senior client stakeholders discussing strategy and account development as you are talking pricing with procurement or working with production teams to resolve a live campaign issue.

The Role

As Senior Account Director, you’ll become a trusted senior partner to the client, developing relationships across marketing, procurement, operations, trading, brand and supply chain.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Taking ownership of the senior client relationship and acting as the main escalation point
• Leading client meetings, account reviews and strategic business reviews
• Understanding the client's promotional calendar, wider business objectives and communication requirements
• Taking commercial responsibility for revenue, profitability, forecasting and account performance
• Developing an Account Development Plan focused on retention, organic growth and increasing share of spend
• Identifying opportunities to introduce additional products and services
• Leading pricing reviews, tenders, negotiations and commercial proposals
• Working closely with procurement and finance to identify efficiencies without compromising service or quality
• Providing senior oversight of complex, high-volume print and POS campaigns
• Working alongside production, planning and logistics to ensure campaigns are delivered on time and within budget
• Driving continuous improvement across quality, cost, efficiency and service
• Identifying new opportunities across print, production, personalisation, automation and customer communications
• Leading, mentoring and developing the wider account team

The role carries responsibility for both the commercial growth of the account and the successful delivery of complex print programmes.

What We’re Looking For

This role needs an established Account Director or Senior Account Director with a strong background in print, POS, retail communications, marketing services or production.

Ideally, you’ll have experience managing a major grocery, retail or FMCG account and understand what it takes to deliver campaigns within a fast-moving retail environment.

You’ll need:

• Significant experience at Account Director / Senior Account Director level
• Strong experience within print, retail POS, marketing services or retail communications
• Experience managing a major retail, grocery, FMCG or similarly complex client
• A strong understanding of print production, materials, processes and supply chains
• Experience overseeing substantial revenue and/or high-volume print programmes
• Excellent senior stakeholder management skills
• Strong commercial knowledge covering pricing, margin, forecasting and profitability
• Experience dealing with procurement and leading commercial negotiations
• Good understanding of SLAs, KPIs and client governance
• Proven experience of growing and developing existing accounts
• Experience leading and developing client services teams
• The ability to remain calm, decisive and solutions-focused when things get busy

The Person

This isn't simply about maintaining an existing account.

We’re looking for someone with gravitas, commercial awareness and personality who can build credibility with senior stakeholders, challenge when needed and spot opportunities to develop the relationship further.

Retail moves quickly, so you’ll need to be highly organised, proactive and comfortable making decisions under pressure. You’ll understand the realities of print production and know how to balance what the client wants with what can actually be delivered operationally and commercially.

If you’re an experienced Account Director/Senior Account Director from the retail print or POS world and you’re looking for a substantial account where you can make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you.

Ref: 1715211