Skip to main content
← Back to search
GP

Account Director

George P. Johnson Experience Marketing

Salary undisclosed

Detroit, MI; Austin, TX; Nashville, TN; New York, NY; Boston, MA; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CAOn-siteExpert

Need a reasonable accommodation to apply or interview? Contact us.

JobMinglr uses automated technology to recommend jobs based on profile information and job preferences. Match Score does not determine eligibility for a position, prevent a user from viewing or applying to a job, or make hiring decisions on behalf of an employer.

Description

Our Opportunity

GPJ is looking for a seasoned Account Director to join our growing team!

This role is responsible for overseeing Account Services for the assigned client groups. And involves managing the financial and operational performance of GPJ retainers, which includes model and solution development, performance and alignment analysis, and estimating. You will work closely with the Executive Director of Account Services to drive program success, efficiency, effectiveness, and overall client satisfaction. Your main focus is on ensuring that  account margins, client satisfaction, and account growth align with company targets.

This position is hybrid, requiring you to report on-site to one of the following office locations a minimum of 2 days/week: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Nashville, Detroit, Boston, or New York City.

Your Impact

In your role, you will have influence and responsibility over:

  • Managing staff
  • Regularly interacting with clients on various topics such as overall Scope of Work, Retainer management, Invoicing tracking, Client satisfaction/problem solving, GPJ Engagement Best Practices, client GPJ process, and guidelines
  • Managing retainers
  • Serving as the internal contact for reporting needs
  • Ensuring the team participates in all required GPJ and client training, including process/business operations and brand guidelines
  • Assisting in driving consistency between GPJ team and individual client teams regarding GPJ engagement.

Your Skills

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills including ability to communicate to top level executives as well as entry level workers.  Comfortable in sales situations.  Able to strongly present solutions and present support for recommendations when needed. You are an Excel and PowerPoint wiz.
  • Strong leadership skills including ability to lead a cross functional team in a matrix organization. Provide consistent direction and support for the extended team.  Additional required leadership skills include:  Determination/persistence, Positive attitude, Ownership mentality, Delegation skills, Willingness to escalate, Ability to gain consensus, Goal oriented.
  • Strong organizational skills including project management.
  • Clear understanding of job cost drivers, mark-ups, margin analysts, sell price calculations, etc.
  • Exercises sound judgment, capable in complicated situations, able to draw conclusions, prioritize issues and is flexible in a very dynamic changing environment.
  • Solid understanding of the GPJ Way process. Able to direct team members to follow the process and train others.
  • Basic understanding of overall engineering to fabrication process, competent at reading engineering drawings, understands primary fabrication processes like carpentry, paint, crating, metal work and electrical.
  • Experienced and competent estimating fabrication and service projects.  Capable in reviewing estimates.
  • Understanding of show site event delivery process. Able to oversee and ensure proper quality site delivery.

Your Competencies

Account Development & Growth: Through in-depth business, industry and client knowledge, drive forward thinking approaches and concepts aligned to and anticipating client’s needs and objectives enabling agency differentiation, identification of new areas for growth and client satisfaction.

Client Orientation: You demonstrate concern for satisfying external and/or internal clients aka client obsession. You focus always on the end clients, ensuring that response times and service are at the forefront of customer interactions, via technology or human touch points. You provide superior client service by prioritizing personal interactions (verbal or face-to-face) with our clients on a regular cadence. You listen as well as advise our clients on given situations to ensure engagement success.

Relationship Builder: Develop, maintain and strengthen partnerships with others inside and outside the client organization. Identify new stakeholders, manage client expectations, define new business opportunities and deliver against clients’ needs while skillfully balancing the needs of the client and those of the agency. Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport,: builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.

Experience & Education

  • Minimum of 10 years agency/industry related experience. 
  • 6(+) years of progressively increasing client management responsibility / experience desired
  • 4 Year College Degree; preferred in Marketing/Advertising/Event Management/Business Administration, Hospitality, Communications, or related field MBA or Executive MBA degree is a plus

Salary Range: dependent on location; base is $125k

Salary is dependent on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) experience, skills, and location.

Who We Are

GPJ is the world leader in experiential marketing. Our 29 global offices are filled with fearless people dreaming up ideas that are transforming industries and bringing the most respected brands to life in powerfully, exciting ways. We are a part of the Project Worldwide family. An independent, employee-owned global network of complementary, wholly-owned agencies. 

You read that “employee-owned” part, right? You heard us correctly. You work hard, she works hard, we all work hard… we all succeed and reap the rewards. We have an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – providing our employees with an ownership interest. We thought you would want to know that. In fact, there is a lot more you would want to know about us, like our employer matching 401(k) plan (no vesting period), our “no employee contribution” healthcare option. But we are getting ahead of ourselves here, let’s talk about this this exciting opportunity first and we can fill you in on our perks & benefits later.

GPJ is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, citizenship, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected class. In addition to federal law requirements, GPJ complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.  GPJ expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on any protected class.

About this role

At George P. Johnson Experience Marketing, this Account Director role centers on stewarding client relationships and the financial health of assigned retainer accounts. You'll manage account margins, oversee staff, and work directly with clients on scope, invoicing, satisfaction, and process alignment—all while reporting to the Executive Director of Account Services. The position requires balancing internal operations with external client needs, from handling escalations and training to ensuring quality delivery at event sites.

Success in this role demands a combination of business acumen and people skills. You need solid grounding in job costing, estimating, and margin analysis, along with fluency in Excel and PowerPoint. Equally important are strong leadership capabilities—the ability to guide cross-functional teams, communicate clearly with executives and entry-level staff alike, and build lasting relationships across organizational boundaries. You should also understand GPJ's fabrication and event delivery processes, including engineering drawings and core fabrication methods like carpentry, metalwork, and electrical work.

This is a Detroit-based in-office role requiring a minimum of two days per week on-site. The position calls for at least ten years of agency or industry experience, with six or more years in progressively responsible client management roles. A four-year degree is required (marketing, advertising, event management, or related fields preferred); an MBA is a plus. Base salary starts at $125,000, adjusted for location and experience.

Typical pay for this role

$120,000

Typical range: $60,000 to $140,000

This role's local market on JobMinglr

Pay for this role

The employer didn't post a pay range for this role. That usually means pay is set in negotiation, which favors whoever arrives with numbers. Check ranges on comparable Account Director postings in Detroit, and analyze any offer before you accept it.

How JobMinglr reads this job

Every listing here is scored against your profile before you apply: skills overlap, experience level, location and work arrangement, each weighted and explained. You see the score and the reasons, not just a list. How the matching works.