Cygnus Education

Account Director - Agency

Remote, US$110,000-$135,000Posted 10 days ago

RemoteFull-Time Sales & Revenue $100k-$149k

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Job Description

Account Director – Client & Affiliate Management

Position Summary

The Account Director is responsible for the strategic leadership, growth, and overall performance of assigned client accounts, while also overseeing the affiliate and media partner relationships that support client delivery.

This role serves as a senior point of contact for clients and is accountable for translating client objectives into actionable performance strategies, coordinating internal teams and external partners, monitoring campaign and lead performance, and ensuring commitments related to volume, quality, cost, and service are achieved.

The Account Director operates as both a client advocate and business owner, balancing client expectations with campaign performance, partner capabilities, profitability, and the company’s broader strategic objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Client Relationship & Account Leadership

Serve as the senior day-to-day relationship owner for assigned client accounts.
Build trusted relationships with client stakeholders and develop a strong understanding of their business objectives, enrollment goals, target audiences, performance expectations, and operational requirements.
Lead regular client meetings, business reviews, campaign performance discussions, and strategic planning sessions.
Translate client objectives into clear priorities and execution plans for internal teams and external partners.
Proactively identify performance concerns, emerging risks, and opportunities and provide clients with clear recommendations and solutions.
Manage client expectations regarding lead volume, quality, cost, pacing, targeting, and campaign performance.
Ensure client questions, issues, and escalations are addressed promptly and appropriately.
Maintain a strong understanding of contractual commitments, campaign requirements, pricing, budgets, and service expectations.

Affiliate & Partner Management

Manage relationships with affiliate, publisher, lead-generation, and other external media partners supporting assigned accounts.
Communicate campaign requirements, targeting criteria, lead specifications, compliance expectations, pricing, volume goals, and quality standards to partners.
Evaluate affiliate performance using metrics including lead volume, acceptance rates, rejection rates, cost per lead, cost per acquisition, lead quality, conversion performance, and return on investment.
Monitor lead delivery and identify trends related to filtered, rejected, returned, duplicate, or otherwise non-compliant leads.
Hold partners accountable for agreed-upon performance, quality, compliance, and delivery standards.
Work with affiliates to optimize campaigns, improve lead quality, adjust volume, resolve performance concerns, and identify opportunities to scale.
Recommend increasing, reducing, pausing, or terminating partner allocations based on performance.
Develop strong relationships with high-performing partners and identify opportunities to expand productive affiliate relationships.
Assist with sourcing, evaluating, and onboarding new affiliate and media partners where appropriate.

Revenue & Account Growth

Own the health, retention, and growth of assigned accounts.
Identify opportunities to expand existing client relationships through increased volume, additional programs, new campaigns, services, products, or media channels.
Partner with leadership and Business Development on account expansion opportunities.
Understand account economics, including revenue, partner costs, pricing, gross margin, and profitability.
Monitor account and partner performance to ensure delivery models remain financially sustainable.
Participate in forecasting client revenue, campaign volume, and partner allocations.
Support renewals, pricing discussions, scope changes, and contract extensions as appropriate.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Serve as the central point of coordination across Client Success, Media, Operations, Analytics, Creative, Product, and other teams supporting assigned accounts.
Establish clear priorities, responsibilities, timelines, and expectations for account-related initiatives.
Ensure internal teams have the information necessary to execute client requirements effectively.
Facilitate resolution of issues that cross functional or organizational boundaries.
Escalate material client, partner, financial, compliance, or performance risks to leadership when appropriate.
Provide clear and timely communication regarding account performance, changes in client priorities, and emerging risks.

Compliance & Lead Quality

Ensure affiliates and media partners comply with client requirements, company standards, applicable advertising requirements, and campaign-specific restrictions.
Partner with internal Compliance, Operations, and Technology teams to investigate lead-quality or compliance concerns.
Monitor patterns in rejected, filtered, returned, or disputed leads and work with appropriate teams to determine root causes.
Ensure partner remediation plans are established when quality or compliance issues are identified.
Maintain appropriate documentation of significant client and partner performance issues and agreed-upon corrective actions.

Performance Measures

Success in the role may be measured by

Client retention and satisfaction
Account revenue growth
Gross margin and account profitability
Achievement of client volume and pacing objectives
Lead acceptance and delivery rates
Lead quality and downstream conversion performance
Cost per lead / cost per acquisition
Affiliate performance and partner optimization
Resolution of client and partner issues
Forecast accuracy
Identification and execution of account expansion opportunities
Compliance with client and company requirements

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field preferred.
5+ years of account management, client services, performance marketing, affiliate marketing, lead generation, or digital media experience.
2+ years of experience managing significant client relationships or complex performance marketing accounts.
Experience working within a digital marketing, performance marketing, advertising, lead-generation, or media agency strongly preferred.
Direct experience managing affiliates, publishers, lead vendors, or other performance-based media partners preferred.
Strong understanding of digital performance marketing metrics, including CPL, CPA, conversion rate, ROAS, acceptance rate, lead quality, pacing, and campaign profitability.
Demonstrated ability to interpret performance data and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
Experience managing multiple clients, campaigns, priorities, and external partners simultaneously.
Strong client-facing communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
Ability to address difficult client or partner performance conversations constructively and confidently.
Strong organizational skills with the ability to coordinate work across multiple functional teams.
Commercial mindset with an understanding of revenue, pricing, margin, and account profitability.

Preferred Experience

Higher education or education marketing experience.
Direct-response or lead-generation marketing experience.
Experience with paid social, search, programmatic, affiliate, or publisher-based acquisition channels.
Familiarity with lead-management platforms, CRM systems, marketing analytics platforms, or performance dashboards.
Experience evaluating lead quality and downstream conversion data.
Understanding of advertising, consumer-data, TCPA, privacy, and lead-generation compliance considerations.