Programmatic Account Director

JOIN OUR JOURNEY

Medialab is the UK’s leading independent media agency, and one of the fastest growing in the industry. We’re a media agency that’s made differently: purpose-led, data-driven, founder-run and proudly independent.

Our entrepreneurial spirit means success is recognised and rewarded. There are no limits to what you can achieve here, which our employees agree with, evidenced by being a Campaign Best Place to Work for six consecutive years and one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025. As well as this, we’re Campaign’s Independent Agency of the Year 2024 and Media Week’s Independent Agency of the Year 2025.

We are IPA Effectiveness accredited, an IPA People-First agency, and All In Champions, with industry-leading work recognised by double-gold at the 2024 IPA Effectiveness Awards for our work with Laithwaites and a 2025 Effie for our work with Alzheimer’s Society.

Our independence means we can focus 100% on doing the right thing to secure success for our clients and our brilliant people. We work with a wide variety of clients including Hovis, IG, Sharps Bedrooms, SunLife, Standard Life, Ancestry, Laithwaites Wine, Save the Children, Guide Dogs, Alzheimer’s Society, RNLI and Clearscore.

OUR VALUES

• Commit to Doing the Right Thing (Act with integrity and accountability)

• Help People Flourish (Invest in people)

• Dig Deeper to Understand Better (Data driven curiosity)

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

Working at Medialab comes with lots of perks including all the usual things you would expect, such as a competitive salary package, pension, season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, weekly social events and big summer / end of year parties.

On top of that, we offer extra benefits, which make life at Medialab even more rewarding:

• Time to Unwind – We offer generous holiday entitlement that increases with long service, plus Christmas closure and a birthday day off. Alongside this, we offer flexible benefits including a holiday buy scheme, flexi-hours, a work abroad scheme, cultural bank holiday swaps, and Friday Summer hours.

• Hybrid Working – Balance between home and office (3 days in office). We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements from the commencement of employment.

• Career Growth – A meritocratic approach to progression with quarterly reviews, CPD Platinum accredited training, mentoring and leadership support.

• Health & Wellbeing – Private medical insurance, health cash plan, gym discounts, wellbeing apps Mental Health First Aiders and unlimited free professional counselling.

• Supporting Families – Enhanced parental leave, flexible working and life assurance.

• Giving Back – Paid charity days and sustainability initiatives.

• Perks & Rewards – Retail discounts, long-service trips and an unforgettable team culture.

YOUR NEXT CHALLENGE

As a Programmatic Account Director, you will lead strategic client partnerships, acting as the senior programmatic specialist across priority accounts. You will take ownership of the day to day management of Programmatic Managers while supporting the growth and development of Executives across the wider team, ensuring clear expectations, high performance, and strict accountability. You will be responsible for driving Programmatic innovation, elevating planning conversations, and shaping advanced channel execution across a portfolio of high value client accounts.

This senior role focuses on orchestrating sophisticated Programmatic Display and Video strategies. While you possess deep technical expertise, your focus will shift from hands on platform activation to shaping a forward looking planning culture, cultivating major media partner relationships, and delivering commercial growth. You will seamlessly navigate complex brand and performance campaigns, ensuring integrated, data driven success that directly aligns with our clients' long term business objectives.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

• Lead strategic client partnerships, acting as the primary senior digital specialist contact across priority accounts; confidently navigate roadmap discussions, senior presentations, and campaign reviews to drive long term value.

• Shape commercial and strategic opportunities by proactively identifying growth areas, influencing client briefs, and ensuring absolute alignment with client business goals.

• Provide senior counsel and support during pivotal moments, including major campaign launches, escalations, and performance dips, ensuring continuity, calm, and confidence.

• Drive accountability across the team, role modelling responsive, solution focused behaviour to remove blockers, resolve escalations swiftly, and maintain delivery confidence.

• Lead programmatic strategy across key platforms, shaping the media response to briefs by setting strategic direction, supporting innovation, and pushing for bold, award worthy thinking.

• Set high standards for planning excellence, proactively reviewing team outputs to ensure rigour, coherence, and commercial realism rooted in data and insight.

• Shape a forward looking planning culture, embedding future focused planning habits like automation, AI optimisation capabilities, and platform diversification to create space for bigger thinking.

• Drive the testing and learning agenda, translating Medialab's agency vision into account specific bidding strategies and client innovation delivery.

• Ensure data integrity and accountability by overseeing digital reporting accuracy, dashboard quality, and the proactive resolution of data gaps across all team outputs.

• Translate complexity into clarity, shaping client ready commentary that connects performance insights and modelling outputs directly to business and commercial outcomes.

• Shape advanced channel execution, applying a deep understanding of account architecture, testing frameworks, and measurement frameworks to enhance campaign impact.

• Lead the day to day management of Managers and oversee the development of Executives, establishing clear performance expectations and delivering structured feedback using Radical Candor.

• Coach teams for confidence and competence, mentoring junior team members to grow their strategic thinking, advanced digital competencies (segmentation, cross channel integration), and storytelling skills.

• Plan ahead with intention, anticipating resourcing needs, managing team efficiency through effective delegation, flagging risks, and advising on succession planning.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE ROLE

• Proven track record of senior digital leadership, with extensive experience steering complex, end to end programmatic strategies and overarching digital campaigns.

• Deep programmatic expertise and advanced knowledge of DSP environments (with DV360 excellence highly preferred), enabling you to QA large scale setups and guide technical teams.

• Strong commercial acumen, with a demonstrated ability to identify growth opportunities, handle complex team resourcing, and manage multi campaign budgets effectively.

• Exceptional relationship building skills, with the emotional intelligence required to manage and influence senior client stakeholders and internal agency leaders.

• Established background in people management, specifically in managing and mentoring mid level managers (e.g., Account Managers) and fostering a high performance team culture.

• A future focused mindset with passion for digital innovation, automation, and the adoption of AI tools to drive operational excellence.