About the role
Our philosophy is simple: in a world fast approaching commoditization, our job is to make clients' brands unignorable. We believe creating unignorable brands begins with putting the consumer at the center of our thinking. We believe that people are smart and respond to brands that speak to them with intelligence, insight and purpose. Because when people don’t have to engage with your work anymore, you have to make them want to. We believe in diversity and inclusion. We believe diversity drives better thinking, creativity, and innovation, and we are working to build a culture that includes and values different voices and perspectives. We also recognize that we’re still learning. To support an inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to share their experiences and ideas, we have a diversity + inclusion team, Roots and mandatory Unconscious Bias Training, and rigour in our recruitment process.
Role: Account Director
Reporting directly to the Group Account Director, this role will lead all agency deliverables for one primary anchor account, while providing strategic support and assistance across other accounts as business needs dictate. This includes leadership of large-scale integrated campaigns requiring production-savvy account leadership, spanning high-profile broadcast/video, social content, digital assets, performance media, and high-volume campaign deliverables.
The ideal candidate will bring strong account leadership experience across complex production workstreams, with the ability to guide clients and internal teams from briefing through delivery, including timelines, budgets, internal reviews, client approvals, vendor coordination, compliance, trafficking, and final asset delivery. They should be comfortable leading clients through high-profile broadcast and video production, while also understanding the speed and scale required for social, digital, and performance-driven content ecosystems.
Experience in fast-paced, production-heavy, digital-first sectors such as entertainment, tech, or transactional digital platforms is highly desired, with a proven ability to manage deliverables in a dynamic, fast-moving online landscape. Additionally, the ideal candidate will have experience navigating regulated or compliance-sensitive categories where production accuracy, approvals, and risk mitigation are critical.
The right candidate will have a passion for unignorable creative, demonstrate solid business judgment, strong problem-solving skills, inspired strategic thinking, and have a proven track record leading integrated productions and multi-channel campaigns from an account leadership perspective in a rapid-fire agency environment. This person will have strong people skills and a passion for training and developing those under them.
What You’ll Do
Lead and manage the client relationship for a primary anchor account, providing cross-account support and assistance to other brand teams as resource needs shift. Build deep, trusting relationships with clients across a cross-functional team. Understand client businesses and their brands in order to deliver against objectives. Manage and comfortably navigate difficult conversations, both internally and externally. With support of the Client Service Director, establish targets, assume accountability for annual planning, yearly scopes of work, and manage client budgets. Lead the account management of production-heavy integrated campaigns across broadcast, video, social, digital, and performance channels, ensuring all work is delivered on brief, on time, and on budget in partnership with production and project management teams. Guide clients and internal teams through key production milestones, including briefs, estimates schedules, creative development, pre-production, shoots, post-production, reviews, approvals, trafficking, and final delivery. Partner closely with creative, strategy, production, project management, media, legal/compliance, and external vendors to keep complex workstreams moving efficiently. Actively participate in strategic planning sessions and build strategic plans with the support of the strategy team. Oversee full-funnel marketing initiatives, finding the perfect synergy between high-visibility brand production, including broadcast/video and social, and tactical, performance-driven digital acquisition work. Ensure programs are managed efficiently, with rigorous attention to detail, and delivered on time in a high-volume agency environment with multiple concurrent production deliverables, formats, and approval paths. Mitigate risk by identifying issues, addressing strict compliance and regulatory guidelines across both broadcast and digital creative, and putting contingency plans in place. Partner with production and project management leads to manage production scopes, budgets, timelines, and resource needs with strong financial discipline and proactive communication. Help ensure production work is set up for success from the outset, with clear roles, responsibilities, approval processes, asset requirements, and delivery expectations. Mentor and manage a team, motivating them toward a common goal and guiding the ongoing development of their skills. Demonstrate a bias for action and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Be a positive, collaborative force within the agency.
Desired Skills and Experience
5-7 years of advertising or marketing experience, with 3+ years of that experience as an Account Director or equivalent. Strong experience providing account leadership on production-heavy integrated campaigns across broadcast/video, social, digital, and performance channels. Strong working knowledge of complex production processes, including timelines, estimates, budgets, client approvals, vendor coordination, shoots, post-production, versioning, trafficking, and final delivery. Experience partnering closely with creative, strategy, production, project management, media, legal/compliance, and external production partners. Experience managing fast-paced, digital-first accounts with high-volume deliverables, real-time engagement, and promotional cycles. Strong working knowledge of regulated or compliance-sensitive categories, with the ability to balance creative excellence, accuracy, and risk mitigation. Familiarity with full-funnel marketing, from top-of-funnel brand production to mid/lower-funnel performance marketing and digital acquisition. Proven ability to build trusted relationships with clients, internal teams, and external partners. Strong strategic thinking and the ability to solve business and communication challenges with mid to senior-level clients. Ability to lead day-to-day account operations, including priorities, financials, resourcing, and production delivery in partnership with cross-functional teams. Collaborative, proactive, emotionally intelligent leader with strong communication and team development skills.
Not the right fit? Search for Account Director jobs in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
About john st.
john st. has rapidly become one of Canada's top creative advertising agencies. Through our commitment to strategic planning, we have an unmatched track record for work that works. Our philosophy is simple: in a world fast approaching commoditization, our job is to make clients' brands unignorable™.
john st. is a WPP-owned agency and specialty brand in the Ogilvy network.
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About the role
Our philosophy is simple: in a world fast approaching commoditization, our job is to make clients' brands unignorable. We believe creating unignorable brands begins with putting the consumer at the center of our thinking. We believe that people are smart and respond to brands that speak to them with intelligence, insight and purpose. Because when people don’t have to engage with your work anymore, you have to make them want to. We believe in diversity and inclusion. We believe diversity drives better thinking, creativity, and innovation, and we are working to build a culture that includes and values different voices and perspectives. We also recognize that we’re still learning. To support an inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to share their experiences and ideas, we have a diversity + inclusion team, Roots and mandatory Unconscious Bias Training, and rigour in our recruitment process.
Role: Account Director
Reporting directly to the Group Account Director, this role will lead all agency deliverables for one primary anchor account, while providing strategic support and assistance across other accounts as business needs dictate. This includes leadership of large-scale integrated campaigns requiring production-savvy account leadership, spanning high-profile broadcast/video, social content, digital assets, performance media, and high-volume campaign deliverables.
The ideal candidate will bring strong account leadership experience across complex production workstreams, with the ability to guide clients and internal teams from briefing through delivery, including timelines, budgets, internal reviews, client approvals, vendor coordination, compliance, trafficking, and final asset delivery. They should be comfortable leading clients through high-profile broadcast and video production, while also understanding the speed and scale required for social, digital, and performance-driven content ecosystems.
Experience in fast-paced, production-heavy, digital-first sectors such as entertainment, tech, or transactional digital platforms is highly desired, with a proven ability to manage deliverables in a dynamic, fast-moving online landscape. Additionally, the ideal candidate will have experience navigating regulated or compliance-sensitive categories where production accuracy, approvals, and risk mitigation are critical.
The right candidate will have a passion for unignorable creative, demonstrate solid business judgment, strong problem-solving skills, inspired strategic thinking, and have a proven track record leading integrated productions and multi-channel campaigns from an account leadership perspective in a rapid-fire agency environment. This person will have strong people skills and a passion for training and developing those under them.
What You’ll Do
Lead and manage the client relationship for a primary anchor account, providing cross-account support and assistance to other brand teams as resource needs shift. Build deep, trusting relationships with clients across a cross-functional team. Understand client businesses and their brands in order to deliver against objectives. Manage and comfortably navigate difficult conversations, both internally and externally. With support of the Client Service Director, establish targets, assume accountability for annual planning, yearly scopes of work, and manage client budgets. Lead the account management of production-heavy integrated campaigns across broadcast, video, social, digital, and performance channels, ensuring all work is delivered on brief, on time, and on budget in partnership with production and project management teams. Guide clients and internal teams through key production milestones, including briefs, estimates schedules, creative development, pre-production, shoots, post-production, reviews, approvals, trafficking, and final delivery. Partner closely with creative, strategy, production, project management, media, legal/compliance, and external vendors to keep complex workstreams moving efficiently. Actively participate in strategic planning sessions and build strategic plans with the support of the strategy team. Oversee full-funnel marketing initiatives, finding the perfect synergy between high-visibility brand production, including broadcast/video and social, and tactical, performance-driven digital acquisition work. Ensure programs are managed efficiently, with rigorous attention to detail, and delivered on time in a high-volume agency environment with multiple concurrent production deliverables, formats, and approval paths. Mitigate risk by identifying issues, addressing strict compliance and regulatory guidelines across both broadcast and digital creative, and putting contingency plans in place. Partner with production and project management leads to manage production scopes, budgets, timelines, and resource needs with strong financial discipline and proactive communication. Help ensure production work is set up for success from the outset, with clear roles, responsibilities, approval processes, asset requirements, and delivery expectations. Mentor and manage a team, motivating them toward a common goal and guiding the ongoing development of their skills. Demonstrate a bias for action and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Be a positive, collaborative force within the agency.
Desired Skills and Experience
5-7 years of advertising or marketing experience, with 3+ years of that experience as an Account Director or equivalent. Strong experience providing account leadership on production-heavy integrated campaigns across broadcast/video, social, digital, and performance channels. Strong working knowledge of complex production processes, including timelines, estimates, budgets, client approvals, vendor coordination, shoots, post-production, versioning, trafficking, and final delivery. Experience partnering closely with creative, strategy, production, project management, media, legal/compliance, and external production partners. Experience managing fast-paced, digital-first accounts with high-volume deliverables, real-time engagement, and promotional cycles. Strong working knowledge of regulated or compliance-sensitive categories, with the ability to balance creative excellence, accuracy, and risk mitigation. Familiarity with full-funnel marketing, from top-of-funnel brand production to mid/lower-funnel performance marketing and digital acquisition. Proven ability to build trusted relationships with clients, internal teams, and external partners. Strong strategic thinking and the ability to solve business and communication challenges with mid to senior-level clients. Ability to lead day-to-day account operations, including priorities, financials, resourcing, and production delivery in partnership with cross-functional teams. Collaborative, proactive, emotionally intelligent leader with strong communication and team development skills.
Not the right fit? Search for Account Director jobs in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
About john st.
john st. has rapidly become one of Canada's top creative advertising agencies. Through our commitment to strategic planning, we have an unmatched track record for work that works. Our philosophy is simple: in a world fast approaching commoditization, our job is to make clients' brands unignorable™.
john st. is a WPP-owned agency and specialty brand in the Ogilvy network.