Strategic Account Director, Media Buying

The Strategic Account Director is the senior relationship and strategy owner for one to two of 829’s most important enterprise advertisers — high‑value clients running 6‑to 7‑figure monthly media budgets across CTV, OLV, display, native, audio, and emerging digital channels. The role sits within 829’s Enterprise Media Buying practice and serves as the executive‑level point of contact for client leadership, including CMOs, VPs of Marketing, and senior media decision‑makers.

This is a true player/coach role. You are accountable for the relationship, the strategy, and the commercial outcomes — and equally accountable for the day‑to‑day quality of the work. Early in the role you will operate with a deliberately lean, integrated team supporting a single high‑value account. As the practice and your portfolio scale, dedicated resources scale alongside it — but the standard does not change.

This role owns net revenue retention, and the long‑term trajectory of every account on its desk.

The Strategic Account Director is part executive sponsor, part strategic advisor, and part commercial owner — the person clients trust to translate media performance into business outcomes, and the person 829 trusts to grow these relationships into multi‑year, performance‑accountable partnerships.

• Serve as the senior strategic lead and executive point of contact for one to two high‑value enterprise clients
• Build and sustain trusted partnerships with C‑suite, VP‑level, and senior marketing leadership at the client organization
• Lead executive‑level conversations including QBRs, annual planning, business reviews, strategic planning sessions, and renewal discussions
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex client, operational, or strategic concerns
• Connect media performance — across CTV, OLV, display, native, audio, and emerging channels — to client business objectives, marketing organization priorities, and broader commercial outcomes
• Maintain a high standard of executive communication, professionalism, and relationship management across all client interactions

• Develop and lead long‑term account strategy across the full programmatic stack, in close partnership with the assigned media strategist, media buyers, operating leadership, and analyst(s).
• Translate performance insights and analytics into actionable, executive‑ready recommendations
• Anticipate organizational shifts, market changes, and competitive pressures that may impact client priorities or partnership health
• Guide clients through annual and quarterly planning cycles, budget reallocations, and channel expansion conversations (e.g., CTV scale‑up, retail media, audio, DOOH)
• Ensure agency recommendations align with enterprise client realities — approval structures, brand safety standards, measurement frameworks, and procurement timelines
• Stay fluent in the broader programmatic landscape — DSP changes, supply‑path optimization, privacy regulation, attention metrics, AI‑driven optimization — and translate the implications into client strategy

• Own retention, NRR, and account satisfaction across the assigned portfolio
• Identify and convert strategic growth opportunities tied to client business needs, performance trends, and evolving media priorities
• Lead scope expansion conversations — additional channels, increased budgets, adjacent service lines — in partnership with practice leadership
• Own renewal strategy and forecasting; partner with agency leadership on commercial planning, pricing, and structural agreement evolution
• Co‑own the client’s staffing and resource budget — making intentional, accountable decisions about how dedicated and shared resources are deployed in service of client outcomes and engagement profitability
• Maintain visibility into engagement profitability, resource allocation, and delivery quality across the account

• Operate as a player/coach on the account — leading the relationship and the strategy while remaining directly involved in the work
• Hold accountability for delivery quality, on‑time execution, and integrated work product across…