Careers
Account Director / Senior Account Director
Salary: £60,000 - £70,000 (depending on experience)
Location: London Waterloo (Hybrid home and office working). We are supportive of flexible working; all employees come into the London office on Monday and at least another day a week and as required for client meetings.
Contract: Full time, permanent
Start Date: as soon as possible
Closing date: 5 pm Thursday 19 November
We may close applications early if we find a candidate who is a strong fit for the role, so we encourage early applications.
Benefits
Flexible bank holidays: you can exchange a government set public holiday for a more convenient time off, whether that’s for a religious festival or any other occasion you would rather use the time for.
Pension: Seahorse offers all employees automatic enrolment to an ethical pension scheme with Aviva.
Cause days: Seahorse also offers 3 cause days per year – these are to be used for volunteering (such as a beach clean-up, board membership, food bank support etc.) or events (such as a protest or march).
Travel loans: We offer an interest free cycle loan of up to £1,000 and interest free season ticket loans.
Training: £500 individual training budget plus team training. We have a core series of training activities for new joiners including client servicing, media training, public affairs training and networking training.
Working abroad: team members are permitted to work abroad for a total of 30 days a year and for a maximum of 2 consecutive weeks (subject to approval of the MD and not during peak times of the year – e.g. Party Conference season).
Early summer finish time: during August the office will close at 3 pm on Fridays.
How to apply
Send your CV, cover letter and equality and diversity monitoring form explaining how you are suited to this role to applications@seahorsecomms.co.uk with the subject ‘Seahorse Account Director Role’.
What we’re looking for
We are seeking a high energy, highly strategic Account Director to join our agency to lead our corporate client accounts, which mostly comprise clients across energy and clean tech, but we are open candidates with broad and transferable experience from other sectors.
In this pivotal role, you will help grow our corporate client base. You’ll drive impactful strategies that influence legislation and policy and position our clients as industry leaders.
Join us in making a tangible difference where it matters most.
About Seahorse
Seahorse works with organisations operating where policy, politics and public opinion meet. Organisations that are complex, progressive, and know that lasting influence must be earned.
Uniquely positioned at the intersection of the environmental movement, politics and media, we advise on and deliver strategic communications and campaigns that drive policy and behaviour change.
We work with companies, organisations and brands across clean tech, climate, energy, sustainable finance, food and agriculture, waste, nature and marine.
Our clients range from breakthrough tech start-ups and climate campaigners to investors and global NGOs. We have supported organisations like WWF, Octopus Energy, River Action and the OVO Foundation.
You can read about our work here.
Job Description
We’re looking for an Account Director who can effectively run client accounts and teams and help secure new business.
The role involves driving team and company growth. We’ll need you to:
Effectively prioritise and respond to client servicing, team management, and capacity planning needs.
Deliver effective communication to clients and stakeholders, including building and maintaining relationships with clients, media, political figures, NGOs, and business contacts, and supporting business development initiatives such as proposals and pitches.
Deliver insight led strategic advice on how to effectively make the case for regulatory and legislative change.
Identify new business leads, run pitch processes from beginning to end and secure new clients, in line with your personal new business targets.
Develop compelling new business proposals and run marketing initiatives.
Foster positive company culture and support the Managing Director and Director in building internal company policies and training programmes.
Line manage and mentor junior members of staff across the company, not just those on your accounts.
Your experience
5+ years experience, preferably with previous agency experience.
Full campaign activation experience from taking client briefs and leading response to brief, all the way through to execution and evaluation.
Demonstrable track record providing high level political strategy and intelligence to clients, devising and implementing strategic comms plans and integrated campaigns.
Demonstrable track record of leading new business processes, winning new clients and meeting financial targets.
A career focus on corporate clients, ideally in energy, clean tech, decarbonisation or nature restoration.
A strong network that includes policy makers, journalists and businesses.
Who you are
You demonstrate a strong work ethic alongside a good work/life balance.
You are friendly and approachable while ensuring very high standards of quality and detail in your work.
You can demonstrate your ability to be cross-party and develop strong relationships across the House.
You are a strategic thinker, not just a good deliverer.