The posting
Group Account Director, House Lead
Location: Atlanta, GA Reports to: Managing Director Type: Full-time
About the Role
Iris is looking for a Group Account Director to lead one of our Houses — owning the client relationships, commercial performance, and team leadership that make that business unit thrive. This is a senior leadership role for someone who wants genuine ownership — full accountability for a portfolio of clients, a P&L, and a cross-functional team, with a direct seat in shaping agency-wide priorities.
You’ll be the person clients trust to steer their business, the person your team looks to for direction and standards, and the person who ensures our best work gets made and gets seen.
You’ll also act as #2 under the Managing Director for the Atlanta office - ensuring the environment maintains high morale and is a great place to work. This is a role for a true "galvanizer."
What You’ll Own
Strategic Client Partnership You’ll go deep on your clients’ businesses, categories, and competitive landscapes — translating market shifts into real strategic counsel, not just status updates. You’ll run QBRs that showcase impact and surface new opportunity, build trust-based relationships at every level, and cultivate genuine senior and C-suite relationships, not just day-to-day contacts.
Commercial Ownership You’ll drive organic growth across your accounts, contribute actively to new business, and identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities across the network. On the financial side, you’ll own forecast and pipeline visibility, manage project burn in close partnership with Operations, lead procurement conversations, and bring performance against plan into monthly finance reviews — so nothing about the health of your business is a surprise to you or to leadership.
People & Agency Leadership You’ll lead the full cross-functional client team — not just direct reports — with clear roles and shared accountability. You’ll invest in your team’s development, delegate intentionally, and stay closely attuned to workload and morale. You’ll also act as an extension of agency leadership: managing up on risks early, modeling the standards and energy you want the agency to have, and being a visible, active contributor to Iris’s culture and priorities beyond your own House.
Champion of the Work You’ll be a genuine advocate for great creative — pushing for the stronger idea even when it’s the harder sell — and you’ll partner with the CCO and creative leadership to protect that work through the client sell-in process. You’ll also make sure recognition follows: case studies, awards, press visibility are things you actively pursue, not afterthoughts.
AI & Innovation Mindset You’ll bring an experimentation mindset to how your House works — actively using AI in your own workflow, championing smart adoption across research, briefing, and reporting, and exercising sound judgment on where AI adds value versus where human rigor still leads. You’ll help build a culture where trying new tools and sharing what works is the norm.
What We’re Looking For
- 15+ years in account leadership at an agency, with direct P&L or budget ownership
- Experience as a Group Account Director
- Experience developing 360 campaigns, including production shoots
- A track record of building senior client relationships that go beyond the day-to-day brief
- Experience leading and developing cross-functional teams, including people not in a direct reporting line
- Strong financial fluency — forecasting, scoping, burn management, pricing conversations
- A genuine point of view on creative quality, and the confidence to advocate for it with clients
- Curiosity about AI and a track record of adopting new tools and ways of working
- Composure and judgment under pressure — someone who protects trust and morale even in hard moments
- Able to work in-office at least 3 days per week, and available for client travel as needed
Why Iris
About Iris
Participate or perish. It’s not just our rallying cry – it’s a creative imperative. Iris is the global creative micro-network built for brands that refuse to blend in. With 650 people across 11 offices, we help clients like Samsung, adidas, Bentley, California Pizza Kitchen, Beiersdorf and Samsonite show up in culture with work that stands apart. Powered by Participation, and brought to life across paid, earned and owned media, our agency model is big enough to be dangerous, small enough to stay agile. Founded outside the ad establishment in 1999, Iris has always been defined by its outsider mindset – one that still drives our mission today.
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and recruit on talent alone, regardless of age, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, education, class, sexual orientation or disability. We champion diversity and believe it not only benefits, but enhances our creativity, our company and the wider society at large.
Compensation
Compensation packages are based on the skill level and experience each candidate brings to their role. There may also be a more senior or junior position available that could be a better fit with your expertise. Each level has its own compensation range.
We pride ourselves on competitive salaries, and ensuring pay equity exists across our organization. We benchmark each position against existing employee competencies and 4As compensation data which includes geographic and agency size benchmarks. We also meet with department leaders 3x/year to ensure we are supporting employees in living into their full potential. Our promotions are not limited to a specific time per year. Promotions are tied to performance.
Right To Work In The US
You must be authorized to work in the US for any employer. At this time, we are not sponsoring or providing assistance with obtaining work authorization.
We are in the office Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on a hybrid schedule. We look forward to meeting you!
