Senior Account Director

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The Senior Account Director is the single senior leader accountable for the region and the primary owner of all account and production related business across Japan. This is a heavily client facing role that leads client relationships and growth while supporting and elevating the regional production function to meet the group's standards. Working in a central capacity, they stay connected to the global core team to keep regional production strategy aligned, surface where local market needs differ, and bring the latest global thinking back to the region. As the one person accountable for the region, they set the standard for quality, commercial health, and delivery, and serve as the single point of ownership across the market.

Responsibilities:

Account & Client Leadership

Serve as the primary point of contact and trusted partner for clients, leading content, creative, strategy, and production.

Engage new projects from the start, proposing transformational solutions, assessing feasibility, and driving change for the brands.

Grow key clients across multiple brands and business accounts, ensuring the work produced exceeds client expectations.

Deliver against monthly and annual targets, building accounts into long-term success for all parties.

Represent the business in new opportunities and pitches, showcasing cases, capabilities, and culture to current and potential partners.

Central & Global Connectivity

Operate in a central capacity, connecting with the global core team to keep regional production strategy aligned with the wider group.

Surface where local market needs differ and adapt the global approach for the region.

Stay connected to the latest global developments, bringing new thinking, tools, and standards back to the local team.

Act as the single point of accountability for the region, aligning local delivery with global direction.

Production & Delivery Oversight

Support and lead the regional production function, stepping in to close gaps and ensure delivery meets the group's standards.

Hold final accountability for budgets, estimates, and delivery across the region's portfolio.

Serve as the senior point of escalation for delivery blockers, bringing solutions and new paths of delivery.

Ensure production milestones, project health, and commercial performance stay on course.

Regional & Team Leadership

Mentor, develop, and grow the team, prioritizing capability, craft, and long-term success.

Drive innovation, keeping a pulse on the latest production technology, talent, and AI solutions to improve delivery and value.

Shape scalable processes and ways of working for the region.

Requirements:

10+ years managing business accounts in digital advertising and content production, with 5+ years in a senior leadership role.

Proven track record managing high-value, high-volume, interdisciplinary work across multiple accounts.

Fluent in Japanese and English at the highest professional level.

Extensive experience writing proposals and proposing solutions from both commercial and technical perspectives.

Proven experience owning budgets, margins, and revenue targets.

Track record leading client relationships and growing accounts at a senior level.

Experience mentoring and developing teams.

Strong knowledge of production delivery and scoping across creative disciplines.

Familiarity with AI and automation tools in a production context.

Strategic thinker and confident presenter, comfortable with ambiguity and building process from scratch.

Excellent organization and communication skills, calm and effective under tight, changing deadlines.

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About Monks

Monks is the global, digital-first, data-driven, unitary operating brand of S4 Capital plc. With a legacy of innovation and specialized expertise, Monks combines an extraordinary range of global Marketing and Technology Services to redefine how brands interact with the world. Through Monks.Flow, its flagship AI ecosystem for marketing orchestration, Monks transforms marketing into a growth engine, collapsing timelines and connecting brands to culture in real time. By deploying bespoke intelligent agents across disciplines and delivering culturally relevant, high-impact creative and digital solutions, Monks solves key critical business challenges across the entire brand enterprise to help brands sustain long-term impact.

Monks was named a Contender in The Forrester Wave™: Global Marketing Services, ranks among Cannes Lions' Top 10 Creative Companies (2022-25) and remains the only partner featured in AdExchanger’s Programmatic Power Players list every year (2020-24). Named Adweek’s first AI Agency of the Year (2023) and The One Show’s inaugural AI Pioneer Organization, Monks was also awarded Business Intelligence Group’s 2025 Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Award in both the Organizational and AI Product categories. As a trusted partner to cutting-edge innovators in tech, Monks earned titles such as Optimizely Experimentation Partner of the Year (2025), runner-up for the Adobe Firefly Partner Award (2024), and Workato’s AI Visionary Customer Impact Award (2024). Additionally, Monks achieved a record-breaking number of FWAs and continues to hold the most of any partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to building a respectful and empowering work environment for all people to freely express themselves amongst colleagues who embrace diversity in all respects. Including fresh voices and unique points of view in all aspects of our business not only creates an environment where we can all grow and thrive but also increases our potential to produce work that better represents—and resonates with—the world around us.