How to hire a senior account director

How to hire a senior account director, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior account director hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior account director job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior account director
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior account director do?

Post a senior account director job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   The senior account director hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior account director's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior account directors from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list presents senior account director salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Account Director	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Account Director	Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams. They set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.	$40-83
   Director Of Sales & Business Development	A director of sales business development is responsible for monitoring the business and project plans, ensuring that the sales targets are met, according to project requirements and specifications. Directors of sales business development perform data analysis to track business performance and identify opportunities to grow revenues and profits... Show more	$18-84
   Director New Business Development	A director of new business development is in charge of spearheading new programs and procedures, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. It is their duty to set goals and objectives in adherence to the company's vision and mission, establishing guidelines, allocating budgets, and overseeing the progress of all efforts... Show more	$34-80

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Healthcare
   • Account Management
   • Business Development
   • Client Facing
   • Project Management
   • Digital Marketing
   • Client Accounts
   • Cloud
   • Digital Transformation
   • Enterprise Sales
   • ROI
   • Revenue Growth
   • National Accounts
   • CRM

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Supervise insurance billing maintenance and review all manage care contractual adjustments to ensure patients are billed correctly prior to self-pay transfer.
   • Complete oversight of four grants.
   • Demonstrate ROI with extensive post-program outcomes reports, as well as effective status reports, program updates, and evaluation summaries.
   • Establish a governance and oversight model which become standard practice to monitor delivery performance of contract services.
   • Develop detailed proprietary LTV, ROI, forecasting and segmentation models to provide inform investment and cost efficiency recommendations to client.
   • Tailor and deliver PowerPoint presentations to perspective clients at both executive and line manager level to present capabilities and gain business.

   More senior account director duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the senior account director job description is a good way to get more applicants. A senior account director salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a senior account director in South Carolina may be lower than in California, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level senior account director. Additionally, a senior account director with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average senior account director salary

   $122,004yearly

   $58.66 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior account director salary

   $85,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 21, 2025

   Average senior account director salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$154,866	$74
   2	Pennsylvania	$145,715	$70
   3	Maryland	$142,601	$69
   4	New York	$140,731	$68
   5	Connecticut	$137,819	$66
   6	Wisconsin	$136,313	$66
   7	Massachusetts	$134,801	$65
   8	Oregon	$133,319	$64
   9	District of Columbia	$130,600	$63
   10	Indiana	$125,609	$60
   11	Washington	$123,798	$60
   12	Minnesota	$120,450	$58
   13	Arizona	$118,888	$57
   14	Illinois	$117,542	$57
   15	Virginia	$117,436	$56
   16	Ohio	$114,316	$55
   17	North Carolina	$114,287	$55
   18	Florida	$111,583	$54
   19	Texas	$109,598	$53
   20	Iowa	$109,452	$53

   Average senior account director salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Hearst	$179,503	$86.30	60
   2	Condé Nast	$170,183	$81.82	3
   3	Edelman Financial Engines	$153,300	$73.70	1
   4	Veeva Systems	$150,296	$72.26	26
   5	DDB	$149,463	$71.86	3
   6	Wpp Us Holdings Inc	$148,028	$71.17	31
   7	Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc.	$143,052	$68.78	14
   8	Accenture	$142,957	$68.73	102
   9	Amneal Pharmaceuticals	$142,909	$68.71	2
   10	AKQA	$142,085	$68.31
   11	UST Global	$141,831	$68.19
   12	Merkle	$139,662	$67.15	1
   13	Epsilon	$139,101	$66.88
   14	GMR Marketing	$137,280	$66.00	1
   15	Adobe	$134,690	$64.75	54
   16	Laird + Partners	$132,961	$63.92
   17	Five9	$131,383	$63.16	17
   18	Fletcher Thompson	$127,725	$61.41
   19	Razorfish	$126,284	$60.71
   20	Tenet Healthcare	$125,513	$60.34	10

4. Writing a senior account director job description

   A senior account director job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a senior account director job description:

   Senior account director job description example

   The Senior Account Director manages a brand or segment of an account to bring consistent thought leadership and support the client's marketing needs. In addition, they build a motivated, collaborative, and high-performing team capable of supporting a variety of marketing initiatives and programs to his/her client account. A Senior Account Director's activities contribute measurably to the Company's reputation, generate year-to-year increases in agency profits, assist in generating success in securing new business and develop client solutions and strategic insights that contribute to the agency's market presence.
   
   The Senior Account Director should be a discipline expert with cross-disciplinary mastery and is accountable for the direction, motivation, and financial impact of their team. They are expected to identify and recruit new talent while promoting best agency practices. They seek opportunities to mentor individuals outside of their direct reports, while setting the standards for the work produced in the group. They create an environment that enables collaboration and inspirational ideas. In partnership with other senior leaders, they take responsibility for the financials of the group to ensure resources are being used appropriately. They also support and build a HumanKind culture within the agency.
   Your Specialty
   
   • Establishes and maintains strong relationships with team and client management counterparts.
   • Facilitates the sharing of the team's client intelligence, creative work, and other expertise within and across business units to help all units identify business-building opportunities and enhance their marketing programs.
   • Sets the direction for the account by leading creation of strategic and tactical business plans that outline how the team will achieve its financial objectives. Communicates account's objectives and strategies to team members and the role they play in achieving them. Regularly updates team on changes to and progress against the plan.
   • Establishes annual budget, staffing needs and revenue forecasts to assure the growth and profitability of the account.
   • Monitors team's progress against plan including revenues, resource allocation, profitability, and billing/collection problems. Review analysis of incurred costs, operations and forecast data to determine progress toward stated goals and objectives. Develops and implements action plans to correct/improve team financial performance as needed.
   • Identifies and actively pursues new business opportunities within existing client assignments as well as outside existing projects.
   • Staff, manage, develop and inspire team members to become their client's best marketing partner by delivering strategic and creative excellence, introducing client to innovative solutions, delivering quality service, and delivering marketing programs that further client's marketing and business objectives.
   • Understands assigned client's business as well as main competitors to properly analyze and understand status and direction of brand strategy. Ensures all team members have a complete understanding of the client's business and the unique needs of the client and their brand(s).
   • Fosters direct report(s) growth and performance. Prepares and implements effective employee development plans and coaches personnel using same.
   • Develops and maintains cooperative working relationships with various agency personnel to gather and exchange information, develop, and implement solutions to problems, and improve programs.
   • Understands the agency's capabilities and stays current with agency activities. Finds ways to leverage agency's capabilities in promotion, direct and interactive into the team's relationship with client to create positive relations and enhance new revenue opportunities.
   • Champions specific agency initiatives, including new programs, services, policies and procedures.
   • Adds to the development of best practices by serving as recognized leader at trade and professional meetings and seminars, trade shows, and other marketing services activities.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior account director for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior account directors they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior account directors who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior account director job on Zippia to find and recruit senior account director candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with senior account director candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior account director

   Once you've selected the best senior account director candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new senior account director. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a senior account director?