Senior Account Manager

The Role At Outright, Senior Account Managers are more than client managers or project coordinators. They are trusted client leaders who help clients figure out what matters, what to do next, and how to get there, before leading the account/project team that makes it happen. As a Senior Account Manager, you’ll lead client relationships and complex engagements across brand, marketing, campaigns, digital, content, and other creative work. You’ll bring a strong understanding of how marketing works—from audience and messaging to channels, content, partnerships, and measurement—and know how to translate that understanding into clear direction for both clients and internal teams. You’ll often be the person who connects the dots: between a client’s larger goals and the work on the table, between strategy and execution, and between the people responsible for bringing an idea to life. On a variety of projects, you’ll be trusted to answer the questions: “What should we do to meet the client’s goals and how do we lead everyone toward the best outcome?” That means being able to lead a brief, shape a strategy, challenge assumptions, make recommendations, manage complexity, and keep a team moving without needing someone else to step in and quarterback the work. When you’re running a project, we want the rest of the agency to be able to step aside with confidence. You should be able to lead the client, guide the team, manage the details, anticipate what’s coming, and know when to bring in the right expertise. As a Senior Account Manager at Outright, your influence should continue to expand over time—through the strength of your client relationships, strategic judgment, leadership, operational discipline, and impact on the business. What You’ll Do Lead Clients and Account Strategy Own day-to-day leadership of assigned client relationships, building the trust and credibility required to become a true strategic partner. Understand each client’s organization, audience, goals, challenges, competitive landscape, and broader context—and use that knowledge to make better recommendations. Lead clients through ambiguity, turning broad goals or challenges into clear priorities, strategies, and actionable next steps. Develop strong relationships across client organizations, understanding the different needs and influence of executives, marketing and communications teams, program leaders, corporate partners, donors, and other stakeholders. Bring a clear point of view to client conversations rather than simply responding to requests or presenting options. Know when to push, when to listen, and when to bring in additional expertise. Identify opportunities for Outright to add value beyond the immediate assignment, including new initiatives, services, campaigns, and longer-term partnerships. Shape Strategy and Marketing Lead the development of creative, marketing, and campaign briefs that clearly articulate the challenge, audience, objectives, strategy, deliverables, and measures of success. Understand how brand, messaging, content, paid media, digital, social, experiential, and other channels work together to support larger marketing objectives. Lead or contribute to content strategy, determining what audiences need to hear, where and how they should encounter it, and how content supports the larger strategy. Understand strategic storytelling and how to translate complex ideas, organizational priorities, or causes into compelling narratives. Understand the different motivations and expectations of audiences such as individual donors, corporate partners, sponsors, members, customers, and advocates. Understand the complexity of integrated marketing campaigns and how changes to scope, channels, audiences, timelines, media, creative, or deliverables can affect the work as a whole. Partner with creative, strategy, media, digital, and production teams to ensure the work responds to the brief and achieves the intended outcome. Facilitate strategic planning, creative briefings, brainstorms, work sessions, and client presentations that create clarity and move decisions forward. Lead Projects and Performance Take full ownership of assigned engagements from kickoff through delivery, serving as the primary connective tissue between client needs, strategy, creative, production, and execution. Establish clear project plans, timelines, responsibilities, budgets, and decision-making processes. Manage projects in Harvest and Outlign and become fluent in the project management systems our clients use, including platforms such as Asana, Monday.com, and similar tools. Keep project information, budgets, timelines, deliverables, and decisions organized and visible so teams can focus on doing great work. Monitor project financials throughout an engagement, using Harvest and other project data to understand whether work is tracking to budget, identify potential overages or underutilization early, and recommend adjustments before they become problems. Manage scope, budgets, approvals, dependencies, and change requests with confidence and transparency. Coordinate internal teams and external partners, including designers, writers, developers, media partners, producers, vendors, and other specialists. Anticipate risks and roadblocks before they become problems, and bring solutions—not just issues—to the team and client. Step into production details when needed, including coordinating vendors, managing production logistics, reviewing deliverables, and keeping execution on track. Know when to manage something yourself and when to bring in a technical Project Manager or other specialist. Lead Teams and Create Accountability Set project teams up for success by establishing clear expectations, providing useful context, removing obstacles, and creating accountability for strong performance. Give teams the context they need to make good decisions while trusting experts to lead within their disciplines. Pay attention to utilization, project performance, and workload, recognizing when teams are over- or under-resourced and making thoughtful recommendations about staffing or support. Facilitate productive collaboration across account, strategy, creative, and production, particularly when priorities compete, information is incomplete, or stakeholders disagree. Provide clear, constructive feedback and create space for others to contribute their expertise. Mentor and support Account Managers, Project Managers, and other teammates as appropriate. Bring calm, focus, and sound judgment to fast-moving or high-pressure situations, communicating early about risks, tradeoffs, budget concerns, timeline shifts, and decisions that need to be made. Build Relationships and Grow the Business Develop relationships that extend beyond individual projects and create a deeper understanding of the client’s organization and future needs. Identify opportunities for organic growth by recognizing where Outright’s capabilities can solve additional client challenges. Contribute to account planning, client health assessments, and recommendations for strengthening key relationships. Support proposals, scopes of work, pitches, and presentations that help grow existing accounts and win new business. Help identify prospective clients and opportunities that align with Outright’s capabilities, mission, and growth goals. Build a reputation with clients as someone they can call when they need strategic thinking, not simply project support. Share useful approaches, tools, client insights, and lessons learned that strengthen account management across Outright. Support Outright’s own brand, visibility, and business development through proposals, case studies, thought leadership, events, social content, and other initiatives. What You’ll Bring 7+ years of experience leading client relationships, marketing initiatives, and complex engagements within an agency, creative or marketing environment, or in a comparable role within a large organization, nonprofit, or leading brand. Demonstrated experience serving as a primary client or stakeholder lead, with responsibility for translating goals into strategy, recommendations, and action—not simply managing project logistics or executing against direction set by others. Demonstrated experience independently leading complex projects from brief through delivery, including coordinating multidisciplinary teams, managing budgets and timelines, and navigating changing priorities and stakeholder needs. Experience leading marketing and integrated campaigns, including how strategy, brand, content, creative, paid media, digital, social, and other channels work together. Working knowledge of paid media planning and campaign management, including common channels, audience targeting, flighting, budgets, optimization, and performance measurement. Experience developing and leading creative or marketing briefs, with the ability to turn a client challenge into clear strategic and creative direction. Experience developing or leading content strategy, messaging, or strategic storytelling. Strong understanding of audience strategy and the ability to distinguish between the needs and motivations of different stakeholders, including consumers, donors, corporate partners, sponsors, members, or advocates. Strong strategic judgment and the confidence to make recommendations, challenge assumptions, and guide clients toward better decisions. Proven ability to manage complex scopes, timelines, budgets, resources, and competing priorities, including monitoring project financials and taking action when work is tracking over or under budget. Strong understanding of project economics and account growth, with the ability to recognize opportunities to protect profitability and expand client relationships. Fluency with project management systems such as Harvest, Outlign, Asana, Monday.com, or comparable platforms, with the ability to quickly adapt to new client systems. Experience working closely with creative teams, with a strong understanding of creative development and production processes. Experience managing external vendors, freelancers, production partners, or other outside collaborators when needed. Demonstrated ability to lead project teams toward strong performance by creating clarity, setting expectations, anticipating needs, removing obstacles, and holding people accountable without micromanaging. Working knowledge of utilization and team performance metrics, with the ability to recognize when staffing levels, skill sets, or workloads need to change to support client success and healthy team utilization. Strong presentation, facilitation, and communication skills, with the ability to lead client conversations and communicate complex ideas clearly. The ability to work independently, make decisions, and move projects forward without constant oversight. The ability to manage ambiguity and complexity with composure, organization, and follow-through. An understanding of how emerging tools and technologies—including AI—can improve marketing, strategy, project management, and creative workflows, paired with the judgment to use them appropriately. A portfolio of work, case studies, or examples demonstrating your role in shaping strategy, leading clients, and delivering meaningful marketing or creative outcomes. What Growth Can Look Like Here As a Senior Account Manager, growth may mean taking on more complex clients and engagements, developing deeper strategic expertise, expanding your ability to advise senior stakeholders, building stronger business-development instincts, or becoming a more influential leader across the agency. Some Senior Account Managers may eventually grow into Director-level client leadership and broader account strategy. Others may deepen their influence through a particular area of expertise, industry knowledge, or strategic discipline. The path won’t look identical for everyone. What matters is the continued expansion of your judgment, ownership, influence, and impact—and your ability to make clients, teams, and the work stronger. Location & Availability We are a flexible, remote-first team with opportunities to work together in person when it matters. Because many of our clients and team members are based in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region, candidates for this role should be located within the DMV and able to travel to our Thomas Circle office in Washington, DC, for periodic client meetings, agency convening days, pitches, and our annual team retreat. Compensation & Benefits The salary range for this position is $90,000–$110,000 , commensurate with experience and skills. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, and short- and long-term disability insurance; 401(k); training reimbursement; 11 paid holidays; the week off between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day; and 20 days of paid time off (PTO). About Outright Outright is a woman- and minority-owned creative agency based in Washington, D.C., helping organizations turn complex challenges into clear strategies, compelling brands, and creative work that moves people to act. We partner with leading global brands—including YouTube, Marriott, and the NHL—as well as mission-driven organizations such as the Partnership for a Healthier America, Ocean Conservancy, and Rails to Trails Conservancy. Across both, we bring the same combination of strategic thinking, creative excellence, and collaborative problem-solving. Our work spans brand strategy and identity, integrated marketing and campaigns, digital experiences, content and storytelling, media, and experiential work. We help clients understand what matters, determine what to do next, and bring those ideas to life across the places and platforms where their audiences encounter them. We’re a creative-first team of strategists, designers, writers, account leaders, and other specialists who believe the best work comes from curiosity, strong collaboration, and a willingness to challenge the expected. We care deeply about the quality of the work and about building the kind of thoughtful and ambitious team that makes that work possible. #J-18808-Ljbffr Outright