Account Director Commercial · London HQ ·

Sales/Account Management Manager/Player Coach

Location: London Hybrid (2 / 3 days in the office)

native has been building for 10 years, but we're still very much a startup: fast-moving, ambitious, and building with intent. We're creating the infrastructure that connects students, Students’ Unions, universities, and advertisers through a managed marketplace.

Our goal is to deliver for students by increasing student engagement while enabling Students’ Unions to secure sustainable funding. For advertisers, we offer meaningful, measurable routes to student audiences. The more aligned these incentives are, the more defensible and scalable our business becomes.

The Opportunity

We're hiring a Account Director who leads a team of three to four account managers while personally owning a focused book of around 10 to 15 higher-value accounts. It is a hands-on, hybrid role: you coach and manage the team day to day while modelling consultative selling on your own clients.

native's account base has largely been sold transactionally, often a single space at freshers' fairs, so most clients have had a great experience but have never been shown the wider opportunity. Some have not been contacted for the best part of a year. This role exists to change that, shifting the team from transactional selling to consultative, relationship-led growth, and growing accounts the way the Lady Garden charity campaign scaled from c.£20K activation to a c.£300K partnership.

Performance Objectives

Success in this role is defined by outcomes, not activity. In the first 6 to 12 months the Account Director will:

1. Take full ownership of the team. Directly manage, coach and develop the three to four account managers so they no longer need day-to-day oversight from the Head of Account Management, with structured 1:1s, clear standards and ownership of performance.
2. Shift the team from transactional to consultative selling. Embed a regular client-
3. contact cadence (for example monthly relationship calls), account planning and organic
4. opportunity-spotting, replacing reactive, freshers-only contact.
5. Grow a personal book of c.10–15 higher-value accounts. Model the consultative
6. approach first-hand, growing accounts from £5K bookings to £100K+ in annual
7. bookings over time.
8. Lift team performance and share of wallet. Increase retention, repeat spend and
9. average deal value across the team's book, with visible movement of accounts up the
10. value ladder.
11. Raise the talent bar. Assess a mixed-ability team, upskill those with potential, and
12. support fair, decisive performance management of those who are not at the required
13. level, alongside the Head of Account Management

What you’ll be working on

As a Account Director, you’ll be responsible for...

• Lead, coach and develop a team of three to four account managers, balancing pace with quality.
• Own and grow a personal book of c.10–15 higher-value accounts (below the enterprise tier, which sits elsewhere in the team).
• Embed a consultative, insight-led account management model: regular relationship calls, account plans and proactive opportunity identification.
• Coordinate the client relationship across campaigns, working with the planning and delivery teams (who manage delivery with the universities) so clients get a strong experience.
• Drive CRM discipline, accurate forecasting and clear pipeline visibility across the team.
• Operate as a true player-coach: hands-on in deals and client conversations while still hitting your own number.

What we’re looking for

You’ll bring vision, structure, and operational discipline to a fast-growing function. You know how to scale people-driven operations and balance commercial priorities with quality, compliance, and culture.

Specifically, you will bring:

• Proven consultative account management with a clear track record of growing account spend, not pure new-business hunting.
• Genuine people-management experience: ideally a current or recent player-coach with a couple of years managing a team, who enjoys management as the next step. Not a first-time manager, and not a long-tenured manager looking to step back onto the tools.
• Ability to take transactional sellers and develop solution-selling behaviours in them.
• Trusted-advisor persona: curiosity, relationship-building and commercial judgement over growth at all costs.
• Strong prioritisation and light project-management / coordination skills to balance a personal book with team demands.
• Comfortable carrying a personal target and commission. Media, advertising, experiential/events, student marketing or B2B services a plus.

Whats in it for you

Pension contributions of 5%

25 days off (excluding bank holidays)

Day off on your birthday

Share Options for all

Work from home set-up budget

Season Ticket Loan Scheme

Paid maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are actively creating an equitable environment for everyone at native to thrive.

Diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we are making sure we have lots of support for all of our people to grow at native. At native, we embrace diversity in all of its forms and foster an inclusive environment for all people to do the best work of their lives with us.

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