Freelance Creative Jobs in Calgary, AB (NOW HIRING)

Cult Collective is seeking an Account Director to own and grow a portfolio of client relationships. This role exists to do three things exceptionally well: deliver great work, build trusting relationships, and turn that trust into organic growth. You are the person our clients call first — and the reason they call us again.

This is your dream job if you...

• are a master of both soft skills and business acumen — intentional in every communication, internal or external, because trust is the foundation of growth.
• think like an owner about your book of business: you know which accounts are growing, why, and what's next for them.
• have a track record of expanding client relationships in ways that benefit both the client and the agency.
• have a passion for helping clients make tough decisions based on risk, not fear, that make their brands and businesses better.

As an Account Director, you'll manage a portfolio of client accounts, partnering with a collaborative team to deliver strategic, creative solutions. You are accountable for the health and growth of your accounts (retention, expansion, and referral), and you build the kind of client relationships that make growth a natural outcome of providing exceptional value.

Key Responsibilities:

Deliver Great Work

• Deeply understand each client's brand, what's on-brand, what isn't, and why.
• Understand every brief: expectations, constraints, and timelines.
• Understand the budget: what's possible, and where it makes sense to push.
• Collaborate effectively across the account team and hold work to a high standard.
• Build in measurement and feedback loops so learnings improve the next round of work.

Build Trusting Relationships

• Bring exceptional people skills. Make clients and colleagues feel heard, seen, and valued.
• Communicate with clarity and precision, in writing and in person.
• Read client intent beyond what's said, and adapt to how each client prefers to work.
• Build rapport that extends beyond project deliverables, in person whenever possible.

Identify & Secure Additional Work

• Treat incremental growth as an expected outcome of great service, not a quota.
• Know your clients' businesses well enough to identify which accounts are positioned to grow, and why.
• Map your client contact's boss, peers, and direct reports, and make sure they know and value you and our team.
• Know Cult's full range of services well enough to spot where they solve a client's next problem.
• Understand each client's propensity to outsource, their budgets, and their other third-party partners.

Portfolio & Account Management

• Own the day-to-day client relationship at a senior level, setting expectations and facilitating client meetings.
• Establish cadences for check-ins, progress reporting, invoicing, and issue triage.
• Lead project and account teams, including external freelancers, with clear expectations for delivery.
• Work closely with a Project Manager to maintain pricing, scheduling, capacity, and financial documentation for your accounts.
• Keep the CRM accurate and current for all prospects and clients in your portfolio.
• Manage and reconcile a portfolio budget of ±$3M, with a plan to mitigate variances.
• Forecast budget performance and translate the numbers into clear conversations with clients and leadership.
• Give internal teams the strategic context they need on each client's business, and hold the work accountable to strategy.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in account management, with a track record of growing client accounts.
• Strong business acumen, financial literacy (P&L, budgeting, forecasting), and a customer-centric mindset.
• Proven ability to build senior-level relationships and identify organic growth opportunities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft/Google suites and CRM or project management tools (Monday, HubSpot, AI tools, etc).
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple accounts and projects at once.
• An intrapreneurial mindset — you think like a business owner but want to be part of a bigger team.
• Alignment with Cult Collective's values and genuine interest in the growth of our people, clients, and community.
• NOTE: All Calgary-based employees work from our HQ in SE Calgary 5 days a week. We are not a hybrid or remote-work organization. 

About Cult Collective

We enable courageous business leaders to create category-leading brands by leveraging eight transformational cult brand principles that produce greater emotional relevance amongst customers and staff. Our core competence involves assessing how well a business currently engages key audiences, determining how much potential upside exists to achieve a desired future state, and co-creating implementation plans that close the gap to help a business achieve better results, faster. Our outputs vary wildly, and appropriately so, because each client situation is different. Therefore, in order to excel at our job, we require brilliant marketing minds (like YOURS!) to assist our clients and enhance our offerings.

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those chosen to move forward in our hiring experience will be contacted. No phone calls, please.