Pr & Partnerships Account Director

PR & Partnerships Account Director- 12 month FTC

London | Hybrid

This is a maternity cover position.

IRIS is a global integrated agency driven by one simple philosophy: Participate or Perish . We create ideas that earn attention and inspire people to interact with brands in meaningful ways. Working with some of the world’s most ambitious brands, we combine strategy, creativity, technology, and media to deliver impactful campaigns.

We’re looking for a PR & Partnerships Account Director to join our team: someone who can combine senior PR expertise with a deep understanding of culture, influence and partnerships to create work that earns attention and drives meaningful participation.

The role

As a PR & Partnerships Account Director, you’ll be a senior specialist responsible for the quality and success of PR, Partnerships and Influencer work across your accounts. You’ll provide confident senior counsel to clients, lead specialist teams and ensure we deliver ambitious, culturally relevant work that creates genuine real-world impact.

Participate or Perish will sit at the heart of how you approach the role. You’ll help brands identify where and how they can participate meaningfully in the lives of their audiences, using earned media, influence and partnerships to build genuine cultural relevance rather than simply communicate messages.

You’ll also play an important role within IRIS's integrated teams, championing an earned-first mindset and ensuring PR, Partnerships and Influencer thinking is considered early and meaningfully within every opportunity.

This is a role for someone who combines specialist expertise, cultural curiosity, creative ambition and commercial confidence and wants to help shape both the work we produce and the future of our PR & Partnerships offering.

What you’ll be doing

• Provide senior client counsel : offer confident specialist advice across PR strategy, earned media, Influencer and Partnerships, presenting clear recommendations and helping clients understand how their brands can participate meaningfully
• Lead the PR & Partnerships product : oversee the delivery of high-quality PR, Partnerships and Influencer work across key clients and briefs, providing senior specialist direction across strategies, earned campaigns, media approaches and partnership programmes
• Champion earned-first thinking : ensure PR, Influencer and Partnerships are considered early and meaningfully within integrated briefs as powerful ways for brands to participate, not simply communicate
• Develop culturally relevant partnerships : identify and develop credible opportunities across talent, entertainment, sport, media, brands and wider culture that connect brands with the things their audiences genuinely care about
• Set the standard for great work : review and challenge thinking throughout development, ensuring every output is strategically rigorous, creatively ambitious, client-ready and has a clear reason for people to care
• Lead through culture and media : stay close to the conversations, behaviours and cultural shifts shaping consumers’ lives, proactively identifying opportunities for brands to participate meaningfully
• Work across disciplines : collaborate closely with Social, Influencer, Creative, Strategy and Data/Performance teams, bringing PR & Partnerships expertise into integrated teams to create stronger and more effective work
• Drive proactive growth : look beyond the immediate brief to identify new opportunities across PR, Partnerships and Influencer, bringing forward ideas that add value to clients and grow IRIS's remit
• Lead and develop your team : motivate, coach and develop PR & Partnerships specialists, setting high expectations and creating an ambitious, collaborative and positive team culture
• Raise the standard of specialist craft : share knowledge, encourage continual development and lead by example in strengthening the quality of PR & Partnerships thinking and delivery
• Embrace innovation : actively explore new technology, tools and ways of working that can improve the creativity, quality and effectiveness of our PR & Partnerships output
• Manage commercial performance : lead budget creation and financial management across PR & Partnerships scopes, managing resource and reporting to protect profitability while maintaining the quality of the work
• Demonstrate meaningful impact : ensure we measure more than outputs, showing the real impact our work creates for brands and their audiences and using those learnings to strengthen future activity
• Make IRIS stronger : contribute beyond your immediate accounts by sharing your expertise, bringing forward ideas and helping strengthen both the PR & Partnerships team and the wider agency

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for an experienced PR & Partnerships leader who is comfortable operating at a senior level and who combines specialist expertise with cultural fluency, creative ambition and commercial awareness .

You’ll be someone who:

• Has significant experience leading PR, earned media, Influencer and/or Partnerships work within an agency environment
• Builds trusted senior client relationships and can provide clear, confident and credible specialist counsel
• Has a strong understanding of how brands can use earned media, influence and partnerships to participate meaningfully in culture
• Is deeply connected to media, culture and consumer behaviour and can turn emerging conversations and trends into opportunities for brands
• Has experience developing ambitious and credible partnerships across areas such as talent, entertainment, sport, media and culture
• Cares deeply about the quality of the work and is confident challenging thinking to make it more strategically rigorous and creatively ambitious
• Works collaboratively across disciplines and understands how specialist PR & Partnerships thinking can strengthen integrated campaigns
• Has a track record of identifying opportunities to grow client relationships and expand the remit of PR & Partnerships
• Is an experienced people leader who can coach, develop and inspire specialist talent
• Understands the commercial side of agency life and can confidently manage budgets, resources and profitability
• Is curious about new technology and actively explores how emerging tools and ways of working can improve their specialist craft
• Wants to contribute to the growth and evolution of the PR & Partnerships offering and the wider IRIS agency

Why IRIS?

IRIS is built around the belief that integrated thinking creates better work and better business outcomes . We bring together different disciplines, perspectives and capabilities to solve problems in ways that go beyond traditional agency boundaries.

Our PR & Partnerships team plays a critical role in this approach: helping brands move beyond simply communicating with people and instead find meaningful ways to participate in the conversations, communities and culture that matter to them.

We’re looking for people who bring the same mindset.

IRIS is an advocate for equal opportunity in the workplace. We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability and gender identity. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

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