Account Manager

The Role

Account Manager (Full-time, Hybrid) |  Austin, TX  or Minneapolis, MN 

What to Expect

We’re looking for an organized, solution-focused, dedicated Account Manager to foster strong client relationships and collaborate with their Creative Leadership partner to co-lead our team of designers, writers, and web developers across varied creative project types.

The ideal candidate will have an entrepreneurial spirit, a passion for making the work better, a dedicated, persistent team player, and will ensure that we're always striving for excellence and transparency in the work for our clients and The Engine. We’re searching for expert solution-finders who are willing to roll up their sleeves to face whatever challenges come their way. In this role, you are responsible for:

• Acting as an ally and advocate to your clients by preparing, setting, and maintaining healthy expectations, mitigating surprises, and adjusting for project variables on a daily basis
• Ensuring a positive client experience from inception through completion of a project and beyond, always looking for ways to delight and positively engage your client teams
• Setting your creative team up for success by clearly communicating project goals, crafting work plans for project success, and clearing obstacles that stand in anyone’s way
• Building trust with your clients through empathy, transparency and clear communication (written and verbal)
• Keeping long-term goals in mind while making quick and detail-oriented decisions to keep projects moving forward
• Prioritizing and re-prioritizing efforts in order to provide both client and creative teams with the best possible process, experience, and outcome from project start to wrap
• Managing project success, keeping key dates and deliverables front of mind and clearly communicating staffing, capacity, budget, and project goals both internally and to clients
• Meeting with your creative team and clients multiple times per week to identify and align on goals and expectations, consistently moving the needle forward and guiding both client and internal teams through project work plans
• Drafting contracts and proposals based on the needs of a specific client and project
• Working with the creative and business services teams to hire and onboard freelancers (copywriter, designer, developer) as needed
• Budgeting - working hand-in-hand with the business service team to keep project budgets accurate and up-to-date
• Reporting data that outlines a successful campaign or project launch
• Supporting and owning new business leads, guiding them through our sales pipeline

Strengths We Look For

Strategic: The ability to act strategically in how, when, and with whom they share valuable client information

Collected: The ability to work under the pressure of deadlines and prioritize the important deliverables while maintaining a positive and solution-focused attitude

Empathetic: The ability to understand the experience of your clients and your team

Strong communicator: The ability to effectively and engagingly convey ideas, situations, and messages across verbal and written communications

Resourceful: Exhibit the skills and talents of the team and allocate resources to capacity and identify gaps in project needs, while bringing an understanding of the goals, context, and possible outcomes of an effort to enhance effectiveness and avoid challenges

Facilitator: Possess the skills to lead client communications and deliver feedback, ensuring the client’s voice is heard in all project communications

Organizer: Can efficiently plan, anticipate needs, and manage workflow on the project management side

Agile: Quick learner, adaptable and able to pivot and problem-solve calmly under pressure

Qualifications

• 3 - 5  years of creative agency account management experience, strong project management skills preferred
• A Bachelor’s degree in advertising, marketing, business, communications, or a comparable area of the study is desired, but not required
• Industry knowledge with an understanding and awareness of the marketing, creative, and advertising landscape, trends, and players
• Understanding of the Agile methodology is preferred but not required

Compensation and Benefits

The target salary for this position is $80,000, plus full benefits and profit share. There is no sales quota, outbound sales metrics, as well as no sales-based commission for this role. Rather you will be eligible for the same benefits and profit share opportunity as the full team. 

We offer competitive salaries, a healthy benefits package (medical, dental, vision, and life), 401k with matching contribution, annual cost of living salary adjustments, education reimbursement programs, 20 days of PTO (vacation and sick time), and 7 paid holidays.

We are a profit-share agency, dispersing up to 25% of total agency profits to the team each quarter. For the 2023 year, most fully vested employees received approximately 8% of their salary in profit share payments. Each year we strive to improve our offering and take care of our team.

The Engine is Red is committed to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace with opportunities for all. BIPOC, women, marginalized communities, LGBTQIA+, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

A different model, a strong culture.

The Engine is founded on the pursuit to explore if the necessary evils of our industry are truly necessary. Over the past decade, we’ve discovered they really aren’t. While we focus on a traditional creative offering across brand, campaign, digital, and beyond, we thrive under a different business model. A model built on deep collaboration and transparency with our clients and peers, on building tight-knit teams empowered to drive their best work forward. We have no timesheets, traffic meetings, bloody powerpoints of edits, and no late nights or weekends. We focus on a culture of kindness, empathy, and a passion for the work we do.

Recent Engine Team Excerpts from the 2021 AdAge Best Places to Work assessment:

“I am given a space that breeds creativity, given the most talented group of people to work with, and am treated with respect each and every day. I truly feel as if my company cares about me as a full person, and I feel as if I have the chance to do the best work of my life here.”

“Leadership listens to and respects employees as PEOPLE. I have never worked at a company who invests in and appreciates their employees as much as The Engine is Red. They set the bar incredibly high, and their devotion to their employees' health and happiness is what makes the decision to invest back in them so effortless.”

“This organization is always looking to be its best. The leadership is constantly seeking sustainable growth, and it feels like they're doing it for the good of the team. We are always informed on big changes and brought into the loop as often as possible. We are asked for feedback and offered as much individual coaching as we want. There is a sense that the organization cares deeply about its employees and loves seeing them grow. We also have a great structure in place that helps make really hard projects feel feasible. I feel supported and like I'm learning so much on our projects. On the other side, clients love working with us. This gives me a sense of pride knowing we are doing a good job with their work and making it a great experience for them. I feel we make an impact for them and with them. I also love the clients we choose to engage with—I have never felt like we worked with a company that didn't align with our values. Additionally, I feel like if a client disrespected me or a team member, leadership would swiftly take action. I feel safe and respected. There are also just generally great perks. I feel I can take PTO and still be supported. I love our office and the activities we do to bond as coworkers. The office environment is supportive and uplifting. We generally approach things with as much fun and as little stress as we can manage. I've never experienced anything quite like this.

To Apply

Please introduce yourself, and share your recent resume, portfolio and salary expectations via email to [email protected] with the subject line “Account Manager”.

About the Engine

The Engine is a tribe of creators and strategists, builders and collaborators, learners and students. Over the past thirteen years, we have built a strong reputation for collaborating with our clients to push the boundaries and create inspiring work.

We believe the best work comes from an empowered and independent team, free to drive their projects in their own way. We trust each other - knowing each of us is talented, honest, and dedicated. We believe life outside of the studio is a deep source of inspiration, rest, and drive.

We insist on having fun and aspire to create ground-breaking work together. We seek exceptional talent that believes in joining a passionate, egoless team that is building something bigger than themselves.

We’ve created a culture of trust, transparency, and empowerment. We have found creatives who prefer to self-lead and drive projects, thrive here. Curious minds who like to question the status quo, dive beyond the obvious and push themselves forward. Optimistic realists, who face challenges eyes-wide-open, and believe there is a way.

Our clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, regional players, and non-profits—from wine and food to energy and biotech. While media and industry vary, they share a set of values: a strong drive to break through and create something new, and a desire to work deeper with their agency.

The Engine is independently owned, and debt-free. The past few years have been a season of stability for us, and 2025 is on track to grow. Especially if you join the team 😉.

Heart of the Sun x The Engine is Red 
In 2022, independent creative agency, The Engine is Red, acquired Austin digital agency, Hear to the Sun. In the two years since the merger, we have combined our teams, capabilities, and expertise to become a single powerful team, serving clients nationwide. Learn more about the acquisition here.