Senior Client Director - Freelance

At AKQA (part of WPP) we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products, and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital services and applications that capture the imagination, delivering impressive returns for our clients.

Client leadership at AKQA builds trusted partnerships, provides cross-functional direction, and ensures our teams deliver exceptional work that meets both client goals and customer needs. Senior Client Directors bring strategic rigor and operational excellence to complex engagements: balancing relationship leadership with the practical realities of delivering high-quality digital products and services at pace.
We are seeking an experienced Freelance Senior Client Director to support a nationally recognized, category-leading brand that is looking to AKQA to innovate in ways that meaningfully impact people’s lives. This role will lead senior client relationships and guide delivery across digital products and services that serve large, diverse customer bases. You will work in a fast-moving, highly collaborative environment, aligning cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders, navigating complexity, and ensuring work delivers measurable outcomes.
ROLE REQUIREMENTS
• Own senior day-to-day client relationships, building trust and credibility through strategic counsel, operational excellence, and consistent delivery
• Act as the client’s strategic partner: understand business goals, identify opportunities, and shape initiatives across digital products and services
• Lead multiple concurrent workstreams with clear prioritization, escalation paths, decision-making, and stakeholder alignment
• Partner closely with Strategy, UX, Research, Technology, and Delivery leads to translate business needs into actionable plans and high-quality outputs
• Drive proactive growth by identifying whitespace, bringing forward new ideas, and expanding work beyond the initial remit
• Establish and maintain a strong “brand of service” for the engagement, including communication rhythms, working norms, and clarity of roles/responsibilities
• Anticipate risks and spot issues early; manage expectations, drive resolution, and keep work moving without sacrificing quality
• Guide and influence senior stakeholders, communicating persuasively to both executive and working-team audiences
• Ensure account health by supporting scope management, forecasting, and resourcing alignment in partnership with operations and delivery leadership
QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS
• Significant experience in agency client leadership, including ownership of complex engagements delivering digital products and services (web/app/platform/service ecosystems)
• Proven ability to operate at senior stakeholder levels, building durable relationships grounded in substance, follow-through, and sound judgment
• Strong strategic thinking paired with hands-on execution; comfortable working with ambiguity and moving quickly across parallel efforts
• Highly organized and detail-oriented; able to manage competing priorities while maintaining a high bar for quality and client experience
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills (written, verbal, and presentation), able to align cross-functional teams and drive decisions
• Proactive, solutions-oriented mindset with a commitment to measurable outcomes and continuous improvement
• Collaborative, team-first leadership style; able to motivate teams and navigate complex organizations effectively

Location & Commitment
• Start Date (Freelance): March 30, 2026
• End Date (Freelance): June 5, 2026
• 40 hours/week
• Expected compensation: $4,000–$4,750 per week
• Must be based in New York or the tri-state area for in-person collaboration as needed (hybrid expectation)