Account Director - Loyalty Consulting

Collinson is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers.

Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide.

We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.

Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.

Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.

Purpose of the job

The Account Director is responsible for leading strategic client relationships and ensuring the successful delivery of complex programmes across key enterprise accounts.

Working closely with the VP of Account Management, VP of Loyalty Consulting, and VP of Salesforce Loyalty, this role acts as the day-to-day senior client lead, responsible for driving account growth, programme success, stakeholder engagement, and operational excellence. The role will also support strategic Salesforce partnership opportunities and co-sell engagements where appropriate.

The role requires a commercially minded and highly organised individual with strong agency or consultancy experience, exceptional relationship management skills, and the ability to navigate complex client organisations.

The successful candidate will be comfortable operating across both strategic account leadership and programme delivery, ensuring clients receive an outstanding experience from planning through to execution.

The Account Director must also be highly confident using data, insights, and performance reporting to shape client strategy, inform decision-making, drive optimisation opportunities, and demonstrate measurable programme and commercial outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Client Relationship Management

• Lead day-to-day relationships across a portfolio of strategic enterprise clients.
• Build strong and trusted relationships with client stakeholders across multiple levels of the organisation.
• Understand client business priorities and proactively identify opportunities to add value.
• Act as a trusted advisor to clients, providing strategic guidance and operational leadership.
• Support the VP of Account Management in developing long-term account growth strategies.

Programme \& Delivery Leadership

• Oversee the successful delivery of complex client programmes and initiatives.
• Work closely with Programme Management and Delivery teams to ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and to a high standard.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams across strategy, partnerships, delivery, and account management to ensure aligned execution and successful client outcomes.
• Identify and proactively manage programme risks, dependencies, and stakeholder expectations.
• Ensure delivery excellence and a consistently high-quality client experience.

Commercial Management

• Support overall account performance, retention, and growth.
• Manage account plans, commercial tracking, and revenue forecasting.
• Identify opportunities for upsell, cross-sell, and partnership expansion.
• Support contract renewals, commercial discussions, and client negotiations.
• Ensure strong commercial governance across accounts and programmes.

Stakeholder Management

• Navigate complex stakeholder environments with professionalism and confidence.
• Build collaborative relationships with internal teams, external partners, agencies, and suppliers.
• Influence decision-making and drive alignment across multiple stakeholder groups.

· Support senior client presentations, workshops, and strategic discussions. · Represent the business positively within client and partner organisations. Team Collaboration \& Leadership

· Work collaboratively across Account Management, Programme Management, and Delivery teams. · Provide support and mentorship to Account Managers and junior team members.

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Encourage proactive problem-solving and client-first thinking.
• Direct Reports Account Managers and/or Programme Management team members as applicable.

Experience \& Skills

Essential Experience

• 8–12+ years of experience within account management, agency, consultancy, or client services environments.
• Strong agency or consultancy background managing enterprise-level clients and programmes.
• Experience working with complex, multi-stakeholder organisations.
• Proven experience managing strategic client relationships and delivering large-scale programmes.
• Strong commercial understanding with experience supporting account growth and retention.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional delivery teams.
• Experience within loyalty, customer engagement, travel, transport, or related sectors beneficial.

Key Skills \& Competencies

• Exceptional relationship management and communication skills.
• Strong organisational and programme management capability.
• Commercially minded with strong attention to detail.
• Confident presenter with strong stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in fast-paced environments.
• Collaborative and solutions-oriented approach.
• Politically aware and comfortable navigating complex client environments.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capability.
• Resilient, proactive, and highly accountable.

Leadership Expectations The Account Director will:

• Lead with professionalism, accountability, and integrity.
• Deliver exceptional client experiences and operational excellence.
• Build trusted long-term relationships internally and externally.
• Support a collaborative and high-performing team culture.
• Champion client success and continuous improvement. Measures of Success
• Client satisfaction and relationship strength.
• Successful delivery of client programmes and initiatives.
• Account retention and commercial growth.
• Delivery against programme timelines, budgets, and objectives.
• Stakeholder engagement and cross-functional collaboration.
• Team contribution and leadership.

Why work for us:

This is an opportunity to work on some of the organisation’s most strategic and visible client programmes, partnering with globally recognised brands and major transport and travel organisations. The role offers the opportunity to combine strategic client leadership with programme delivery in a fast-paced and collaborative environment.

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc).

If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at [email protected]