5-7 years of experience managing large client accounts or in-house studios at a director level or above.
Proven track record in an agency environment with 1-5 enterprise-level clients.
Experience leading operational changes in live client settings.
Hands-on experience with AI or automation in production work and quality measurement.
Strong negotiation skills with senior client stakeholders.
Experience in managing and developing team leaders.
Background in beauty, personal care, or regulated content categories.
Responsibilities
Own the client relationship as the senior point of contact for leadership.
Lead the transition from hourly billing to outcome-based pricing models.
Implement agent-first workflows in collaboration with product and engineering teams.
Manage and develop the team, fostering a culture of efficiency and quality.
Establish and uphold quality standards, communicating issues promptly.
Identify new opportunities for client engagement and share insights with leadership.
Benefits
25 days PTO plus public holidays with a Flexible Time Off scheme.
Health insurance and private medical coverage.
Monthly wellness, fitness, and learning stipend.
Eligibility for 401(k) retirement savings plan after two months.
Enhanced parental leave policies for all family-building methods.
Access to the client's office in New York.
Flexible working hours.
Full Job Description
Must be based in New York and available to work from the client's office at least two days per week.
The role
You’ll own one of the world's leading beauty clients as we move them from a traditional in-house studio to agentic services. AI agents will do the high-volume production work, skilled people will own the judgement and the craft, and the client will pay for outcomes rather than hours. You’ll be accountable for how that change lands: the results, the relationship, and the team doing the work. You’ll be the person the client trusts while it happens, and the person who proves the model works so we can repeat it elsewhere.
Key responsibilities
Own the client, end to end: Be the senior point of contact for the client's leadership. Set operating objectives for the account and be accountable for its budget, schedule and performance.
Lead the move from hours to outcomes: Shape and negotiate a commercial model based on finished work and results, with clear measurement behind every number.
Run the change on live work: Work with Pencil's product and engineering teams and the client's teams to build agent-first ways of working, prove them on real briefs, and make them the default. Decide what agents do and what people do.
Lead the team and its leaders: Set direction, hire, develop and manage performance for the people delivering the work, and build a culture where a small team runs a large fleet of agents.
Protect quality and raise bad news early: Set the quality measures, hold the line on them, and tell the client and our leadership quickly when something isn't working.
Shape what comes next: Find new areas of work with the client, and share what you learn with Pencil's leadership so we can offer agentic services to other clients.
Your background
You've led a large, complex client account or in-house studio and been accountable for its budget and results, at director level or above.
You have experience working in an agency environment, managing between 1-5 enterprise-level clients.
You've led a change in a live client environment, such as a new operating model or new tools, and not only run steady-state operations.
You must have used AI or automation in real production work, and you know how to measure the quality of what it produces.
You've held the confidence of senior client stakeholders, including through commercial negotiations and pricing changes.
You've managed and developed other team leaders.
Experience in beauty, personal care or another regulated content category.
You'll Thrive Here If You...
Owners: You take total ownership of the result, including when it goes wrong, and you say so early.
Fast: You would rather prove an idea on real work in weeks than plan it for months, then stop and look at where you are.
Simple: You see a task done twice and ask what can be taken away, then automate it.
Human: You believe agents should run the volume and people should own the judgement. You never automate to 100%.
Surprising: You bring clients ideas and new scopes of work they didn't ask for.
KPIs & Success Measures
Share of the client's briefs handled by agents first, growing over time.
Quality pass rate of agent-produced work, checked by people on live briefs.
Gross margin on the account against plan.
Growth in client revenue and scope of work.
Client relationship health, from senior stakeholder feedback.
Milestones for the move to agentic services reached on time.
Benefits
25 days PTO plus public holidays, although we operate a Flexible Time Off scheme.
Health insurance / private medical cover.
Monthly stipend towards wellness, fitness, and learning and development
You will be eligible to enrol in Pencil's 401(k) retirement savings plan after completing two months of employment.
Enhanced parental leave policies, whether you become a parent through birth, adoption or surrogacy.
