Paid Search Team Lead (Account Director)

Licensed sponsor London Full-time Posted 1 hour ago

Salary: £55,000–£65,000 + share options

Reports to: Head of Paid Search

Location: London / Hybrid

Hybrid working: Typically 2–3 days per week in the office, with flexibility

We're looking for an experienced Paid Search Team Lead (Account Director) who enjoys developing people, leading client relationships and bringing structure and direction to complex accounts.

This is a leadership role first and a Paid Search specialist role second. You'll lead a team of 2–5 people working across some of WeDiscover's largest clients, helping them understand not just what needs doing, but why it matters, how to prioritise and how their work contributes to the wider strategy.

You'll take ownership of account roadmaps, ensure the team's time is being spent on the right things, and help clients make informed decisions about where to focus their investment and attention.

One of the major accounts you'll lead is a large omnichannel retailer with a significant ecommerce operation and thousands of products, creating the kind of complexity where great Paid Search goes well beyond campaign optimisation.

You'll need a solid understanding of Paid Search and the commercial factors that influence performance, but you won't be expected to have every technical answer yourself. What's more important is your ability to ask the right questions, bring the right people together and turn complex challenges into clear priorities for your team and clients.

You'll work closely with WeDiscover's Data and Product teams, alongside other channel specialists, to make sure account plans are joined up and opportunities are explored without losing sight of the client's priorities or the team's capacity.

We're looking for someone who takes pride in building a strong team, creating clarity where there's complexity and helping both people and accounts perform better over time.

What you'll be responsible for

Client leadership & strategy

Owning overall account performance and delivery across Tier 1 clients.
Setting clear account priorities and translating client objectives into practical plans that the team can deliver.
Leading strategic client meetings and building strong relationships with senior stakeholders.
Developing and maintaining account roadmaps that give the team direction beyond day-to-day client requests.
Balancing incoming client requests against agreed priorities, explaining what should happen now, what can wait and why.
Understanding the wider commercial context behind performance, not simply what is happening within the platforms.
Planning team capacity against client retainers, identifying potential overservicing early and keeping workloads sustainable.
Managing client expectations around scope, timelines and priorities, with support where more challenging commercial conversations are needed.
Working alongside other channel teams to align objectives, activity and delivery timelines.
Identifying opportunities to make better use of client data, technology and automation.
Working with Data and Product teams to explore and implement improvements where they add meaningful value.
Ensuring account teams are well organised, with clear ownership and expectations.
Running regular retrospectives and adapting approaches based on what we learn.

People leadership

People leadership is central to this role. You'll directly manage at least two Account Managers and lead a wider delivery team, helping them become more confident, capable and independent in their work.

We're looking for someone who knows how to delegate effectively. That means understanding people's individual strengths and development needs, giving them clear briefs, explaining the thinking behind tasks and helping them build the judgement to make good decisions for themselves.

You'll create the structure and routines that help the team work well together, whether that's better briefing, regular check-ins, clearer priorities or practical coaching.

You'll also be responsible for

Helping team members understand how their work connects to client objectives and the wider account roadmap.
Supporting individual development through regular feedback, coaching and constructive performance conversations.
Recognising when workloads are becoming unsustainable and taking practical steps to address them.
Helping Account Managers develop their own leadership and delegation skills.
Creating an approachable environment where people feel comfortable asking questions, challenging ideas and learning from mistakes.
Supporting the structured onboarding and probation of new members of the Paid Search team.

Ultimately, success means building a team that can operate confidently without relying on you to make every decision.

Wider impact

Account Directors at WeDiscover are expected to contribute beyond their individual accounts.

That could mean owning an internal project, developing a new way of working, collaborating with Data or other Paid Media teams on a new capability, building a case study, contributing to thought leadership or representing WeDiscover externally.

You'll have the opportunity to shape how we work as the agency continues to grow.

About WeDiscover

WeDiscover is a performance marketing and technology agency, founded in 2020 by former client-side performance marketers.

We've grown rapidly since then, to a team of around 60 specialists across performance marketing, data science, engineering and analytics.

That combination is an important part of how we work. We don't believe the best answer to a performance problem necessarily sits inside Google or Meta. Our teams work together to understand the underlying commercial problem and, where appropriate, build the data, technology and automation needed to solve it.

That can mean managing performance media directly, working alongside an in-house team, or building bespoke technology and data solutions around their marketing operation.

The model is working. WeDiscover has appeared in the Financial Times FT 1000 list of Europe's fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years, ranking 5th in the UK in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 63%. We're also a Google Premier Partner, placing us among the top 3% of Google Partners in the UK.

The growth creates opportunity internally too. We're still at a size where senior people can have a meaningful influence on how the agency develops, while working on increasingly large and complex client problems.

What we're looking for

We're looking for someone who has already led people and managed Paid Search accounts, and who understands that the quality of a team's work depends as much on leadership, clarity and organisation as it does on technical expertise.

You don't need to be the most technically advanced person in the room. You do need enough Paid Search knowledge to guide your team, challenge recommendations and make sound decisions.

People leadership and account management

Experience directly managing at least two people, including their development and performance.
A track record of delegating work effectively, giving clear direction and helping junior colleagues become more independent.
The ability to organise a team's workload around agreed priorities and an account roadmap.
Experience monitoring team time or budgets against a fixed client scope or retainer.
The judgement to recognise capacity issues, competing priorities and potential delivery risks before they become problems.
Clear, calm communication with clients, including the ability to explain trade-offs and manage expectations professionally.
Experience working alongside other channel or specialist teams on shared client plans.
An approachable, supportive leadership style that encourages questions, learning and accountability.

Paid Search knowledge

Strong working knowledge of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, including Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen.
Confidence interpreting performance data and understanding the relationships between metrics, commercial outcomes and optimisation opportunities.
The ability to investigate performance changes logically, identify likely causes and recommend practical next steps.
Good attention to detail, with the ability to spot inconsistencies, risks or opportunities within account performance.
An understanding of how feeds, bidding strategies, measurement and automation contribute to Paid Search performance.

It would also be great if you've

Developed other managers through coaching and mentoring.
Owned quarterly or annual account roadmaps for large clients.
Improved the commercial performance of an overserviced account.
Worked closely with Data, Product or Creative teams to develop new solutions.
Built deeper expertise in areas such as Performance Max, Demand Gen, incrementality testing or advanced measurement.
These are opportunities to bring additional value to the role, rather than requirements for being considered.

How success will be measured

Success in this role starts with the team you're leading.

We'll look at whether your people are developing, becoming more confident in their decision-making and taking greater ownership of their work. We'll also look at how effectively you organise their time, maintain sustainable workloads and create clarity around what matters most.

For your clients, success means having a clear roadmap, a team that delivers consistently against it and a trusted senior contact who can explain priorities, performance and trade-offs with confidence.

You'll be expected to keep delivery commercially sustainable, balancing the work clients need with the time and resources available within their retainers.

Alongside that, we'll look at your ability to identify opportunities for improvement, collaborate with other specialist teams and contribute to WeDiscover's wider development.

As you progress, we'd expect you to become someone other managers learn from: a calm, capable leader who develops people, improves ways of working and helps the agency scale without compromising quality.

Perks, Benefits & Culture

In return for your work, time and skills, we offer a competitive salary and some additional benefits:

Equity in the Business: Gain ownership in WeDiscover through our EMI Options Scheme, allowing you to share in the success you help create.
Significant Career Advancement: Be part of a fast-growing agency where your contributions have a direct impact on our growth and culture. You'll have the opportunity to help shape the direction of the business as we continue to scale.
Work Flexibility: 2–3 days in our London office, as best suits you.
Top of the Range Tools: High-spec laptop, screens and access to our bespoke technology.
Generous Time Off: 28 days of annual leave, plus bank holidays, and the option to take a five-week paid sabbatical after five years of service.
Wellness & Wellbeing: £40 monthly wellness subscription towards your choice of services such as Calm, Headspace, Huel, Thriva or a gym membership.
Volunteering & Giving Back: Two volunteering days per year.
Continuous Learning: £200 annual learning fund for books, courses or subscriptions, alongside ongoing technical and broader business training.
Inclusive Culture: We're committed to creating an inclusive, positive environment where success is shared and people are supported to do their best work.