Group Account Director / Business Unit Manager at Salt South Africa

Role Overview

• We are seeking an experienced Group Account Director to act as the senior lead within a market, region, or client cluster. This role is responsible for building long-term strategic partnerships with clients and overseeing all activities related to sourcing, management, and delivery across agreed categories within the contractual scope.
• The Group Account Director will manage the full client relationship lifecycle-from implementation through to ongoing delivery-while ensuring commercial performance, operational excellence, and continuous innovation.

Key Responsibilities
Client & Account Leadership

• Act as the senior point of contact for key clients, building trusted, long-term partnerships
• Own and drive overall account strategy, ensuring alignment with client and business objectives
• Lead and prepare Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and senior client engagements
• Ensure a consistently high standard of service delivery across all touchpoints

Strategic & Commercial Management

• Provide strategic direction across accounts and account teams
• Ensure accurate and timely forecasting, budgeting, and financial reporting
• Produce accurate quotations, proposals, and commercial documentation
• Manage and deliver against SLAs and KPIs

Product, Innovation & Operations

• Initiate product development and source new concepts in collaboration with operations teams
• Proactively drive innovation aligned to brand, market, and consumer trends
• Ensure quality control of samples, artwork, and client-ready proposals
• Oversee order processing and invoicing to ensure accuracy and timeliness

Supplier Management

• Maintain and continuously update a database of local suppliers
• Manage supplier relationships and negotiate best pricing and terms
• Ensure suppliers meet quality, cost, and delivery expectations

Team Leadership & Management

• Lead and oversee multiple account teams, providing clear direction, strong governance, and consistent leadership across accounts
• Create a high-performance culture by setting expectations, holding teams accountable, and recognising strong delivery
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members at all levels, with a focus on capability building and long-term career growth
• Own resource planning across accounts to ensure teams are correctly structured, balanced, and aligned to client needs
• Drive performance management processes, including goal setting, development planning, and constructive performance conversations
• Identify talent and actively develop succession plans to build leadership depth and continuity
• Promote best-practice ways of working, driving efficiency, quality, and consistency across teams and accounts

Skills & Experience
Soft Skills

• Strategic thinking and commercial acumen
• Strong leadership and people management capability
• Excellent communication, influencing, and negotiation skills

Hard Skills

• Financial and budget management
• Regional or multi-market account leadership experience
• Proficiency in CRM and project management tools