Account Director Jobs in Pennsylvania

Position Summary

Cygnus Education seeks a commercially driven Account Director to own and grow a portfolio of client and affiliate/publisher relationships. This role combines strategic client account leadership with hands-on partner development, revenue expansion, and performance optimization across higher-education lead-generation campaigns.

The Account Director is accountable for portfolio health, lead delivery and quality, partner economics, and identifying opportunities to scale. The role works directly with publishers, lead-generation partners, clients, and internal Analytics, Operations, and Technology teams to remove obstacles quickly and convert performance insights into measurable growth.

Key Responsibilities

Affiliate & Publisher Portfolio Ownership

· Own day-to-day relationships and commercial performance for assigned affiliates, publishers, lead-generation vendors, and media partners; serve as the primary escalation and growth contact.

· Build and execute partner-level growth plans, including increased lead volume, new programs, additional traffic sources, improved conversion, and expansion of high-performing placements.

· Identify, recruit, evaluate, and onboard new partners; reactivate dormant or underperforming relationships with clear testing and performance plans.

· Negotiate commercial terms, pricing, campaign allocations, volume commitments, and optimization plans within approved authority and margin targets.

· Run a disciplined cadence of partner performance reviews, campaign tests, follow-ups, and action plans; make recommendations to scale, reallocate, pause, or discontinue traffic.

Revenue Growth & Portfolio Economics

· Own retention, revenue growth, and gross-margin performance for assigned accounts and partner portfolio; identify upsell, cross-sell, and expansion opportunities.

· Monitor lead revenue, acquisition costs, publisher payouts, acceptance rates, and margins to maintain profitable and sustainable delivery.

· Develop forecasts for lead volume, revenue, partner capacity, and allocation; communicate risks and opportunities early.

Performance Optimization & Lead Quality

· Use campaign, publisher, and downstream lead data to identify performance trends and direct actionable optimization of targeting, traffic mix, pricing, creative, and landing-page experience.

· Monitor pacing, delivery success, accepted, filtered, rejected, returned, duplicate, and disputed leads; diagnose root causes with Operations, Analytics, and Technology.

· Lead rapid resolution of integration, lead-posting, tracking, consent, and quality issues, including defined owners, corrective actions, and measurable follow-up.

· Coordinate new-publisher and campaign testing, measure outcomes, and scale activity that meets client quality, volume, return, and profitability standards.

· Hold external partners accountable for campaign specifications, performance commitments, lead integrity, and remediation plans.

Client Relationship & Strategic Account Management

· Act as a senior relationship owner for assigned education clients; understand enrollment goals, programs, audience requirements, budgets, and service expectations.

· Translate client priorities into partner allocations, operational plans, performance targets, and clear internal execution requirements.

· Lead client reviews and performance discussions; present concise insights, solutions, and expansion recommendations.

· Manage expectations and resolve escalations with urgency, transparency, and sound commercial judgment.

Cross-Functional Execution & Compliance

· Confirm that affiliates and publishers follow client-specific lead specifications and applicable advertising, consent, TCPA, privacy, and data-handling requirements.

· Maintain clear records of partner terms, test results, material performance concerns, decisions, and corrective actions; escalate material financial, compliance, or client risks.

Measures of Success

· Portfolio revenue growth, gross margin, client retention, and partner retention.

· New and reactivated productive publishers, partner expansion, and incremental qualified lead volume.

· Lead acceptance/delivery rates, cost per accepted lead, CPL/CPA, lead quality, and downstream conversion where available.

· Campaign pacing, forecast accuracy, speed of issue resolution, and effectiveness of optimization tests.

· Compliance, partner accountability, and successful execution of client commitments.

Qualifications

· 5+ years in affiliate or publisher management, performance marketing, lead generation, account management, or a closely related field, with demonstrated ownership of commercial results.

· Experience building, growing, negotiating, and optimizing performance-based partner or client relationships; ability to manage multiple accounts and campaigns simultaneously.

· Strong analytical skills and fluency with lead-generation metrics, including CPL, CPA, ROAS, acceptance/rejection rates, conversion, pacing, revenue, and gross margin.

· Ability to turn reporting into practical recommendations and proactively resolve technical, operational, and partner roadblocks.

· Excellent relationship-building, negotiation, presentation, and written communication skills; confident handling difficult commercial and performance conversations.

· Familiarity with CRM, lead management, analytics, and performance reporting platforms; bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or related discipline preferred.

Preferred Experience

· Higher-education enrollment marketing and direct-response lead generation.

· Publisher networks, affiliate marketplaces, and paid social, search, programmatic, or other acquisition channels.

· Lead distribution/posting integrations, lead-quality analysis, and campaign-level testing and optimization.

· Consumer consent, TCPA, data privacy, and compliance requirements in lead generation.

What Success Looks Like

A strong Account Director actively expands a profitable portfolio of client and publisher relationships, brings forward new growth opportunities, recognizes underperformance early, mobilizes the right teams to fix it, and owns results from partner onboarding through qualified lead delivery.

Pay: $105,000.00 - $135,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance
• Referral program
• Vision insurance

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Philadelphia, PA 19148