Social Account Director, 5-month FTC

Social Account Director, 5-month FTC

As part of Sainsbury’s in-house creative agency, the Social Account Director is responsible for leading the strategic development, planning and delivery of social media activity across Sainsbury's in-house brands, including Sainsbury's, Argos and TU, ensuring social channels support wider business, brand and commercial objectives.

Acting as a trusted partner to all stakeholders, the Social Account Director oversees the end-to-end delivery of both large-scale social campaigns and always-on content, working collaboratively with brand teams, creatives, strategists, producers and account teams to deliver best-in-class social work. This role requires a strong understanding of social media trends, platform best practice and audience behaviour, alongside the ability to translate insights into effective content strategies that drive engagement and performance.

You will lead multiple workstreams across a diverse range of brands, balancing strategic thinking with operational excellence. Responsibilities include content planning, campaign development, performance analysis, budgeting, forecasting, resource allocation and team leadership. You will be responsible for continuously reviewing content performance, identifying opportunities for optimisation and evolving social strategies to ensure content remains relevant, effective and aligned to overarching brand objectives.

A strong understanding of content production is essential, with experience overseeing the development of social-first creative from concept through to delivery. The role requires close collaboration with production teams to manage shoot logistics, timelines, post-production schedules and content delivery, ensuring projects are delivered efficiently and to a high standard.

Commercial acumen is equally important. The Social Account Director will oversee account health across multiple brands, managing scopes of work, budgets, forecasting and billing processes to ensure projects are delivered within budget and financial targets are met. You will work closely with producers, account managers and creative teams to balance creative ambition with commercial realities, providing guidance on project feasibility and ensuring resources are utilised effectively.

This is a fast-paced, varied role spanning multiple retail categories, including fashion, food and general merchandise, requiring the ability to juggle a high volume of priorities, stakeholder requirements and day-to-day challenges.

Essential criteria

Experience leading social media strategy, planning and delivery for large consumer brands across multiple platforms withing a creative agency as an Account Director.

Proven experience managing and delivering both large-scale social campaigns and always-on content programmes. 

Experience developing social content strategies that support brand, commercial and business objectives. 

Demonstrable experience analysing social performance data and using insights to optimise content and campaign effectiveness. 

Experience overseeing the development and delivery of social-first creative from concept through to final execution.

#LI-SM1

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. We’re one of the biggest supermarkets in the UK, with one of the largest retail websites. So marketing here happens at scale. We move faster than you might expect too, across Brand Planning, Brand Comms and Creative, Digital Marketing, CRM and Loyalty, Nectar 360 and Insights. With more people shopping with us every week, there are more interactions, more moments to connect. And thanks to data and insight, we understand our customers in a way few others can. We work alongside incredible brand partners and some of the best agencies in the industry. So if you’re passionate about learning, growing and experiencing new teams, come and explore it all with us.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:
 
 Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.  
 
 Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave. 
 
 Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).