Associate Strategist

About the role

This is a junior role and the entry point into our Customer Strategy team. You'll work closely with senior strategists, with support and direction available throughout. You'll own the operational rhythm on a portfolio of roughly four to six accounts — making sure campaigns launch when they're supposed to, that performance is tracking where it should, and that problems get caught before a client finds them. The work is hands-on and detail-heavy by design: it's how you learn the ecosystem, the products and the client craft the rest of the team is built on.

What You'll Do

• Own the day-to-day
  • Act as a day-to-day point of contact on your accounts, alongside the senior strategist who leads the relationship.
  • Sit in on client calls, capture what was agreed, and drive the follow-ups to completion.
  • Keep account records, timelines and documentation accurate and current.
  • Get campaigns live
    • Coordinate launches end to end — chase the inputs, track the timeline, and make sure every piece is in place before go-live.
    • Pull in the right teammates for each task and keep the handoffs moving.
    • Flag early and clearly when a launch looks likely to slip.
  • Keep a pulse on pacing and performance
    • Monitor delivery and performance across your accounts on a regular cadence.
    • Spot when something looks off — pacing behind, CPA drifting, spend not moving — and raise it with context rather than just a number.
    • Build and maintain the reporting that clients and the internal team rely on.
  • Troubleshoot and support clients
    • Work minor product and platform issues yourself, and get comfortable diagnosing before escalating.
    • Know when something needs Technical Account Management or Data Science, and hand it over with the detail they need to move fast.
    • Help onboard clients onto our platform and keep them current as new capabilities ship.
  • Learn deliberately
    • A meaningful share of your first year is learning, and we treat it as part of the job rather than something you fit around it.
    • Build real command of the programmatic ecosystem, our products, and how the two fit together.

Who You Are

• Organized. You track your own work and things don't slip. This is the single most important trait in this role.
• Curious. You want to know what's behind a number, not just report it — and you're comfortable saying when you don't know something.
• Clear. You can explain what happened and what you'd do about it in writing, especially when something has gone wrong.
• Steady. Several things need your attention at once and that doesn't rattle you.

Who You Bring

• 1–2 years in digital advertising, ad tech, ad operations, media or a related client-facing role (relevant internships count)
• Comfort with numbers and with spreadsheets — pivot tables, lookups, working across large data sets
• Interest in how programmatic advertising actually works, and eagerness to go deep on it
• Be helpful, and we'll train you on the rest.
• Exposure to a DSP such as The Trade Desk or DV360, or to ad-serving and trafficking workflows
• SQL, or a BI tool such as Superset or Tableau (training provided)
• Familiarity with project tracking tools like Jira
• Comfort using AI tools in your day-to-day work. We build AI for a living and we use it ourselves — we're more interested in how you apply it than in whether you've used a specific one.

Where This Role Goes

• This is the first rung of a defined path, not a holding pattern. Customer Strategist, then Senior. As you take on more accounts and more of the client relationship, you move up the Customer Strategy track — toward owning account strategy and growth outright.
• Manager, or stay an individual contributor. At senior level the track splits. You can move into managing a team and a group of accounts, or keep growing as an IC holding our most demanding accounts.
• Progressing here does not require becoming a manager.
• Solutions Architecture. If the technical side is where you want to go, there's a documented path into presales solution design that opens at senior level. Plenty of people build toward it from here.

How We Work

• You'll have real ownership early, and you won't be expected to figure everything out alone. Ask early, then own the follow-through. We'd rather you raise a question at the start of something than a problem at the end of it.

Why Join Us

• You'll learn fast. Small team, real accounts, and direct access to the people doing the most interesting work in the business.
• Genuinely novel work. Custom models built for a specific client's outcome, in a category that is still being defined.
• A path that goes somewhere. Defined levels, two tracks, and movement between them.
• Collaborative culture. A diverse, inclusive team where creativity and collaboration thrive in a relaxed, welcoming space — complete with the occasional four-legged coworker.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• 401k options
• Unlimited PTO
• 11 company holidays
• Office-wide closure between Christmas Eve and New Year's
• Office start-up stipend and in-office meal allowance

Chalice is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to an inclusive workplace.

Career Path

• Customer Strategist, then Senior
• Manager, or stay an individual contributor
• Solutions Architecture

Career Track

• Defined levels, two tracks, and movement between them.

Company Culture

• Collaborative culture
• Diverse, inclusive team
• Creativity and collaboration thrive in a relaxed, welcoming space
• Occasional four-legged coworker

Compensation Range

$79K - $94K