Director, Brand & Experience Strategy

Multi-discipline operator at the intersection of brand, media, and creative teams—equal parts analyst, strategic thinker, and connective force. Moves fluidly across client portfolios, embedding wherever performance creative strategy is needed, leaving every engagement sharper than found. Integral connective tissue between teams, fluent in media, and skilled at developing strategic briefs, test approaches, content frameworks, and plans to keep work moving with clarity and purpose.

Responsibilities

• Develop creative test strategies and roadmaps, coordinating with creative and media teams to ensure sound execution and measurement of recommendations.
• Author creative briefs that bring together audience insight, channel context, and message direction; work alongside creative teams through to execution.
• Build strategic deliverables beyond the brief: learning agendas, content frameworks, messaging hierarchies, competitive analysis.
• Establish always-on campaign listening practices: track creative assets in market, identify what’s working, and translate performance into clear optimization recommendations.
• Organize and analyze data from multiple sources, surface actionable insights, and communicate next steps clearly to clients and internal teams.
• Partner with brand and media strategy teams to ensure creative is built with distribution logic and audience segmentation in mind from the start.
• Operate as connective tissue across strategy, creative, media, analytics, and technology.
• Maintain a working understanding of DCO platforms and apply that knowledge where appropriate for client needs.
• Stay current on emerging tools and technologies shaping performance marketing; bring that knowledge into strategic recommendations proactively.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years of experience as a creative performance strategist working in digital, ideally across programmatic video, display, and multiple social platforms, or with significant depth in at least one of these areas.
• At least 5 years of total experience in performance marketing, with a demonstrated ability to connect creative decisions to measurable performance outcomes.
• Experience developing a range of strategic deliverables: creative briefs, test strategies, content frameworks, etc., and the judgment to know what the moment calls for.
• Strong analytical thinking with the ability to organize data from multiple sources, pull meaningful insight, and translate findings into clear, confident recommendations.
• A track record of collaboration with account, creative, and media teams.
• Strong client and internal communication skills, with experience leading discussions, presenting recommendations, and identifying opportunities.
• Comfortable managing across multiple accounts and client challenges simultaneously.
• Some experience with DCO platforms; deep expertise not required, but familiarity with how and when to apply them is expected.
• Genuine enthusiasm for the latest tools, platforms, and technologies shaping performance marketing.
• Bachelor’s degree in a business-related or equivalent field.
• B2B2C experience and fluency in marketing research methodologies are a plus.

Pay

Annual salary range: $119,000–$150,000. Placement within the range is based on relevant experience and other factors permitted by law.

Benefits

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance
• Life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• 401k
• Flexible paid time off
• At least 15 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick and safe leave
• Paid parental leave

Location: Chicago | Full-time, permanent role