Director, Brand Storytelling

About The Role

The Director, Brand Storytelling sets brand narrative, content, and messaging strategies for clients, building them on audience research, data analysis, and insights. This role establishes a high bar with creative reference and inspiration, leading this workstream from pitch meetings through the life of the account. Day-to-day, they guide how the narrative is brought to life across touchpoints, authoring or co-authoring briefs and evaluating agency deliverables to ensure the content ecosystem is engaging and supports clients’ business goals. This work is deeply social-first, with ongoing audience insights informed by social listening, creative performance analysis, and community sentiment.

This role leads a team of full-time creative strategists and freelance subject-matter experts, recruiting and evaluating talent as needed. It is highly collaborative and cross-functional, setting a clear vision and driving execution across creative, social, and media teams.

Responsibilities

• Vision-setting and strategy
  • Establish brand narratives and develop content strategies for accounts and new business pitches, grounded in audience research, insights, and creative inspiration.
  • Build and maintain the throughline for each account, ensuring alignment around the central idea, tone, and integrated architecture of the content ecosystem.
  • Develop messaging and social strategy frameworks by persona based on audience segmentation.
  • Ensure strategies pass the “will this audience actually pay attention and care?” test.
• Vision orchestration across departments
  • Author or co-author briefs for creative, media, and social teams to ensure alignment with the central narrative.
  • Act as an orchestrator and curator across strategy, creative, media, social, and community teams, translating the narrative into department-specific direction.
  • Provide critical feedback during development to ensure work delivers on or exceeds strategic goals.
  • Evaluate whether deliverables cut through the noise and engage target audiences.
  • Ensure the ecosystem vision is executed across paid, organic, earned, and owned channels, with attention to audience response.
• Team Leadership
  • Build and lead a mixed team of full-time staff and freelance subject-matter experts.
  • Recruit, brief, and evaluate freelance SMEs, defining expertise needs, sourcing candidates, and assessing quality and fit.
  • Set direction without dictating execution, allowing creative and social teams room to bring their own craft to the work.
• Modern, channel-fluent marketing
  • Bring a practitioner’s perspective on how paid, organic, community, content, creative, and brand earn attention differently.
  • Use creative performance analysis and social listening to track real-time audience feedback, brand sentiment, and cultural trends.
  • Cultivate a diverse cultural reference set to establish a high bar for creative work.
  • Partner with social and community leads on community growth and guide or brief creator content as needed.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in storytelling, content strategy, or social-first brand strategy, including at least 3+ years at a director level or equivalent, managing people and freelance talent.
• Direct experience leading storytelling for new business pitches, with the ability to build narratives quickly under pressure.
• A track record of turning audience research and insights into brand, social, and content strategy.
• Experience recruiting, briefing, and managing freelance subject-matter experts or contractors, including evaluating their quality and fit.
• Personal experience authoring creative, social, and media briefs, not just reviewing them.
• A collaborative leadership style, with evidence of bringing out strong work from cross-functional teams.
• A current, fluent point of view on paid, organic, social, community, content, and brand, and how to use them to capture attention and drive engagement.
• Real social-first instincts: hands-on experience with community growth, creator content, and social listening.
• BA degree.

Nice to have: New business or pitch leadership experience at an agency. A career spanning brand strategy, creative, social, and research/insights.

Pay

Base Salary: $180,000–$200,000. Actual compensation within this range will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by applicable law.

Annual Performance Bonus.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Company-paid life and AD&D insurance; voluntary supplemental insurance and EAP.
• 401(k) with company match and immediate vesting; HSA and FSA options.
• College savings and student loan repayment programs.
• Paid parental leave; generous PTO, nine company holidays, and one floating holiday.
• Cell phone stipend; well-being and professional development programs.

Benefits are subject to applicable plan terms and eligibility requirements.

Schedule

Hybrid, NYC. Candidates should reside within a reasonable commuting distance of a Sia office or approved coworking location. When serving clients, consultants may be required to work onsite at a client location based on engagement needs. Between client engagements, consultants are expected to work from a Sia office or approved coworking location at least three days per week.