Freelance Strategy Director

Responsibilities

• Lead brand and creative strategy across major client engagements and new business pitches, from initial problem definition through creative development and execution
• Synthesize business objectives, research, audience understanding, and cultural intelligence into clear strategic direction and concise, inspiring creative briefs
• Bring a strong point of view on how brands earn relevance, build trust, and change mindsets, including the role of culture, surrounding audiences, and media behaviors
• Partner closely with creative leadership to challenge and elevate ideas, pushing work beyond the brief toward ideas that are strategically smart, earn attention, influence culture, and drive impact
• Design and facilitate client and internal workshops that build alignment, unlock strategic possibilities, and inspire exceptional creative development
• Define learning agendas and research plans that inform and shape strategic and creative deliverables, and measurement plans that prove impact
• Stay ahead of shifts in culture, public opinion, consumer behavior, media, and client categories—and translate them into useful provocations for clients and creative teams
• Contribute to agency thought leadership and intellectual property on the cultural forces shaping brands, issues, audiences, and creative communications

Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in integrated brand and creative strategy role(s)
• Experience leading strategy for organizations with varied objectives, including reputation building, brand growth, behavior change, issue advocacy, and commercial growth
• Demonstrated ability to serve as the strategic lead on complex engagements and operate with a high degree of independence
• Experience leading integrated new-business pitches, including defining the strategic opportunity, shaping the pitch narrative, and guiding multidisciplinary teams
• Strong command of qualitative and quantitative research, with the ability to distinguish an interesting finding from a genuinely useful insight
• Exceptional writing, presentation development, storytelling, facilitation, and presentation skills