Senior Vice President, Influencer & Creator Strategy

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Vice President, Influencer & Creator Strategy to lead and scale 5W's influencer and creator practice across the agency. This role is ideal for a seasoned influencer marketing executive with a proven track record of building award-winning creator programs for global brands, leading multi-million-dollar account portfolios, and driving meaningful agency growth. The SVP will serve as the senior-most influencer and creator strategist on assigned business, a trusted advisor to C-suite and executive clients, and a visible leader in shaping the future of the agency's influencer and creator capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Practice Leadership & Vision
  • Define and drive the strategic vision, positioning, and growth roadmap for the agency's influencer and creator practice
  • Establish and evolve agency-wide frameworks, playbooks, measurement standards, and best practices that elevate the quality and consistency of influencer work across all accounts
  • Serve as the agency's foremost expert on the creator economy, providing thought leadership internally and externally on emerging platforms, partnership models, creator compensation trends, and cultural shifts
  • Champion innovation across the practice, including emerging areas such as AI search visibility, LLM optimization, social commerce, affiliate models, and creator-led brand building, and translate these into new client offerings
  • Represent the agency externally through industry panels, awards juries, press commentary, bylined content, and conference speaking opportunities
  • Partner with executive agency leadership on cross-practice integration, ensuring influencer and creator strategy is embedded across PR, social, paid media, experiential, and creative offerings
• Executive Client Counsel & Strategic Leadership
  • Serve as senior strategic counsel to C-suite and executive-level clients across a portfolio of Fortune 500 and high-growth consumer brands
  • Lead the development of large-scale, integrated influencer and creator programs spanning earned and paid creator partnerships, celebrity and talent deals, ambassador programs, always-on creator communities, and tentpole cultural moments and launch events
  • Guide high-stakes talent strategy and negotiation, including celebrity partnerships, long-term ambassadorships, and complex multi-party deals involving talent agencies, media organizations, and rights holders
  • Translate brand objectives, audience insights, and cultural trends into breakthrough strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes across awareness, engagement, search lift, follower growth, sales, and earned media value
  • Elevate measurement and insights as a strategic differentiator, ensuring programs are built around clear KPIs and that performance narratives strengthen client relationships and inform future investment
  • Serve as the senior escalation point for assigned accounts, ensuring client satisfaction, retention, and long-term partnership health
• New Business & Growth
  • Own revenue growth targets for the influencer and creator practice, including new business wins and organic growth across existing accounts
  • Lead influencer and creator strategy for new business pitches, shaping the strategic narrative, developing creator recommendations, and presenting as a senior voice in the room
  • Identify and pursue organic growth opportunities across the agency's existing client roster, partnering with PR and digital account leads to expand influencer scopes and introduce new capabilities
  • Develop compelling, differentiated offerings and go-to-market materials that position the agency competitively in the influencer and creator space
  • Build and maintain a strong external network of brand-side marketers, talent agencies, platforms, and creator partners that generates referrals and business opportunities
  • Manage practice-level financial health, including portfolio oversight of multi-million-dollar budgets, SOW development, staffing plans, profitability, and forecasting
• Team Leadership & Development
  • Build, lead, and inspire a high-performing team of influencer and creator specialists across all levels, from coordinators through VPs
  • Set clear performance expectations, provide ongoing coaching and mentorship, and create development paths that grow the next generation of agency leaders
  • Oversee staffing, resourcing, and utilization across the practice, ensuring teams are structured for both client excellence and profitability
  • Foster a collaborative, entrepreneurial, and solutions-oriented culture that attracts and retains top talent
  • Serve as a senior resource and educator for the broader agency, upskilling PR and digital teams on influencer strategy, creator trends, and integrated program design
• Operational & Delivery Excellence
  • Maintain ultimate accountability for the quality, strategic rigor, and timely delivery of influencer and creator work across the portfolio
  • Ensure consistent adoption of agency tools, processes, contracting standards, and measurement approaches across all accounts
  • Oversee risk management across creator partnerships, including vetting standards, FTC compliance, contract terms, and brand safety protocols
  • Anticipate client, program, and team challenges before they escalate, and implement solutions that protect both the work and the relationship

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in influencer marketing, creator strategy, social media, and integrated communications, with deep hands-on and leadership experience building influencer programs for global consumer and technology brands
• Agency experience required, with a track record of leading large, complex account portfolios across multiple clients, teams, and priorities, ideally with oversight of $10M+ in annual revenue
• Demonstrated success serving as executive strategic lead and senior counsel to C-suite clients at Fortune 500 and category-leading brands
• Proven ability to drive agency growth, including winning new business, expanding existing client relationships, and developing new revenue-generating offerings
• Extensive experience across the full spectrum of creator partnerships, including earned and paid influencer programs, celebrity and talent negotiations, brand ambassadorships, micro-creator and UGC ecosystems, affiliate and commerce-driven programs, and large-scale creator communities
• A portfolio of high-impact, measurable work, such as major product launches, tentpole cultural activations, creator events, and always-on programs, with results spanning impressions, earned media value, engagement, search lift, and sales
• Industry recognition (e.g., Shorty, MarCom, PRWeek, or comparable awards) or equivalent evidence of best-in-class creative and strategic work
• Sophisticated understanding of influencer measurement and analytics, with the ability to build KPI frameworks, translate performance into executive-level insights, and connect creator investment to business outcomes
• Fluency in the evolving creator economy and marketing technology landscape, including influencer platforms (e.g., CreatorIQ, Traackr, Tagger), social analytics tools, paid amplification, and emerging areas such as AI-driven search visibility and LLM brand optimization
• Experience building, managing, and developing teams of 5+ direct reports, including managers of managers, with a demonstrated commitment to mentorship and talent development
• Strong financial acumen, including budget ownership, SOW and contract development, forecasting, and profitability management
• Executive-level presentation, communication, and storytelling skills, with the presence to lead pitches, client summits, and industry appearances
• Deep cross-functional fluency, with experience integrating influencer strategy across PR, paid media, experiential, creative, and brand marketing
• An entrepreneurial, culturally attuned, and solutions-oriented mindset, with the judgment to operate independently at the highest levels of the agency and client organizations

Benefits

• Competitive salary with comprehensive benefits & wellness programs including partnership with ClassPass
• Flexible PTO
• Summer Fridays and Winter, Spring, and Fall Fridays
• Hybrid work model offering flexibility and work-life balance
• Expanded parental leave and family planning support
• Continuous learning through “5W University” and development initiatives
• Student Loan Reimbursement
• Professional Development Support
• Exclusive access to season tickets for pro sports teams along with Broadway shows, and more
• Charitable giving, including matching donations