Associate Director, Brand Strategy

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This is a HYBRID position (1-2 days in office) located in Mid-Manhattan in New York, NY

What we are looking for:

The Associate Director, Brand Strategy is a client-facing strategic leader who can confidently own workstreams and relationships, guide senior-level conversations, and turn complex business challenges into clear, actionable direction for clients and internal teams.

This role requires someone with strong brand, audience, and communications strategy skills who knows how to use research to inform better decisions. They are not expected to be a dedicated research specialist; rather, they should be research-capable: able to ask the right questions, develop thoughtful research inputs, interpret findings, and translate those findings into meaningful brand, marketing, and creative implications.

The ideal candidate brings an authoritative yet collaborative presence, exceptional communication skills, sound strategic judgment, and the ability to think quickly in the moment. They can lead a client workshop, write a compelling brief, synthesize a complex set of inputs, and help teams move from ambiguity to a focused, effective solution.

What you will be doing:

• Serve as a strategic lead across assigned client accounts, building trust with clients and proactively identifying opportunities, challenges, and next steps.
• Lead client meetings, workshops, presentations, and working sessions with confidence, clarity, and an authoritative presence.
• Translate business objectives, audience needs, category dynamics, performance data, and research findings into clear brand, marketing, and communications strategies.
• Develop strategic deliverables including brand positioning, messaging platforms, audience insights, campaign and creative briefs, customer journeys, go-to-market recommendations, and presentation narratives.
• Distill complex information into concise, compelling insights and recommendations that clients and internal teams can act on.
• Partner with creative, media, analytics, account, and performance teams to ensure strategy is connected to execution and measurable business outcomes.
• Lead the strategic application of research, ensuring the work addresses the right business questions and produces findings that can inform decisions.
• Develop research inputs, including surveys, discussion guides, interview guides, questionnaires, and stimulus materials, with guidance from research specialists or partners when needed.
• Support the execution of quantitative and qualitative research, including survey programming or setup in approved platforms, fieldwork coordination, sample-vendor collaboration, quality review, and topline analysis.
• Work with internal teams, research platforms, and external sample or research partners to define audience criteria, timelines, and fieldwork requirements.
• Synthesize research findings into clear implications, recommendations, and creative or communications direction, not simply a report of what respondents said.
• Present research findings in a way that makes the so what clear for clients and internal teams.
• Contribute strategic thinking to new-business opportunities, thought leadership, and internal capability development as needed.

Who you are:

• 7+ years of experience in brand strategy, marketing strategy, communications planning, consumer insights, or a related discipline; agency experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading client workstreams and strategic conversations, ideally with senior client stakeholders.
• Strong foundation in brand positioning, audience strategy, communications planning, and creative strategy.
• Experience using primary and secondary research to inform strategy; experience developing surveys, discussion guides, or research questionnaires is strongly preferred.
• Comfort working with research platforms, survey tools, and sample or research partners; formal research-methodology specialization is not required.
• Ability to interpret data and research findings, identify what matters most, and translate them into practical strategic recommendations.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
• Ability to think quickly, respond thoughtfully in live client settings, and create structure around ambiguous challenges.
• Strong judgment, curiosity, and comfort asking the questions that get beyond surface-level answers.
• Ability to manage multiple client workstreams and deadlines while maintaining strategic rigor and attention to detail.
• Collaborative working style, with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and help guide work from strategy through execution.

Additional Information:

• Salary starting at $120,000/yr, based on skills and experience
• Unlimited Vacation Time, Annual Sick Days, Annual Personal Days, and 11 Paid Holidays
• Dental, Vision, and Health Insurance
• 401(k) with company match program
• Paid Parental Leave

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a supportive and inclusive environment for all employees. It is our continuing policy to provide equal employment opportunity and not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, pregnancy or childbirth, marital status, national origin, ancestry or citizenship status, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including (but not limited to) application for employment, recruiting, hiring, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers, training, layoffs, rehires, termination of employment and all other terms and conditions of employment.

All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of background checks, which may include criminal history and reference verification, conducted in compliance with applicable state, federal, and local laws.

As part of the Company's equal employment opportunity policy, we will also take affirmative action as called for by applicable laws and Executive Orders to ensure that minority group individuals, females, disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, other protected veterans, Armed Forces service medal veterans, and qualified disabled persons are introduced into our workforce and considered for promotional opportunities.