Senior Strategist

Senior Strategist

Chicago, IL

The Senior Strategist is the daily voice and frontline, presenting day-to-day deliverables to the client and agency teams.

You forge strong internal and external partners and lead projects start to finish. You're responsible for mentoring. You grow your generalist and specialist muscles. You build your book of examples across categories.

The Senior Strategist position must exhibit a distinct "Voice" or brand of strategy, practicing art and science daily and delivering rigorous, collaborative, action-rich work.

You lead multiple day-to-day accounts and start to take lead on projects. You take initial drafts of the strategist and level them up in quality - both rigor and narrative. You must demonstrate strong autonomy and start to flex your generalist muscle across departments.

You must start to give ideas on how to improve agency process, you must know the industry, and be on the pulse of culture.

Responsibilities:

• Briefing and collaborating with teams throughout entire projects (no hand-offs)
• Presenting the majority of daily strategy work to clients and building key relationships.
• Co-author of highly actionable strategic artifacts with Director (Exp maps, Brand Maps)
• Know the client's key business issues at all times and proactive spotting of opportunities
• Developing inventive and right primary research methodologies with Intelligence
• Co-Leading primary research with intelligence- IDIs, focus groups, intercepts, survey design
• Collaborating with teams to bring strategy to life (Design, Barkley Films)
• Partnering with creatives & media in idea development and execution
• Mastering the art and science of the strategic setup to idea presentations
• Moderating workshops on projects
• Touching multiple projects at once
• New business daily voice on pitches
• Development of 1-2 strategy specialty (comms planning, brand architecture, content, exp))
• Draft all case studies with creative partners
• Contribute to Barkley Modern Consumer work

Qualifications:

• Must have samples with inspired thinking.
• Exhibit high-level writing and presentation skills.
• Must demonstrate deep experience in insight and research practices.
• Excellent reasoning ability: Ability to define problems, collect information, establish facts, draw valid conclusions, and make creative leaps.
• 4+ years of direct experience in the strategy field preferred

BarkleyOKRP's Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion + Belonging

At BarkleyOKRP, DEI+B drives work that matters. We believe people and creativity are made of the same substance, and when every perspective is valued, the impact is stronger. We build belonging as a business strategy, power inclusive creativity that delivers measurable results, and hold ourselves accountable as a B Corp committed to progress over performative intent. When people are valued, the work carries greater impact.