[Hiring] Director, Communications Planning @Dept

Role Description

As a Director, Communications Planning, you are a senior strategic leader who sits at the heart of how we connect brands to culture. You'll own the strategic architecture that sits between a brand's positioning and its channel execution. You know how to build a comms plan with genuine logic behind it — one that maps audience behavior to message sequencing, assigns channel roles based on insight rather than convention, and gives.

Reporting to the Group Director of Integrated Strategy & Media Planning, you will drive the communications planning discipline for industry-leading clients, shaping how brands show up across the full media ecosystem with precision, relevance, and impact.

You bring a rare combination of strategic depth, channel expertise, and leadership presence, translating business ambitions into integrated communications strategies that move people and drive measurable growth.

What You'll Do

• Lead communications planning across assigned accounts — developing audience-first strategies that define the role of each channel, the logic of message sequencing, and the measurable outcomes each phase of a plan is designed to drive.
• Translate brand and business briefs into integrated communications frameworks: audience segmentation, consumer journey mapping, channel roles and sequencing, and a clear articulation of what moves someone from awareness through to action.
• Write and develop creative briefs, understanding that a great brief is a strategic act — it shapes what creative makes, not just how it gets made.
• Serve as a senior strategic partner to clients on communications, campaign strategy, channel planning, and audience engagement.
• Lead integrated communications planning across paid, owned, and earned media — defining the role of each channel, sequencing messaging, and establishing clear KPIs tied to business outcomes.
• Translate complex business challenges into sharp, compelling strategic frameworks that inspire both clients and internal creative and media teams.
• Partner closely with discipline leads across media, creative, CRM, and e-commerce to ensure full-funnel alignment from strategy through execution.
• Drive new business efforts by developing insight-led communications strategies and presenting with authority and conviction on a national stage.
• Oversee audience analysis, consumer journey mapping, and competitive intelligence to uncover opportunities for brand growth and differentiation.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of planners — fostering a culture of strategic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and collaborative excellence.
• Champion measurement and learning agendas, partnering with analytics teams to evaluate performance and continuously evolve planning approaches.
• Stay ahead of emerging media trends, platform innovations, and cultural shifts — bringing fresh thinking and proactive POVs to clients and internal teams.
• Represent DEPT®'s strategic capabilities in the market, contributing to thought leadership, industry events, and agency positioning.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in communications planning, media strategy, or integrated planning within an agency environment, including leadership experience.
• Proven ability to develop and own senior client relationships, acting as a strategic partner and trusted advisor at the executive level.
• Deep expertise across the full media ecosystem — paid, owned, and earned — with a strong understanding of how channels work together to drive business outcomes.
• Experience leading integrated marketing strategies across media, creative, CRM, and/or e-commerce.
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of building, mentoring, and developing high-performing planning teams.
• Exceptional strategic thinking with the ability to turn complex data, research, and insights into clear, actionable, and inspiring communications frameworks.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills with the ability to craft and deliver compelling narratives to senior stakeholders and C-suite clients.
• Proficiency with planning tools and audience intelligence platforms (GWI, MRI-Simmons, Nielsen, Comscore, etc.).
• New business experience with a proven ability to contribute to and win pitches at the agency level.
• AI proficiency and a forward-thinking mindset — comfortable leveraging emerging tools to enhance planning efficiency and insight generation.
• A collaborative, solutions-oriented leadership style with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

Benefits

• Healthcare, Dental, and Vision coverage.
• 401k plan, plus matching.
• PTO.
• Paid Company Holidays.
• Parental Leave.