[Hiring] Strategy Director @CNC Agency

Role Description

We are currently seeking a Strategy Director who is responsible for defining the strategic foundation that shapes our experiential work, from early insight through creative brief and experience framework. Strategy at CNC is about figuring out why before anyone starts talking about what. Every experience we build starts with a question: what's the real problem to solve, and what would it take to solve it in a new way?

What we've found is that the best strategy feels less like capital-S Strategy and more like clarity. A client comes to us with a set of objectives, competing priorities, and disconnected channels, and our job is to help them see the simple thing beneath it all. Strategy can be genuinely creative: not necessarily in how it's presented, but in how it gets to the answer. Sometimes that means finding and using data in ways nobody expected, or noticing something about how an audience actually behaves that contradicts the brief entirely. After all, there's no data about the future.

At CNC, strategists are also a leading voice on the project or pitch team. They're usually the first people to touch a project and the ones who maintain the vision as it moves through creative and production. They're also, in our experience, the reason client relationships get stronger over time. It's our ability to connect what we do to upstream decisions and strategy that makes it great.

Qualifications

• 6-10+ years in strategy or planning, with meaningful time at a creative agency
• A portfolio of work where your strategy created a surprising or non-obvious creative approach
• Comfort with data beyond a topline recap: you've pulled insights from raw data, used them to create net-new directions for clients, and can establish a measurement framework from work outset
• Client relationships where you became a trusted partner and advisor
• The ability to build conviction in a room: you present with conviction and a point of view
• Pace: You've operated in environments that require developing a quick POV that lands with teams and clients alike

Requirements

• Lead the strategic foundation for a client project, turning a business objective into the insight, framework, and brief that the creative team builds from
• Spot a specific tension in how an audience actually behaves and turn it into the starting point for an experience, not a slide
• Get in a room with a Creative Director and pressure-test whether the work still connects to the strategy
• Present to a CMO and make them feel like the brief writes itself
• Give creative teams quick, grounded direction in a short turn pitch
• Create a through line between measurement, the strategy, and the work
• Push a junior strategist's thinking from good to great

Benefits

• The salary range for this role is $155,000.00 to $190,000.00. Where a candidate falls within this band will depend on a combination of factors, including relevant experience, demonstrated performance, specific skills, geographical location, and internal equity.
• We regularly benchmark roles to market data and ensure pay is aligned with the role’s scope and impact.

Company Description

At CNC Agency, great ideas come from diverse perspectives. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can bring their full selves to work. All qualified applicants will be considered, no matter race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other protected status.