Associate Director, Strategy
About The Position
We’re looking for an Associate Director, Strategy to help lead strategic planning across a fast-moving, high-visibility sports and entertainment business. This person will sit at the intersection of client objectives, fan behavior, cultural trends, media strategy, audience insights, and execution, translating complex business challenges into clear, compelling strategies that drive measurable impact. This role requires someone who can think big and operate deeply: a strategic partner who can identify cultural, consumer, category, and competitive signals; shape them into smart recommendations; and work cross-functionally to bring those ideas to life across channels. The ideal candidate is equal parts strategist, storyteller, operator, and relationship-builder. Someone who thrives in ambiguity, brings structure to chaos, and knows how to move quickly without sacrificing rigor.
Requirements
- A strategic thinker who can connect business goals to audience behavior, cultural context, and media opportunities.
- Strong analytical ability, with the confidence to derive actionable insights from data and translate them into smart recommendations.
- Exceptional storytelling and narrative-building skills, able to make complex ideas clear, persuasive, and executive-ready.
- Strong understanding of media planning, buying, activation, and optimization across digital, social, streaming, linear and/or emerging channels.
- Ability to operate in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities, tight timelines, and high expectations.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust across clients, internal teams, and external partners.
- Strong project management instincts, with the ability to keep multiple workstreams moving without losing strategic focus.
- Comfort working in a matrixed environment and influencing without direct authority.
- A highly collaborative, low-ego approach, someone who can lead the thinking while bringing others along.
- Strong judgment, curiosity, and a proactive approach to problem-solving.
- Understanding of financial operations, budget management, strategic planning, and media activation.
- Familiarity with media planning, audience, buying, measurement, and reporting tools.
- Ability to identify process improvements and build repeatable mechanisms that improve team effectiveness.
- Minimum of 5+ years of experience in strategy, media strategy, communications planning, media operations, brand strategy, or related roles.
- Experience in an agency, media company, sports organization, entertainment company, platform, or high-growth brand environment preferred.
- Strong knowledge of media planning, buying, and optimization across multiple channels.
- Experience working across sports, entertainment, consumer brands, or culturally driven categories strongly preferred.
Responsibilities
- Serve as a strategic lead and trusted partner for assigned franchises, deeply understanding their business, audience, category, and growth objectives.
- Build clear strategic frameworks that connect goals, consumer insights, cultural context, media opportunities, and measurable business outcomes.
- Translate client briefs and business challenges into integrated strategic recommendations across media, content, partnerships, and activation.
- Identify key cultural, consumer, category, and competitive signals and turn them into actionable insights.
- Lead development of insight-driven media strategies that are audience-first, data-informed, culturally relevant, and commercially grounded.
- Partner closely with internal teams across planning, investment, analytics, activation to ensure strategy is translated clearly into execution.
- Bring strong data-centric thinking to briefs, plans, optimizations, and recommendations, using audience, performance, platform, and market data to guide decision-making.
- Own consumer and fan insights, ensuring they inspire strong tactical ideas and clear channel strategies.
- Identify opportunities for cross-platform, partnership, sponsorship, content, or innovation-led solutions when appropriate.
- Bridge conceptual thinking with analytical problem-solving, balancing big ideas with practical, measurable execution.
- Develop compelling narratives, presentations, and strategic POVs that simplify complexity and influence clients and internal stakeholders.
- Lead, coach, and motivate team members, helping raise the quality of strategic thinking, collaboration, and output.
- Champion effective use of planning and audience tools, including Omni or similar platforms, to support audience development, activation strategy, inventory analysis, and measurement.
- Monitor trends in sports, media, culture, technology, consumer behavior, and platform innovation to proactively bring fresh thinking to the business.
- Maintain high standards for client service through responsiveness, ownership, attention to detail, and thoughtful communication.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
No Education Listed
