Brand Strategist, Vice President

Careers at KKR•Boston, MA

About The Position

KKR is seeking a strategic, commercially minded, creative, and collaborative Vice President, Brand Strategy to support the development and advancement of brand strategy for KKR and our broader brand portfolio. This position is part of the Brand Marketing team within KKR Marketing and reports to the Head of Brand Marketing. This role will help translate business priorities, market dynamics, and audience insights into clear brand strategies and plans that strengthen our brands and support broader business objectives. Working within the strategic direction of the Brand Marketing organization, the strategist will help positioning and messaging, and identify opportunities to strengthen brand relevance, differentiation, and impact globally for the enterprise brand as well as various business units The role will serve as a strategic partner to stakeholders across Marketing and the broader organization, bringing structured thinking, insights, and recommendations to brand opportunities and challenges. The individual will work closely with teams across marketing as well as external agencies and partners, to translate strategy into compelling brand initiatives, messaging and experiences. The ideal candidate combines strong strategic thinking with commercial judgment and creative instincts and can move fluidly from business challenge to insight, recommendation, and activation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, business, or a related field.
Significant experience in brand strategy, strategic planning, integrated marketing, or a related discipline, ideally gained through a combination of agency and in-house roles.
Demonstrated experience developing brand strategies, positioning, messaging, strategic briefs, and integrated marketing plans.
Strong strategic and analytical capabilities, with the ability to synthesize complex business, audience, and market information into clear insights and actionable recommendations.
Strong commercial judgment and intellectual curiosity, with the ability to understand business priorities and connect them to brand and marketing opportunities.
Demonstrated ability to independently own strategic workstreams, develop recommendations, influence stakeholders, and drive work forward within a broader strategic direction.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong creative judgment, and the ability to articulate strategic ideas simply and persuasively.
Ability to translate brand frameworks into go to market assets.
Ability to work in highly matrixed and complex organization.
Strong emotional intelligence; ability to build trust and relationships with marketing team and broader employee base.

Nice To Haves

Experience in an agency environment and/or within financial services, asset management, professional services, or another complex global organization preferred, with demonstrated ability to apply strategic brand thinking to business challenges.

Responsibilities

Help define, evolve and extend KKR's enterprise brand strategy across KKR and our broader portfolio, ensuring it reflects the firm's vision, values, and competitive differentiation.
Partner with KKR business teams to develop strategic positioning, value propositions, and messaging that align with the enterprise brand while meeting business-specific objectives. Help convert messaging frameworks into marketing assets including website, PowerPoint, video and social activations.
Lead brand discovery sessions, messaging workshops, and stakeholder interviews to uncover differentiated insights.
Manage relationships with brand research partners and use audience insights, competitive intelligence, and market and cultural trends to identify opportunities and inform brand strategy and decision-making.
Develop strategic approaches for priority brand initiatives and campaigns, defining the business challenge, audience opportunity, strategic proposition, and measures of success.
Support brand portfolio strategy and key brand decisions, including brand architecture, naming, positioning, partnerships, and sponsorships that carry implications for KKR's brands and reputation.
Ensure consistency of the KKR brand across campaigns, content, experiences, and client touchpoints globally.
Contribute to the continued development of the Brand Marketing function by strengthening strategic frameworks, planning tools, processes, and ways of working across the team.
Develop clear, compelling messaging frameworks for enterprise brand initiatives, investment strategies, business lines, campaigns, and executive communications.
Write and refine high-impact copy and video scripts across a wide variety of channels, including websites, advertisements, content, campaigns, presentations, videos, thought leadership, brand narratives, and executive messaging.
Distill complex investment concepts into simple, engaging, client-centric language.
Establish messaging architecture, tone of voice, and narrative frameworks that can be adopted consistently across the organization.
Serve as the primary day-to-day partner for brand strategy.
Develop clear creative briefs and strategic direction that inspire best-in-class creative work.
Challenge agencies to produce differentiated thinking while ensuring work reflects KKR's standards for quality and excellence.
Collaborate closely with marketing leaders, investment professionals, business leaders, and communications partners across the firm.
Provide strategic counsel on branding, positioning, campaign development, and go-to-market initiatives.
Influence stakeholders across multiple businesses and build alignment around strategic recommendations.
Stay informed on market trends, competitor positioning, and evolving client expectations to identify opportunities for differentiation.