Executive Director of Strategy

dotdotdash•New York, NY

About The Position

dotdotdash is a global experience innovation agency, helping brands create new paradigms. We create multi-sensory experiences built for impact, crafting distinct and connected systems across the brand ecosystem. As part of Omnicom, we’re an international team of dreamers and makers delivering boutique service and craft, with the reach and resources of a global network. At dotdotdash, we are more than marketers; we are explorers, innovators, and creators of what’s next. Our name, inspired by Morse code – a simple yet revolutionary medium of communication – and specifically the pattern U, is a nod to our belief of putting people at the center of what we create, and like Morse code in its time, our work reimagines how brands communicate with audiences today. At the heart of everything we do are the principles that guide how we create and collaborate: Play. We are curious and create space for experimentation. Take Risks. We challenge the status quo and take informed risks to push boundaries. Stay Humble. We lead through example, listening, and learning. Adapt. We evolve at the pace of culture and technology. Be Diligent. We commit to persistence and details from concept through delivery. We’re seeking to grow our team with individuals who share our passion for tangible creativity, our commitment to pushing boundaries, and our belief in the power of participatory experiences. And as dotdotdash expands its role within Omnicom, we are seeking a senior strategy leader to help define the next chapter of the agency and its strategic impact. The Executive Director of Strategy is the senior-most strategy leader at dotdotdash. This role owns the agency’s strategic vision, elevates the quality of thinking across all work, and builds a modern, future-facing strategy practice grounded in culture, behavior, and emerging technology (including AI). This position balances high-level vision and thought leadership with hands-on leadership of complex client engagements. You will serve as a trusted strategic advisor to clients, a partner to the executive team, and a connective tissue across dotdotdash and Omnicom. This role will help define what strategy looks like next, not only at dotdotdash, but across Omnicom Advertising. It is an opportunity to shape culture-led innovation, influence meaningful work, and build a strategic practice designed for the future.

Requirements

A senior strategy leader with deep experience in brand, culture, and experience-led strategy.
Equally fluent in culture and technology, able to move between human insight and technical possibility.
Comfortable advising C-suite and senior client stakeholders.
A strong writer, editor, and storyteller who can bring clarity to complexity.
Curious, generous, and rigorous, someone who raises the bar without ego.
Experienced working within, or alongside, large agency networks, while protecting independent thinking.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Vision
Client Strategy & Advisory
Research, Insights & Foresight
AI, Innovation & Emerging Technology
Thought Leadership & Strategic IP
New Business & Growth
Connections & Comms Strategy
Leadership & Team Development
Operations & Ways of Working
Define and steward the overall strategic direction of dotdotdash, ensuring clarity, consistency, and ambition across all engagements.
Translate cultural, behavioral, and technological shifts into actionable strategies for clients and internal teams.
Shape and evolve the agency’s strategic offerings across brand, experience, innovation, research, and AI-enabled strategy.
Act as a thought partner to the CEO and leadership team, contributing to agency positioning, growth strategy, and long-term planning.
Lead end-to-end strategy for major global clients across technology, media, sportswear, entertainment, retail, and lifestyle sectors.
Serve as a senior advisor to executive-level client stakeholders, helping them navigate uncertainty and complexity.
Frame ambiguous problem spaces into clear strategic narratives, opportunity territories, and roadmaps.
Design and facilitate strategic workshops, working sessions, and leadership off-sites.
Own the research and insights function, blending qualitative, quantitative, cultural, and desk research into coherent strategic outputs.
Develop original frameworks, maps, and systems that help clients and teams see patterns and make better decisions.
Maintain a living view of emerging cultural signals, platforms, technologies, and behaviors.
Help clients distinguish between short-term trends and long-term structural change.
Lead dotdotdash’s AI and emerging technology strategy, internally and client-facing.
Translate complex technologies (AI, machine learning, generative media, spatial computing, interactive systems) into human-centered use cases and experiences.
Partner with Omnicom teams to integrate AI tools and workflows into strategy, research, and production.
Guide clients in using AI as a creative, strategic, and experiential lever, not just an efficiency tool.
Create and steward signature POVs, frameworks, and narratives that define the agency’s point of view.
Translate successful engagements into reusable IP (playbooks, methodologies, templates).
Support the agency’s public profile through talks, writing, internal education, and presentations.
Elevate dotdotdash’s voice within Omnicom and the broader industry.
Lead priority new-business efforts, from opportunity framing through final pitch.
Shape RFP responses, scopes, and strategic value propositions.
Partner with business development and leadership to identify whitespace and future growth areas for the agency.
Help evolve dotdotdash’s position within Omnicom as a strategic innovation partner.
Bring innovative, fresh Connections thinking into the agency’s end-to- end strategy practice, ensuring communication tasks and audience pathways are clearly defined and rooted in cultural, behavioral, and platform insights.
Craft exceptional Connections strategies that identify key communication objectives and translate them into integrated, channel- agnostic strategic frameworks.
Recommend the optimal set of creative deliverables and asset prioritization to fulfill objectives across budgets, timelines, and resources, ensuring cohesion across media plans and content ecosystems.
Provide ongoing guidance on channel- and platform-specific best practices, opportunities, and emerging formats to push creative and strategic thinking.
Partner closely with media and communications teams (internal and external) to ensure strategic rigor, narrative cohesion, and cross- channel continuity from briefing through execution.
Champion interdisciplinary collaboration across brand planning, social strategy, data & insights, and media partners to enhance Connections thinking and unlock integrated solutions
Lead the strategy function, including direct management of senior strategists and dotted-line leadership across the network, into extended agency capabilities that include social strategy, data & insights, digital performance media, etc.
Set a high bar for strategic rigor, clarity, and storytelling.
Mentor and develop talent, helping build a sustainable, modern strategy discipline.
Act as a connector across creative, design, technology, production, and media teams.
Design and improve strategic processes from intake to delivery.
Partner with project management and finance to scope work accurately and sustainably.
Define success metrics for strategic engagements (business impact, brand outcomes, learning).
Balance ambition with healthy, focused ways of working for teams.