Senior Director of Strategy

Our Opportunity

GPJ is hiring a Senior Director of Strategy to join our growing team.

This role is hybrid, requiring you to report on-site to one of the following office locations a minimum of 2 days/week: Austin, Boston, Detroit, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, or San Francisco.

Your Role

You are the Senior Director of Strategy & Planning, and this role centers on leading the strategy and planning efforts that guide the development of experiential and event marketing programs for our clients and potential clients. The Strategy & Planning group is pivotal at GPJ, and you will take pride in being an essential member of both the client and agency teams.

In this capacity, you will focus on building and nurturing strong trusted relationships with creative, account, and client teams to ensure ongoing client retention and advancement. You will work closely with Account Management and Creative leads to drive success and growth in both our existing client accounts and in pursuing new business opportunities.

Your responsibilities encompass implementing and championing strategy and planning best practices on assigned client and new business accounts, covering research, planning, account planning, strategy, and analytics. You are dedicated to ensuring that the GPJ strategy process is adhered to by all involved in the development of experiential marketing solutions, and you will communicate this process clearly to both internal and external audiences.

Crafting concise briefs that package objectives, target audiences, key insights, program requirements, and success measures is a key aspect of this role. These briefs serve to inform and inspire the creative process, and you will also lead productive ideation sessions, write briefs, facilitate brainstorming, and participate in concepting sessions.

Additionally, you will review, analyze, and provide recommendations to clients regarding their portfolio of events to align optimally with their annual event marketing plans. You will design comprehensive, audience-centric strategies that incorporate physical, digital, social, and mobile channels when appropriate, aiming to create powerful 360º experiences.

You proactively explore new experience strategies, technology-enabled engagements, and industry best practices to offer valuable counsel to clients and internal teams, while also enhancing our strategic recommendations. Leading and conducting research and planning activities related to developing experiential marketing solutions is another significant part of my role, which may involve workshops, stakeholder interviews, primary and secondary research, program auditing, and more.

You will also play a role in mentoring Strategy & Planning team members, helping them learn and apply the process to client work. Lastly, you will develop and implement measurement and analytics frameworks that incorporate key metrics and KPIs for experiences that encompass live, mobile, social, and digital components. Notably, this position involves extensive writing and presenting to clients and prospective clients.

Your Skills

• Strong leadership skills
• Strong written and oral communications
• Strong presentation skills
• Interpersonal communications and listening skills
• Proven client management/interaction skills
• Proficient in use of Windows environment (Outlook, Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point,) and other digital communications technologies (Salesforce, Chatter, Lync, Webex, etc.). 
• Knowledge of and experience in using research tools and methodologies.
• Understanding of best practices regarding analytics and marketing measurement.

Your Competencies

Communication-Express yourself clearly in writing and through visual imagery, presenting and communicating complex ideas and concepts clearly and simply. You understand the value of a well-turned phrase and a well-told story. You are able to lead people and evolve their thinking with your thoughts and actions. You are a great listener. You understand the importance of client and audience input and are able to read between the lines to the real meaning or need. You are able to assess input and weave it into a clearly articulated strategy and deliverables.

Insight Development-Be fluent in various research and discovery techniques as they apply to Strategy & Planning. Be able to quickly design and execute a curriculum or set of activities that will enable you to assess a situation, diagnose challenges, develop insights and make recommendations. You take a consultative approach, applying the tools of the practice as needed to efficiently and effectively solve client and agency challenges.

Marketing Expertise- Advanced knowledge of marketing and communications best practices and how they apply to our business, including Experiential/Event, Traditional, Digital, Social, Mobile and PR. Understanding of overall marketing and brand landscape. Understanding of analytics and measurement best practices and technologies.

Resourceful- Be decisive and fast acting. Self-direct without a need for constant supervision. Take control of situations and deliver proactively. Figure out a way to a solution in spite of the challenges. Over promise and over deliver.

Your Experience

Experience & Education

• Undergraduate degree is required and a graduate degree in business, marketing or communications is preferred
• 10-12 year’s client/agency experience in a related role
• Experience in these key areas is preferred: experiential marketing, strategy, planning, marketing, digital marketing and/or advertising.
• Experience in digital, social and mobile technologies, strategies and tactics.

Travel & Mobility

• Ability to travel 25%

Your Impact

In your role, you will have influence and responsibility over:

• Business Development
• Project Launch & Resource Management
• Strategy & Creative
• Management, Delivery & Deployment

Salary Range: $120k - $170k

Salary is dependent on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) experience, skills, and location.

Who We Are

GPJ is the world leader in experiential marketing. Our 29 global offices are filled with fearless people dreaming up ideas that are transforming industries and bringing the most respected brands to life in powerfully, exciting ways. We are a part of the Project Worldwide family. An independent, employee-owned global network of complementary, wholly owned agencies. 

You read that “employee-owned” part, right? You heard us correctly. You work hard, she works hard, we all work hard… we all succeed and reap the rewards. We have an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – providing our employees with an ownership interest. We thought you would want to know that. In fact, there is a lot more you would want to know about us, like our FTO policy (no more “accruing” time off), our employer matching 401(k) plan (no vesting period), and our low contribution healthcare option. But we are getting ahead of ourselves here, let’s talk about this exciting opportunity first and we can fill you in on our perks & benefits later.

GPJ is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, citizenship, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected class. In addition to federal law requirements, GPJ complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.  GPJ expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on any protected class.