Code and Theory
Digital agency delivering UI and AI
Associate Director - Product Strategy
More locations: New York, NY, USA
About the job
- At least 6 years of experience in product strategy, digital strategy, or a related role, with a track record of owning strategy workstreams with limited oversight.
- Strong working knowledge of strategic product work, including structuring discovery, developing vision, building prioritization models, interpreting analysis, and expressing strategic intent in delivery.
- Ability to translate strategic thinking into concrete, actionable direction, including shaping or reviewing user stories and product requirements.
- Ability to facilitate workshops, present to senior stakeholders, maintain a clear position under pushback, and make trade-off decisions when full alignment is not achievable.
- Ability to synthesize competitive research, user data, and business context into defensible product recommendations.
- Independent fluency with artificial intelligence tools for research, synthesis, prototyping, and deliverable creation, with judgment about their appropriate use and limitations.
- Understanding of artificial intelligence as an organizational capability and ability to surface its implications for clients.
- Ability to develop junior practitioners and manage defined project workstreams reliably and independently.
- Own discovery workstreams within engagements, including competitive research, stakeholder interviews, and user-needs synthesis, and translate outputs into actionable product insights.
- Develop product frameworks, vision documents, and roadmap inputs grounded in business goals and user reality, and translate them into sequenced and scoped direction.
- Build and apply prioritization models and facilitate alignment sessions that move stakeholders from competing options to a clear position.
- Review, shape, and write user stories that express strategic intent clearly for delivery teams.
- Define success metrics for engagements and use data and research outputs to validate recommendations and identify when a direction needs revisiting.
- Apply artificial intelligence tools independently across research, synthesis, prototyping, and deliverable creation.
- Advise clients, under senior direction, on embedding artificial intelligence thinking into their teams and ways of working.
- Support Senior Directors in new business contexts.
- Develop junior practitioners through active coaching.
- Experience carrying product or digital strategy work through to delivery decisions or measurable outcomes.
About the company
Code and Theory combines creative design and engineering to help large brands address consumer behavior, emerging tech, and AI. It offers website design, digital campaigns, and UI development, delivered by a 50/50 team of engineers and creatives to ensure technical solidity and visual appeal. Working with clients like Amazon, Oracle, and Albertsons shows its ability to scale projects and deploy AI-enabled solutions, such as collaborations with Oracle. The goal is to be a trusted partner for big companies by delivering bespoke, data-driven digital solutions that improve presence and performance at scale.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
Debt Financing
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
2001
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- July 2026 QStrauss acquisition deepens Adobe implementation capacity across Latin America.
- July 2026 Harsh Kapadia launch and September 2026 AI hires expand enterprise creative sales.
- Adobe Summit 2026 launch of CIS proves Code and Theory can ship productized offerings.
What critics are saying
- Code and Theory depends heavily on Adobe; Adobe can internalize implementations and squeeze margins.
- Stagwell owns strategy; Code and Theory remains exposed to network-level priorities and capital allocation.
- Glassdoor reviews still flag toxic management and no work-life balance, risking retention and delivery.
What makes Code and Theory unique
- September 2026 hires reinforce Code and Theory’s 50/50 creative-engineering operating model.
- Adobe co-development through 2026 gives Code and Theory uncommon enterprise distribution.
- The Machine and Creative Intelligence System combine agency services with software-like recurring capabilities.
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Benefits
Remote Work Options
Flexible Work Hours
Company News
Code and Theory honored by Fast Company's Innovation by Design for four consecutive years. September 15, 2026 9:09 AM Gift Article Accolades include being named to the Design Company of the Year list and receiving the Enduring Impact award for companies with 15-plus years of success. NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 15, 2026 / Code and Theory has received the dual honor of being named a Fast Company Design Company of the Year and selected for its "Enduring Impact" award, which recognizes the best design among companies with 15-plus years in business. The accolades mark the agency's fourth consecutive year in which Code and Theory has been selected for Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards. Technology has made it easier to make things, but most businesses find it harder to make things that matter. It's a gap that keeps growing and one that Code and Theory is uniquely built to close. For 25 years, the agency has brought creativity and technology together through a differentiated balance of 50% creatives and 50% engineers. Code and Theory has evolved that model into a digital transformation engine built to handle disruption, combining human creativity, forward-deployed expertise and agentic solutions to drive tangible business outcomes. Over the past year, that work has delivered measurable results across industries: * TIME: Transformed the legacy publisher into a modern, AI-powered platform, increasing digital revenue by 159% year over year. * Stanley Black & Decker: Created one design system for more than 30 brands across 55 markets, helping increase e-commerce conversion by 40%. * JBL: Created the industry's first AI-native discovery system, built for the way search works now, growing AI-driven referrals by 2,434% year over year. * T. Rowe Price: Unified 47 fragmented sites on a single system, saving 100,000 team hours and $15M in avoided costs. * NFL: Reinvented NFL.com to help fans find what they want faster, increasing NFL+ discovery by 104% year over year and tripling acquisition. The 2026 awards also recognize work from across the Code and Theory Network. Instrument and ŌURA have been named in the UX Design category for Instrument's reimagining of the ŌURA app experience. Instrument's Playspace, an open, living archive of experiments, tools and interactive sketches, has also been honored in the Experimental and Conceptual Design category. The platform gives teams a place to test ideas, build prototypes and turn emerging technologies into tangible, usable experiences. This recognition builds on a broader history of Fast Company honors for the Code and Theory Network. In 2025, Code and Theory was named to Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies list in the Design and Teamwork categories, while Instrument was named to Fast Company's list of Best Workplaces for Innovators. Code and Theory's previous Innovation by Design honors include three distinctions for NBC's Big Board, the NFL app and Design Company of the Year (2025). This year, Code and Theory was honored alongside Google, Canva, SharkNinja and Design Bridge and Partners in the Design Agency of the Year category as well as Adobe, L'Oreal and CVS Health in the Enduring Impact category. Dan Gardner, founder of Code and Theory, says: "It's a crazy moment to be able to be creative and use technology to design what's never come before. Our teams are more excited about the future than ever because moments like this don't come around very often. As we head into our 25th anniversary, I can say that being recognized for the work we're doing at a time like this is a real honor for our clients and all of the great talent at Code and Theory." Brendan Vaughan, Editor-in-Chief at Fast Company, says: "The Innovation by Design Awards have always recognized the ideas that challenge convention and show what's possible when design is treated as a strategic force, not an afterthought. Congratulations to this year's honorees, who demonstrate how thoughtful design can solve meaningful problems and create new possibilities for people and businesses." About Fast Company Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow business publication Inc., and can be found online at www.fastcompany.com. About Code and Theory Code and Theory is the digital transformation agency where the C-suite comes together to create change. Its differentiated balance of 50% creatives and 50% engineers at scale allows Charlotte Observer to bring strategy, creativity and technology together in one integrated offering. This enables its clients to gain competitive advantages in how they operate, market and serve their customers. Code and Theory is Stagwell's (STGW) digital transformation network, which includes its flagship agency, Code and Theory, along with Create. Group, Current, Instrument, Kettle, Left Field Labs and Truelogic. Code and Theory is the most decorated agency of the past three years, with 20 top agency honors, including Ad Age, Adweek and Fast Company. Its clients include Amazon, IBM, JPMorganChase, Microsoft, NBC and the NFL. For more, visit codeandtheory.com. Media Contact
Code and Theory honored by Fast Company's Innovation by Design for four consecutive years. September 15, 2026 8:09 AM Gift Article Accolades include being named to the Design Company of the Year list and receiving the Enduring Impact award for companies with 15-plus years of success. NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 15, 2026 / Code and Theory has received the dual honor of being named a Fast Company Design Company of the Year and selected for its "Enduring Impact" award, which recognizes the best design among companies with 15-plus years in business. The accolades mark the agency's fourth consecutive year in which Code and Theory has been selected for Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards. Technology has made it easier to make things, but most businesses find it harder to make things that matter. It's a gap that keeps growing and one that Code and Theory is uniquely built to close. For 25 years, the agency has brought creativity and technology together through a differentiated balance of 50% creatives and 50% engineers. Code and Theory has evolved that model into a digital transformation engine built to handle disruption, combining human creativity, forward-deployed expertise and agentic solutions to drive tangible business outcomes. Over the past year, that work has delivered measurable results across industries: * TIME: Transformed the legacy publisher into a modern, AI-powered platform, increasing digital revenue by 159% year over year. * Stanley Black & Decker: Created one design system for more than 30 brands across 55 markets, helping increase e-commerce conversion by 40%. * JBL: Created the industry's first AI-native discovery system, built for the way search works now, growing AI-driven referrals by 2,434% year over year. * T. Rowe Price: Unified 47 fragmented sites on a single system, saving 100,000 team hours and $15M in avoided costs. * NFL: Reinvented NFL.com to help fans find what they want faster, increasing NFL+ discovery by 104% year over year and tripling acquisition. The 2026 awards also recognize work from across the Code and Theory Network. Instrument and ŌURA have been named in the UX Design category for Instrument's reimagining of the ŌURA app experience. Instrument's Playspace, an open, living archive of experiments, tools and interactive sketches, has also been honored in the Experimental and Conceptual Design category. The platform gives teams a place to test ideas, build prototypes and turn emerging technologies into tangible, usable experiences. This recognition builds on a broader history of Fast Company honors for the Code and Theory Network. In 2025, Code and Theory was named to Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies list in the Design and Teamwork categories, while Instrument was named to Fast Company's list of Best Workplaces for Innovators. Code and Theory's previous Innovation by Design honors include three distinctions for NBC's Big Board, the NFL app and Design Company of the Year (2025). This year, Code and Theory was honored alongside Google, Canva, SharkNinja and Design Bridge and Partners in the Design Agency of the Year category as well as Adobe, L'Oreal and CVS Health in the Enduring Impact category. Dan Gardner, founder of Code and Theory, says: "It's a crazy moment to be able to be creative and use technology to design what's never come before. Our teams are more excited about the future than ever because moments like this don't come around very often. As we head into our 25th anniversary, I can say that being recognized for the work we're doing at a time like this is a real honor for our clients and all of the great talent at Code and Theory." Brendan Vaughan, Editor-in-Chief at Fast Company, says: "The Innovation by Design Awards have always recognized the ideas that challenge convention and show what's possible when design is treated as a strategic force, not an afterthought. Congratulations to this year's honorees, who demonstrate how thoughtful design can solve meaningful problems and create new possibilities for people and businesses." About Fast Company Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow business publication Inc., and can be found online at www.fastcompany.com. About Code and Theory Code and Theory is the digital transformation agency where the C-suite comes together to create change. Our differentiated balance of 50% creatives and 50% engineers at scale allows us to bring strategy, creativity and technology together in one integrated offering. This enables our clients to gain competitive advantages in how they operate, market and serve their customers. Code and Theory is Stagwell's (STGW) digital transformation network, which includes its flagship agency, Code and Theory, along with Create. Group, Current, Instrument, Kettle, Left Field Labs and Truelogic. Code and Theory is the most decorated agency of the past three years, with 20 top agency honors, including Ad Age, Adweek and Fast Company. Our clients include Amazon, IBM, JPMorganChase, Microsoft, NBC and the NFL. For more, visit codeandtheory.com. Media Contact
Code and Theory hires AI tech leaders for enterprise. Tue, 8th Sep 2026 (Today) Code and Theory has hired Deepthi Reddy Sanikommu and Dave Thomas to senior technology leadership roles, expanding the agency's leadership across enterprise platforms and AI-related engineering. Sanikommu joins as group director, enterprise platforms, and Thomas as group director of technology. Their remit includes Adobe-focused enterprise platform work and engineering for The Machine, Stagwell's agentic operating system for marketing. The hires come as agencies and consultancies position themselves around rising corporate demand for AI tools and broader digital transformation programmes. Code and Theory said the two executives would help clients turn that demand into operating systems, platform delivery and product development. Sanikommu will lead the company's global enterprise platforms discipline, including expanding architecture and delivery across its Adobe practice and contributing to AI-enabled transformation work for clients. Her background spans more than two decades in technology leadership across consulting and enterprise organisations in Australia and India. She previously held roles at Accenture, EY and Merkle, where her work included large digital transformation programmes and customer experience platform modernisation. Thomas will lead engineering for The Machine, with a focus on agentic workflow orchestration, semantic search and AI-driven optimisation. Before joining Code and Theory, Thomas held senior engineering and AI leadership roles at Upside. He also led product and engineering teams at Meta, Indeed, Xpanse, SolarWinds and several venture-backed start-ups. The appointments bring in senior technology executives from large consulting and consumer technology groups at a time when many agency networks are trying to deepen their engineering and software credentials. For Code and Theory, the move also strengthens ties between its client services work and Stagwell's broader technology efforts. Code and Theory describes its operating model as an even split between creative and engineering staff. It said that structure has underpinned its work over 25 years as it moves further into product, platform and AI systems development. David DiCamillo, chief technology officer at Code and Theory, outlined the reasoning behind the hires. "Deepthi and Dave are the kind of leaders who raise the ceiling for what our organization can deliver globally, at enterprise scale and with real momentum in AI. Deepthi brings deep platform and transformation leadership across the Adobe ecosystem and Dave brings rare experience building AI-powered systems and products. Together, they strengthen our ability to help clients modernize the systems that power experience, performance and decision-making," DiCamillo said. Sanikommu's role places particular emphasis on enterprise platform work, an area where brands continue to invest as they update customer-facing systems and internal architecture. Adobe-related deployments remain a significant part of that market for agencies and technology advisers with implementation expertise. Her comments pointed to the practical demands companies face when trying to adapt large systems quickly. "Enterprise transformation is only real when it shows up in the platforms people use every day and when teams can evolve those platforms as fast as customers evolve. Code and Theory brings experience, engineering and AI together in a way that's built to deliver. My focus is on building a global Enterprise Platforms capability that combines strong engineering, modern architecture and AI to help clients modernize faster, simplify complex ecosystems and deliver measurable business outcomes," Sanikommu said. Thomas's brief centres on The Machine, which Stagwell has positioned as a marketing operating system built around agentic workflows. That reflects a broader push by marketing groups to build internal technology products that can support campaign operations, knowledge retrieval and decision support across client accounts. His experience spans software architecture, product development and AI strategy, giving Code and Theory a senior executive with a background in both enterprise software and consumer internet platforms. Those skills are increasingly in demand as agencies look beyond creative and media work to systems integration and software-led service lines. "The next competitive advantage won't be who has access to AI. It will be who redesigns their operating model around it. The Machine is built to help enterprises make that transition, turning agentic capability into a practical system that improves speed, quality and decision-making," Thomas said.
Stagwell (STGW) to Acquire QStrauss Consulting to Expand Code and Theory's Implementation of Adobe's Suite of Solutions. Colombia-Based Adobe Implementation Specialist Joins Stagwell's Code and Theory Network, Expanding the Network's Global Footprint and Deepening Its Bench of Adobe Experts NEW YORK, July 27, 2026 (Newswire.com) - Stagwell (NASDAQ:STGW), the challenger network transforming marketing through AI, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire QStrauss Consulting, a leading Adobe implementation and consulting firm and preferred Adobe consulting vendor. Based in Colombia, QStrauss Consulting will join the Code and Theory Network, further expanding its global footprint and team of Adobe experts. QStrauss Consulting helps leading global brands including Walmart, BBVA, Santander, Grupo Salinas, OXXO and Bimbo drive measurable impact from Adobe platforms. The firm specializes in Adobe consulting, implementation and integrations, and thrives at helping clients simplify, optimize and transform business processes. "The addition of QStrauss further enhances Stagwell's position as a leader in digital transformation," said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. "QStrauss builds upon our existing Adobe capabilities, strengthening our expertise and helping clients maximize the value of their marketing technology investments." This acquisition reinforces Code and Theory's unique relationship with Adobe. Code and Theory recently announced a three-year co-development agreement with Adobe to build industry-specific solutions that combine Adobe's platforms with Code and Theory's creative and technology expertise, backed by Stagwell's network and infrastructure. The solutions focus on industries where Code and Theory has deep roots, including financial services, B2B, sports and retail. Code and Theory debuted the first solution, the Creative Intelligence System (CIS), at Adobe Summit earlier this year. This new capability helps marketers learn before they launch by leveraging synthetic personas to make more informed decisions throughout the campaign process. CIS is powered by Stagwell's ID graph and Code and Theory's marketing operating system, The Machine, an always-on system that connects campaign data, asset libraries, creative production and performance results across the enterprise. The acquisition of QStrauss further extends the Code and Theory Network's global footprint, building on its recent growth in the MENA region. Last year, Stagwell and Code and Theory launched Maydan Sports, a global sports engagement collective designed to help organizations across the region build global reputations and deliver local impact through sport. The year prior, Create.Group, the leading digital agency in the Middle East, joined the Code and Theory network further enhancing its capabilities in the region. Gabriel Africany, Co-Founder of QStrauss Consulting, says: "Joining Stagwell and the Code and Theory Network is a major milestone for QStrauss Consulting and for the team we've built. We're proud to be a trusted Adobe implementation partner and this partnership will let us scale that impact, bringing deeper Adobe expertise and stronger delivery capacity as Code and Theory co-develops industry solutions with Adobe." Dan Gardner, Co-Founder of Code and Theory, added: "Code and Theory and Adobe are creating software and services that allow businesses to take a leadership position during this next era of creative and technological possibilities. This acquisition gives us more global reach, talent and ability to do things that haven't been done before. It further solidifies Code and Theory as the place where the C-suite comes together to experience change." About QStrauss Consulting QStrauss is a technology consulting and implementation firm that helps organizations transform operations through process design, automation, system integration, and digital enablement. Acting as an extension of its clients' teams, QStrauss combines business analysis with hands-on implementation expertise to simplify complex operations, improve visibility, and create scalable operating models. The company supports organizations across the full technology adoption journey, from discovery and solution design to deployment, governance, and continuous optimization. Visit https://www.qstrauss.com/. About Stagwell Stagwell is the global challenger network transforming marketing through AI. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our specialists in 45+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for our clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. About The Code and Theory Network The Code and Theory Network is the only technology and creative network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers. Our unique makeup makes us the place where CMOs, CTOs and CIOs come together to drive results for their businesses. We partner with our clients to redefine what is possible to create lasting impact and drive long-term growth. Part of Stagwell, Code and Theory offers a global footprint and the capabilities to work across the entirety of the customer-facing journey, and implement the technology that powers it. The network includes the flagship agency Code and Theory as well as Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Truelogic, Create. Group, and Current. Code and Theory clients include Amazon, JPMorganChase, Microsoft, NBC, NFL and Yeti. For more, visit codeandtheory.com.
Code and Theory hires Harsh Kapadia to bring Creative closer to business. The new group will be tasked with putting creative in business context for clients including Adobe and IBM. 3 hours ago The future of brands gets decided here. Join the industry's top marketers at Brandweek for the ideas, insights, and connections shaping what's next. Get your ticket. Stagwell's Code and Theory has launched a new Enterprise Creative division it hopes can propel its teams further upstream into business-facing strategy, bringing on agency vet Harsh Kapadia to lead. The new group, still being assembled, will be tasked with deepening partnerships with Code and Theory clients including Adobe and IBM by bridging creativity and business, as well as finding areas to collaborate on joint ventures. Kapadia pointed to Code and Theory's recently launched Content Operating System with Adobe as an example. But work could also manifest as an idea that begins on the marketing side and becomes a conversation about revamping supply chains or changing commerce solutions. Christopher Cicchiello is ADWEEK's agencies reporter. Previously, he was on the breaking news assignment desk at NBC News in Washington D.C., where he earned an Emmy nomination for his 2024 election coverage. His byline has appeared in NBC News, TODAY, Quincy News, The Times Union, and The Daily Orange. Recommended videos