General Purpose of Job: 

The Associate Director, Connections Strategy, leads the development of audience-first, insight-driven communications strategies that solve real business problems. You’re responsible for translating human insight and cultural signals into strategic ideas that drive brand and business growth across paid, owned, and earned ecosystems.

This role balances strategic ownership with team mentorship. You will be a key voice in client relationships, driving clarity around where, how, and why to show up, and ensuring strategies are both inspired and actionable.

This is a dynamic, fast-paced opportunity for someone who thrives in a collaborative environment. The ideal candidate is resourceful, a quick learner, solution-oriented, and proactive in delivering top-tier results to client needs.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Lead Strategic Communications Development: Translate audience insight into actionable, integrated communication strategies that drive measurable business outcomes across paid, owned, and earned channels.
• Uncover Growth Opportunities: Conduct rigorous business and audience analyses using first-, third-, and syndicated data sources to shape client strategy and forecast market potential.
• Champion Media Ecosystem Thinking: Define the role of each media channel within a connected experience, providing strategic guidance on investment, optimization, and cross-channel coordination.
• Elevate Tool and Platform Usage: Drive adoption and effective use of strategic planning tools (e.g., Quad’s Tech Stack, MRI/Simmons), mentoring teams on best practices and application.
• Integrate Strategy Across Functions: Collaborate with media, analytics, and creative teams to ensure strategy is substantiated by data, reflected in creative, and aligned across all touchpoints.
• Identify & Activate Key Messaging Moments: Map consumer receptivity across the journey, leading the development of frameworks that inform messaging, timing, and contextual alignment.
• Deliver Thought Leadership: Anticipate cultural, category, and media shifts—translating change into forward-thinking POVs, trend analyses, and strategic implications for clients and teams.
• Guide Client Strategy & Relationships: Serve as a senior strategic voice in client engagements, clearly articulating rationale behind audience segmentation, channel planning, and messaging strategy.
• Drive Operational Excellence: Partner with leadership to refine processes, tools, and team workflows that improve efficiency, quality, and consistency of strategic output.
• Lead & Mentor Teams: Manage and develop junior strategists, fostering growth, accountability, and a high standard of strategic thinking and client service.
• Support Business Development: Lead the strategic development of pitch responses, contribute to proposal writing and final presentations, and help drive agency growth initiatives.

Education:  Bachelor’s degree (communications, marketing, advertising, or business preferred).

Experience: 

• A history of supporting the development of holistic communications planning strategies
• 5-7 years of communications planning, connections planning or account planning experience

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations:   Formal AI training is preferred

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Fluent in relevant principles of human behavior and a command of the ever-evolving marketing communications ecosystem
• Understanding of the principles of advertising, marketing and media. A basic knowledge of disciplines underlying these principles, i.e., psychology, economics, journalism
• Knowledge of the dynamics of paid, earned and owned media - how each media element performs alone, how they perform together and how they are constantly changing

Employees can be expected to be paid an annualized salary range of $119,650 - $191,430, based on variations in knowledge, skills, experience and market conditions.