Brand Planning Director

Department:
Brand Planning | Classification:
Full-Time, Exempt |

Reports to:

Chief Operating Officer

You’re not afraid of ambiguity or uncertainty. In fact, you tend to sense the right path forward before anyone else in the room does. CEOs and leadership teams come across our path when they can no longer decipher signal from noise. When their brand has stopped growing the way it used to, they need someone to see clearly what they can’t yet see themselves.

You begin by listening and observing. But once the path is clear, you know how to galvanize a team toward a potential no one has proven exists yet, including your own. Unforeseen obstacles don’t faze you. You keep observing, orienting, deciding, acting. And because of the trust you’ve earned along the way, people follow you without needing to be convinced.

You know how to read a room, earn trust quickly, and help senior leaders say yes to something they already knew they needed. You’re just as good at building the people around you: holding them accountable, teaching them what you know, and making room for them to become leaders in their own right.

If that sounds like the role you’ve been looking for, keep reading.

For nearly three decades, McKee Wallwork has helped organizations uncover who they were designed to be. We are a brand planning consultancy that works at the CEO level, with leadership teams navigating pivotal moments. Our work is high-value, consequential, and built on the belief that knowing who you are changes everything.

We are a small firm with a clear point of view and a growing market. This role is a direct contributor to that growth.

• Lead, coach, and develop the Strategy team through regular feedback, mentoring, and performance management.
• Recruit, hire, onboard, and retain high-performing brand planners.
• Establish clear expectations, accountability, and professional development plans for department employees.
• Foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning across the Brand Planning team.
• Monitor department capacity, workload, and resource planning.
• Build and maintain a healthy, engaged, and high-performing team culture.

• Develop, document, and continuously improve Strategy department processes, workflows, templates, and best practices.
• Evaluate and recommend new research tools and methodologies that strengthen the department's capabilities.
• Identify capability gaps and implement training, coaching, or process improvements to address them.
• Surface observations from client work and strategist experience that may improve departmental practices, brand planning execution, or the firm's methodology.
• Develop departmental KPIs and monitor performance against established goals.
• Ensure the department has the systems, resources, and documentation necessary to scale effectively.

• Lead brand planning on select high-complexity or high-visibility client engagements.
• Facilitate Charrettes, strategic workshops, research synthesis, and executive brand planning presentations when appropriate.
• Support brand planners during critical client moments, difficult decisions, or complex strategic challenges.
• Build credibility and trust with executive-level client stakeholders.
• Ensure strategic recommendations are practical, actionable, and aligned with client objectives.

• Partner with Account Management to ensure strategic brand planning recommendations align with client objectives and commercial priorities.
• Collaborate with Manifestation and other specialty teams to ensure strategic brand planning intent is carried through execution.
• Work closely with Project Management to improve…