Associate Director, Strategy

VSA’s purpose is to design for a better human experience. As a strategy and design agency, we blend consumer insights and data with human-centered design to activate meaningful, motivating and measurable experiences in an increasingly noisy world. With offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco, VSA offers a full range of fully integrated capabilities—branding, advertising, data science and technology—all under one roof.

VSA is also a proud member of Meet The People, an international family of unified and independent agencies. For more than 40 years, we have delivered solutions for business and creative leaders at some of the world’s most respected brands and forward-thinking organizations, including Google, Nike and IBM.

Open role in VSA Office locations, including New York, and Chicago;
Hybrid work schedule

The Associate Director, Strategy is a senior strategy practitioner who helps turn complex client situations into clear, actionable direction. This role is expected to bring structure to ambiguous problems, build trust with clients and internal teams, and lead significant strategy work streams with increasing independence. Associate Directors help shape the work by clarifying the problem, organizing the inputs, developing strategic recommendations, and connecting the thinking to creative and design outcomes.

That includes understanding how strategy informs brand identity, messaging, campaigns, experiences, content, and other forms of activation. This role is often the connective tissue between senior strategy leadership, client teams, creative and engagement partners, and other collaborators. A strong Associate Director can move between analysis and storytelling, detail and synthesis, confidence and curiosity, while knowing when to take the lead and when to ask for guidance.

(Other duties may be assigned)

• Bring clarity to complex client challenges:
  Develop a strong understanding of the client’s business, audience, category, culture, and competitive context.
• Help translate research, data, stakeholder input, and team discussion into clear strategic implications, choices, and recommendations.

• Own significant strategy work streams or smaller engagements, keeping the work organized, focused, and moving.
• Anticipate risks, gaps, or open questions early, and manage up when guidance, alignment, or a decision is needed.

• Use foundational strategy tools, research inputs, stakeholder interviews, audits, workshops, frameworks, and synthesis to help structure the work and develop stronger recommendations.
• Know when to apply a familiar method, when to adapt the approach, and when to seek guidance from senior strategy leadership.

• Develop trusted working relationships with clients through preparation, responsiveness, judgment, and clear communication.
• Lead client conversations and presentations in a way that invites useful dialogue, manages expectations, and helps move the work forward.

• Turn complex inputs into concise, well-structured deliverables, briefs, narratives, and recommendations.
• Connect strategic thinking to creative and design outcomes, including brand identity, messaging, campaigns, experiences, content, and other forms of activation.

• Partner with Directors, Engagement Leads, and cross-functional partners to keep the work focused, well-organized, and moving against scope, timing, resources, and quality expectations.
• Bring forward ideas, tools, examples, and points of view that improve the work while continuing to build strategic range, rigor, and confidence over time.

• A Bachelor’s degree, or a more advanced degree, with 6-9 years of experience in brand strategy, marketing strategy, communications strategy, customer/audience strategy, consulting, research, or a related discipline.
• Experience developing insights, strategic recommendations, positioning, messaging, creative briefs, experience principles, or other client-ready strategy…