Associate Director Strategy

Who We Are

VML is a global creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce to create connected brands that drive growth. Guided by a Human First philosophy, VML is known for its innovative work for brands and consistently ranks among the world’s leading creative companies, including the WARC Creative 100. VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.

VML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.

For more information, please visit  and follow along on Linked In #WeAreVML.

Who we are looking for: VML is seeking an Associate Director, Growth Strategy to lead the interrogation of data to fuel strategy, insights and direction for our clients. You are an experienced people leader and a senior "strategic analytics voice" within the agency, orchestrating the daily strategic output for assigned accounts. Working in close collaboration with Strategy, Client Engagement, Creative, and Media teams, you will provide a consultative perspective on brand objectives, identifying growth opportunities and translating consumer and shopper insights into actionable strategy.

Strategic Product

• Growth Mining & Consulting:
• Interrogate and connect disparate data sets - including first party client data, shopper panels, and retailer-specific platforms - to uncover core business problems and identify emergent growth opportunities in partnership with senior leadership.
• Strategic Craft & Storytelling:
• Translate disparate data sets and complex insights into clear, compelling, and actionable storylines. Focus on identifying the "Why" behind the data to inform communications and retail initiatives, and actionable "jobs to be done" for brands, retailers and key channels.
• Opportunity Sizing:
• Size a brand's market opportunity based on client briefs and objectives, providing data-driven estimations and "Growth Mining" outputs.
• Audience Intelligence:
• Support audience growth strategy by leveraging data sources (MRI Simmons, Circana, Numerator) to develop comprehensive audience personas that contextualize consumer behavior and inform strategic planning.
• Strategic Contribution:
• Support the deep-dive into Business (problems to solve), Culture (emergent trends), and Human (behaviors and barriers) to identify clear opportunities for growth.
• AI Engineering & Prompting:
• Integrate VML and WPP Open’s proprietary AI tools and emerging technologies into the strategic workflow to increase speed-to-insight and creative innovation.
• Research Tools & Strategic Intelligence:
• Conduct thorough market research and competitive audits using database tools such as MRI Simmons, Mintel, Infegy, and YPulse to identify trends and potential threats.
• Leverage sales and shopper panel data (e.g., Circana, Nielsen, or Numerator) to uncover core business problems and size market opportunities.
• Execute detailed competitive analysis to understand gaps in strategy and performance versus the competition.
• Support broader regional or global strategic asks, ensuring consistency in strategic analytics methodology and approach across diverse markets.
• Awards & Recognition:
• Identify and draft compelling case studies for industry awards (e.g., Effies, WARC, Cannes Lions) to showcase the agency’s best-in-class work and the impact and effectiveness for our clients.

Strategic Process

• Business Development Contribution:
• Identify and communicate opportunities to grow client business, contributing to the…