Job Title

Strategic Planner / Brand Strategist (3+ years)A warning disguised as an opportunityThis is a job for someone who enjoys the uncomfortable bit in the middle-the gap between “weneed a strategy deck by Friday” and the far more interesting question: what should we do thatwill actually change behaviour?If you believe humans are mostly rational, this role will irritate you. If you believe humans arepredictably irrational, and that brands are largely a set of mental shortcuts people use to makelife easier, you’ll feel oddly at home.This is not a “make it sound clever” strategy role. This is a “make it work” strategy role.What you’ll actually do1) Find the lever, not the lecture● Hunt for the small, non-obvious variable that changes outcomes disproportionately.● Replace pious category clichés with a sharper diagnosis of what’s really going on.● Use research like a burglar uses a torch: to find what matters, not to admire the furniture.2) Turn mess into meaning (and meaning into action)● Build positioning, propositions, messaging systems, and brand voice that don’t collapsethe moment someone asks, “Yes, but why would anyone care?”● Translate business constraints into strategic advantage (price, distribution, attention,trust, habit).● Make choices. Strategy is mostly saying “no” convincingly.3) Write briefs that produce work, not presentations● Create single-minded briefs that creatives can run with without needing a séance.● Define the audience, the behaviour to shift, and the reason people will actually do it.● Protect the spine of the idea while improving the surface of the execution.4) Be the person in the room who improves the room● Assist workshops and interviews that create decisions● Present a point of view that’s legible, defensible, and commercially useful.● Separate “I don’t like it” from “it won’t work”-politely, but firmly.5) Operate like an adult● Handle multiple categories and problem types without panicking.● Work fast without producing fast-food thinking.● Use tools (including AI) to accelerate the boring parts so you can spend time on theinteresting ones.What we’re looking for● 3+ years in strategy/planning or not (you don’t need to be a planner, but if you are notyou will need to demonstrate tremendous aptitude and show some work (agency,consulting, or in-house-so long as the work is real).● You can write. Not “long”, not “loud” but clear.● You can think in systems: behaviour, incentives, memory, context, attention.● You don’t hide behind frameworks; you use them to make decisions.● You’re comfortable being disagreed with, and you can disagree without beingunpleasant.● You have taste. You can smell generic strategy from three rooms away.What success looks likeFirst 30 daysYou ship something solid quickly-research to POV to brief-without turning it into a PhD.By 60–90 daysYou can understand business problems, find the lever, build the story, brief the work, help itland.What you get● Proximity to real decisions and outcomes, not just recommendation theatrics● Range across categories and problem types.● Autonomy-paired with the mild terror that comes with it.