Full-time, permanent hybrid role in Hamilton, with three days in the office (Tuesday to Thursday) and two days at home

Cubicle Fugitive is looking for a rare kind of brand and marketing strategist: someone who wants to stay in the client work while leading the people who deliver it. We are a boutique brand, marketing, and web agency for professional services and B2B companies: law firms, accounting firms, engineering practices, post-secondary education, non-profits, construction companies, and other expert businesses. Brand and marketing strategy are at the heart of what we do.

Our clients are leading organizations across North America, and you will build the kind of relationships that keep them with us for years. The projects you lead change how these firms are seen, who they attract, and what work they win.

This is a senior role in a small studio, which means you will both do the work and manage a small team to get the best results for our clients.

The Most Important Thing to Know

This is a consulting role first and a management role second. The reason we are hiring at this level is the client work. You'll be sitting with a managing partner or other senior leaders to work out what an organization is actually trying to become, and building the positioning, research, and a plan that gets them there. You'll present it, defend it, and change it when the evidence warrants it.

What You'll Do

• Collaborate with our clients on the projects that matter most to them. This includes brand positioning strategy, client and competitive research, communications strategy and planning, and marketing and business development plans. Our goal is to translate these strategies into visually appealing, functional, and easily searchable websites, campaigns and plans, in close collaboration with our design and development teams. You will conduct stakeholder interviews, perform research, develop insights, and present your findings to firm leadership.
• Lead a small team. You will lead an agile team across website, marketing, communications, and SEO. You set direction, allocate work, help uphold our standards of quality, give honest feedback, and help each of them learn, grow, and get better at their job. You will run their formal reviews, advocate for the training and resources they need, and watch how work is spread so nobody is buried, and nobody is idle.
• Keep a lot of work moving at once. We are a busy company with several clients and several projects, all live at the same time, at different stages and on different clocks. You will help scope and estimate the work, keep it on time and on budget, flag issues while they are still cheap to fix, and make sure clients get what they were promised.
• Direct work you do not do yourself. Design, development, and SEO. You need enough working knowledge to judge whether the work is good, ask the right questions, and push back on our other specialists when something is off.
• Use AI effectively. We expect our strategists to use it for research, first drafts where appropriate, final edits, and analysis, and to know where the output needs a human before it reaches a client. The tools change constantly; good judgment in using them does not.
• Contribute to how we grow. Shape proposals and estimates, spot where an existing client needs more than they have thought to ask for, keep an eye on what competitors are offering, and represent us at industry events and through memberships such as the Legal Marketing Association, which we cover.

What You Bring

Essential

• Seven to ten years in brand, marketing, or communications strategy. Agency, consultancy, or in-house at a professional services firm.
• Strategy you can defend. You do not present opinion as insight. Your recommendations come from research, interviews, competitive analysis, and a clear read of the client's business. When a client challenges you, you can show the reasoning, and you change your position when the evidence warrants it, rather than when the room gets uncomfortable.
• Real critical thinking. You can take the problem a client has described, work out whether it is the actual problem, and say so. You notice what a brief leaves out. You are skeptical of the obvious answer without being contrary for its own sake.
• Smart in the way that counts. We care less about where you studied than about how you work a problem you have not seen before. Resourceful, quick to find what you need, and steady when the path is not laid out for you.
• Genuinely good with people. Most of this job happens in conversation, with clients and with your team. You can sit across from our clients, ask questions that cut through the standard answers, and deliver a recommendation they may not want to hear.
• Organized enough to hold it all. Several clients, several projects, all moving at once. You know what is progressing, what is stalled, and what is about to become a problem, and nobody has to chase you to find out.
• Calm, steady leadership. Client work goes sideways, timelines compress, feedback contradicts itself, and a project reopens after sign-off. Regardless of the situation, we require someone who can juggle multiple priorities while maintaining an even and considered approach to leadership. You have managed or mentored people before, and you can point to someone better at their job because of you.
• Exceptional writing. You can turn a large volume of messy input into clear positioning and clean prose. The job is communicated in writing and in person.
• Working knowledge of the wider mix. Websites, SEO, content, and design. Enough to direct the work credibly, not necessarily to do it.

Considered a Strong Asset

• Experience with professional services firms, particularly law or accounting
• A post-secondary degree in business, marketing, or communications
• Experience representing a firm publicly, at events or through industry associations

How We Work

We are a flat, honest studio where the best idea wins. It is a small firm, so nothing is buried under process, and you will see the effect of your work quickly. Strong opinions and good arguments are welcome; big egos are not. The aim is never to win the room; it is to deliver the best result for the client.

We expect our leaders to set clear direction, develop their people, and maintain high quality while keeping the work enjoyable. There is room to grow as you take on a larger share of the senior strategic client work currently led by the owners.

The day-to-day is friendly and flexible, with good people. There is a health care spending account and an EAP, covered professional memberships including the Legal Marketing Association, team events you will probably enjoy (escape rooms feature heavily), an on-site gym we admire more than we use, and a group chat with more memes and board game talk than anyone asked for.

How to Apply

Applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada. Send your resume, a short note about yourself, and two or three public, redacted, or summarized examples of strategic work you led, with a line on what changed for the client as a result. Please do not share confidential client information.