Job Description:Role Summary The VP, Strategy will serve as an autonomous, client-facing strategic lead, with a particular focus on complex B2B and financial services audiences.
This role is responsible for leading day-to-day strategy across high-priority campaigns and workstreams, translating business and audience understanding into clear strategic narratives, communications frameworks, media briefs, thought leadership, and client-ready recommendations. The VP will partner closely with the SVP Strategy lead, Planning, Activation, Analytics, Client Solutions & Planning, and cross-functional agency teams to ensure strategic quality, continuity, and consistency across a complex multi-LOB account.
The ideal candidate is a senior strategist who can operate independently, build credibility with clients, bring sharp perspective to ambiguous business challenges, and elevate the quality of strategic work across both campaign and account-level initiatives.
Key Responsibilities Client & Strategic Leadership - Serve as the primary day-to-day strategic point of contact for several lines of business, especially those requiring senior-level strategic coverage and continuity.
- Lead client engagements independently, with the ability to guide strategic discussions, frame business challenges, and translate client needs into clear strategic direction.
- Build trusted relationships with client stakeholders and internal agency partners by bringing a proactive, informed, and commercially relevant strategic perspective.
- Maintain a strong understanding of the client's businesses, audiences, competitive landscape, business priorities, and category dynamics.
Campaign Strategy - Lead strategy development for campaigns across assigned lines of business.
- Develop strategic narratives, communications frameworks, audience inputs, media briefs, and strategic recommendations that guide tactical planning and activation.
- Ensure campaign strategy is grounded in audience, competitive, category, company, and cultural insight.
- Partner with Planning and Activation teams to ensure tactical recommendations are aligned to the approved strategic direction.
- Review and elevate strategic deliverables before they are shared with clients.
Thought Leadership & POV Development - Drive LOB-specific thought leadership, trend POVs, and proactive strategic outreach.
- Translate marketplace shifts, audience behaviors, competitive activity, media innovation, and category trends into actionable implications.
- Bring a distinctive and informed point of view that provides value beyond campaign deliverables.
- Contribute to broader account-level thought leadership, QBRs, executive deliverables, and proactive growth opportunities in partnership with the SVP Strategy lead.
Workshops, Briefings & Ideation - Design and lead strategic workshops, briefing sessions, ideation exercises, and client working sessions.
- Facilitate cross-functional collaboration across Strategy, Planning, Activation, Analytics, Creative, and other dentsu capabilities.
- Help teams move from brief to insight to communications framework to actionable media strategy.
- Represent the strategy discipline in key client and internal forums.
Team Leadership & Development - Provide day-to-day strategic direction to Associate Director-level strategy talent.
- Review, sharpen, and elevate junior team output before it reaches clients or senior stakeholders.
- Act as a development partner for junior talent, helping build strategic judgment, storytelling, insight development, and client-readiness.
- Help establish standards for strategic quality, rigor, and consistency across the strategy team.
Cross-LOB Contribution & Account Growth - Support cross-LOB initiatives when capacity allows, helping identify patterns, opportunities, and strategic implications.
- Contribute to QBRs, executive presentations, proactive POVs, and strategic growth initiatives in partnership with the SVP Strategy lead.
- Help surface organic growth opportunities by identifying where dentsu can provide added strategic value.
- Partner with account leadership to ensure strategic work is appropriately prioritized against business impact, scope, and team capacity.
Strategic Continuity & Operational Partnership - Help maintain momentum across active strategic workstreams by keeping deliverables moving and ensuring strategic decisions are documented and carried forward.
- Proactively flag capacity concerns, prioritization conflicts, or scope pressures that may impact strategic quality or delivery.
- Partner with internal teams to create clarity around roles, responsibilities, timelines, and expected outputs.
Qualifications Experience - 12+ years of experience in media strategy, communications strategy, brand strategy, integrated planning, or a related strategic discipline.
- Strong experience working on complex, multi-stakeholder accounts; financial services, B2B, enterprise, or highly regulated category experience strongly preferred.
- Proven ability to independently lead client-facing strategic workstreams and senior-level client conversations.
- Experience developing campaign strategies, communications frameworks, audience strategies, media briefs, thought leadership, and executive-ready strategic narratives.
- Demonstrated ability to translate audience, competitive, cultural, category, and business inputs into clear strategic recommendations.
Skills & Capabilities - Strong strategic thinking and ability to create clarity from ambiguity.
- Excellent storytelling, writing, presentation, and executive communication skills.
- Deep understanding of media strategy and how strategic direction translates into channel planning, activation, measurement, and optimization.
- Strong client relationship skills, with the ability to build trust and credibility across senior stakeholders.
- Ability to lead workshops, facilitate cross-functional discussions, and guide teams toward aligned recommendations.
- Strong understanding of research, audience insight, competitive intelligence, and strategic planning tools.
- Ability to balance strategic ambition with practical delivery realities, including scope, timing, staffing, and client priorities.
- Collaborative leadership style with the ability to mentor, coach, and elevate junior talent.
Education - Bachelor's degree required.
- Advanced degree or equivalent experience in marketing, communications, business, strategy, or related field preferred.
Candidate Profile We are looking for a senior strategist who is equal parts strategic partner, client lead, storyteller, and team developer. This person should be comfortable operating in a complex, fast-moving account environment and able to bring structure, perspective, and momentum to ambiguous business challenges.
The right candidate will be confident leading senior client conversations, skilled at turning inputs into clear strategic direction, and energized by the opportunity to help shape strategic excellence on one of dentsu's largest and most complex financial services accounts.
Additional InformationAt dentsu, we believe great work happens when we're connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.
The annual base salary range for this position is $164,450 - $220,000. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.
Benefits available with this position include:
• Medical, vision, and dental insurance,
• Life insurance,
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance,
• 401k,
• Flexible paid time off,
• At least 15 paid holidays per year,
• Paid sick and safe leave, and
• Paid parental leave.
Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies. For more information regarding dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.
To begin the application process, please click on the "Apply" button at the top of this job posting. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps.
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Location:New York
Brand:Dentsu X
Time Type:Full time
Contract Type:Permanent
