Group Strategy Director
The Group Strategy Director at 829 Studios serves as the senior strategic leader across a portfolio of high-value client engagements, managing a team of 2–3 Senior Strategists or Strategy Directors while maintaining direct strategic ownership of 2–4 client accounts. This role bridges senior leadership and frontline strategy execution, ensuring consistency in strategic rigor, resource efficiency, and client outcomes across all accounts under their purview.
Beyond individual client delivery, the Group Strategy Director is responsible for strategic process design, resource allocation across their pod, and the professional development of their direct reports. This role demands the ability to operate at both the 30,000-foot level — shaping cross-client patterns, identifying systemic opportunities, and informing agency-wide strategic direction — and in the details of individual account performance, campaign architecture, and client communication.
What You'll Do
- Lead and mentor a team of 2–3 Senior Strategists or Strategy Directors, providing ongoing coaching, performance feedback, and career development guidance to elevate the caliber of strategic output across the pod.
- Own strategic direction and client relationship health for 2–4 key accounts, serving as the senior strategic point of contact for client stakeholders and ensuring alignment between client objectives and 829's capabilities.
- Manage resource allocation and workload balancing across your team, ensuring strategists are effectively deployed against client priorities without overextension or underutilization.
- Define and refine strategic processes, frameworks, and templates that create repeatable excellence across the strategy function, reducing ramp time on new accounts and improving deliverable consistency.
- Provide strategic leadership to cross-functional account teams, orchestrating integrated solutions across design, digital marketing, and analytics while ensuring high-quality deliverables are presented to clients with the support of Account Managers and your direct reports.
- Develop comprehensive creative briefs that encapsulate key insights and messaging themes, serving as a source of inspiration for the team, and coach direct reports to do the same at a consistently high standard.
- Lead and oversee research and analytics initiatives (e.g., stakeholder interviews, process documentation, competitive audits) to deeply understand client strategies, market dynamics, and organizational strengths across your portfolio.
- Define and track critical performance indicators at both the account and pod level, offering actionable insights to drive success and surfacing cross-client trends to senior leadership.
- Translate complex data and findings into persuasive narratives tailored for C-level executives and key decision-makers, and ensure your team can do the same independently.
- Design and facilitate dynamic digital client workshops, encouraging innovative solutions to complex business problems, and serve as a quality control checkpoint for workshops led by your direct reports.
- Serve as a strategic practice leader, enhancing the agency's strategic capabilities, defining executional requirements, and contributing to the evolution of 829's strategic service offerings.
- Innovate and productize 829's strategic services, continuously seeking opportunities to add value to client relationships and identifying scalable approaches that can be deployed across multiple accounts.
- Actively contribute to business development, evaluating and auditing new business prospects, validating project scopes, and participating in pitches as the senior strategic voice.
- Collaborate closely with the sales and marketing teams to assist with sales engineering efforts, providing strategic credibility and thought leadership during the prospect lifecycle.
- Conduct strategic onboardings for key clients, ensuring a seamless transition from sales to marketing and establishing the strategic foundation that your team will execute against.
- Manage escalation pathways for strategic disagreements or client concerns within your pod, resolving issues before they require senior leadership intervention.
- Remain abreast of emerging digital trends to continually refine strategies and infuse fresh, innovative ideas into client projects, internal team dynamics, and the professional growth of your direct reports.
- 12+ years extensive experience in digital marketing, with a proven track record in a senior strategic leadership role, including direct management of strategists or strategy teams.
- Demonstrated ability in leading, mentoring, and developing teams of mid-to-senior strategists to deliver high-impact marketing solutions at scale.
- Strong analytical skills with an aptitude for translating complex data into actionable strategies across multiple accounts simultaneously.
- Exceptional communication skills, capable of engaging effectively with C-level executives and navigating nuanced client dynamics across a multi-account portfolio.
- Proficient in navigating multi-disciplinary marketing channels and tools with the ability to identify cross-client patterns and opportunities.
- Advanced understanding of customer segmentation, market analysis, and brand positioning, with the ability to coach others in applying these disciplines.
- Creative and innovative thinker, with a flair for identifying emerging trends and integrating them into strategies at both the account and agency level.
- Experience in conducting and leading high-level workshops and presentations, and in coaching others to do the same.
- Strong business acumen, with an ability to identify and seize new business opportunities, inform pricing and scoping decisions, and contribute to revenue growth.
- Proven experience in resource planning, workload management, and process optimization within a services or agency environment.
- Adept at building and maintaining strong client relationships across a portfolio while ensuring team members develop their own client management capabilities.
Benefits and Perks We Provide
- Remote Workplace. You have the option to work at our office in Boston or remotely in one of these states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, ID, IL, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, SC, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VA.
- Paid Time Off. Receive generous paid vacation benefits that increase each year you’re with us, 12 Company Holidays, and Summer Fridays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
- 401K + Match. 401K plan with 4% Safe Harbor employer match after one year of employment and financial literacy services provided through our retirement provider.
- Life Insurance Benefit. No-cost coverage to ensure peace of mind for your family.
- Short Term Disability Benefit. We've got you covered if you need to be OOO with an illness or injury that keeps you out of work.
- Healthcare. Choose from several competitive healthcare plans for you and your family with 80% employer coverage for all medical and dental premiums, 100% employer coverage for vision, and the option to participate in the FSA program.
- Commuter Benefits. Allocate pre-tax funds towards your commute to save up to 40% per year in transportation expenses.
- Continuing Education. Access to monthly team-led webinars, exclusive 829-cohort based learning, digital course platforms, and funding opportunities to attend national conferences and events.
What We Believe
At 829 Studios, we boldly embrace diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity. Our goal: a team rich in backgrounds, perspectives, and talents. Why? Because inclusivity powers our brilliance and client success. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer that is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, religion, creed, color, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, mental illness, age, ancestry, genetic information, military service, or any other status protected under applicable federal, state, or local laws.
Who We Are
829 Studios is a Boston-based integrated digital marketing agency with a mission to propel organizations to unlock their full potential and accomplish their most ambitious goals. We harness the power of logic with magic – a balance of data-driven strategy and brand-focused creative. We partner with diverse organizations across various industries and our client list encompasses venture-backed start-ups, publicly traded companies, non-profits, and more. By committing not only to our growth as a company, but the development of our employees and teams’, we have created a collaborative environment that fosters ingenuity and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging values within our community. 829 has been recognized as one of the nation’s top agencies by the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies, Adweek 100 Fastest-Growing Digital Agencies, Boston Business Journal's Fast 50 (Massachusetts' 50 Fastest-Growing Private Companies), HubSpot's Top Digital Agencies list, and a we are and employee-certified Great Place to Work.
Salary Range: $135,000 - $150,000
We determine compensation based on experience, demonstrated skills, and current market conditions at the time of hire to ensure fairness and consistency across roles. Actual compensation will depend on experience and may be adjusted based on skills, qualifications, and alignment with the scope and impact of the role.