GROUP DIRECTOR, BRAND & DEMAND STRATEGY

The Role in One Sentence

Own the strategic thesis for every new client engagement at Directive — the why and the how behind how we’re going to hit the client’s actual business goals — and use that thesis to drive pilot-to-retainer conversion across our Performance, Communications, and Commerce divisions.

Why This Role Exists

Directive runs a 90-day pilot model. If a client converts out of the pilot, the contract renews for 12 months. The single highest-leverage point in the entire client lifecycle is the strategy set in the first 30 days of that pilot — because a coherent, business-grounded strategy is what determines whether the pilot delivers results worth renewing on.

Today, our CEO personally serves this function for new engagements. It is the highest-ROI activity in the business and it is not scalable through him alone. We are hiring one senior, deeply consultative strategist to take this over.

This role is not about adding more strategy headcount. It is about investing in a single person with the range, judgment, and subject-matter depth to set the strategic direction across every new engagement, regardless of vertical (Services, Industrial, B2B Commerce) or service line (Paid Media, Paid Social, SEO, Content, LLM/AI search, Creative, Programmatic, Comms, RevOps).

What You’ll Own

1. The first-30-days strategic thesis for every new engagement.

For each new client, you will diagnose the business, define the strategy, sequence the work, and align the channel teams on a coherent integrated plan that ties directly to the client’s commercial outcomes. You set the direction. The strategists and account teams execute it.

2. Pilot-to-retainer conversion rate.

Your primary business metric is the percentage of 90-day pilots that convert into 12-month retainers. The thesis you set in the first 30 days is the leading indicator of that conversion. You own this number.

3. Cross-capability strategic coherence.

Most agencies have channel strategists who optimize within their lane. You operate above the lanes. You decide where Paid, SEO, Content, Creative, Programmatic, RevOps, and Comms each fit (or don’t fit) for a given client, and how they sequence and reinforce each other. You are the integrator.

4. Internal consultative partnership with channel SMEs.

You will work directly with our subject matter experts across every capability — Paid Media, Paid Social, SEO, Content, LLM/AI search, Creative, Programmatic, RevOps, Comms — to pressure-test your thesis against what’s actually executable and what will actually move the client’s business. You don’t need to out-execute them. You need to out-think them on the integrated picture and earn their trust as the person who sets the why and the how.

What You Will Not Do

This is unusual to spell out, but it matters for attracting the right person:

– You are not client-facing. Account Directors and the Client Strategy team own client relationships. You do not pitch the strategy to the client, present in QBRs, or sit in client calls as a default. (Exceptions exist for high-stakes accounts where your presence adds clear value, but it is not the job.)

– You do not produce deliverables. You do not build the decks, run the audits, write the briefs, or own the workback. The channel teams and account strategists do. You set direction and pressure-test the work.

– You do not manage channel strategists day-to-day. They report into their service line leads. You influence through the quality of your thinking, not through reporting authority.

This is a true consultative role. You are the architect, not the contractor. If you are looking for a role where you run a team, present to clients, and own a P&L, this is not it. If you are looking for the highest-leverage thinking job in a growing B2B agency, it is.

The First 90 Days

You will shadow our CEO, who currently performs this function, across every new engagement that starts in your first 90 days. The intent is direct knowledge transfer: how he diagnoses a client’s business, how he decides which capabilities matter and which don’t, how he sequences the work, and how he sets the bar for what “good strategy” means at Directive.

Who You Are

The non-negotiables:

– 10+ years in agency or in-house B2B marketing, with at least the last 5 years in a senior strategy role spanning both brand/communications and performance/demand. You are equally fluent in narrative architecture and in CAC/LTV math, and you do not treat one as more serious than the other.

– Demonstrated technical fluency across at least four of: Paid Search, Paid Social, SEO, Content, LLM/AI search, Creative, Programmatic, Lifecycle, RevOps. You don’t need to be the best in the room at any one of them — you do need to be credible enough that the SME in each room respects your point of view.

– A track record of setting strategy for B2B clients across multiple verticals — ideally including some mix of services, in