Social Strategy Director

Influential; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work Your World

Publicis Liberté flexibility

Wellness programs

Learning & development

Job summary

Influential, part of Publicis Groupe, Sydney, is seeking a Social Strategy Director to set the strategic direction for social-first thinking across key clients. You will partner with social, influencer, creative, media and client leadership to shape responses and elevate outcomes.

This senior role requires confident communication, stakeholder management and the ability to translate cultural insights into actionable strategic direction, mentoring the team and leading multiple client streams.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in social, influencer, and digital strategy.
• Proven ability to lead senior client conversations.
• Strong presentation and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Set and lead the strategic direction for social and influencer work.
• Mentor strategists and cross-functional teams.
• Drive growth opportunities and client expansion.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to deliver distinctive work.

Skills

Social strategy

Influencer marketing

Agency experience

Stakeholder management

Job description

Publicis Groupe is a world leader in marketing, communications, and digital business transformation, driven through the alchemy of data, creativity, media, and technology. Our connected platform of companies and capabilities is more than an operational framework. It’s a cultural model we've built to unite our people in a collaborative way of thinking and working. Publicis Groupe offers its clients seamless access to the expertise of its 80,000+ talents across 100+ countries globally.

In Australia, our powerhouse of marketing capabilities stretches across creative agencies (Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide), media agencies (Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry), Razorfish, Digitas, Epsilon, Arc, Prodigious, PMX, and Herd MSL. We also have Publicis Sapient driving digital business transformation for our clients.

Our agency, Influential, is part of Publicis Groupe, adding to the depth and range of capabilities across the Groupe. We’re an end-to-end Social & Influencer agency that brings the best of creative and media expertise, with a deep understanding of the social landscape to craft ideas that connect brands with culture.

The Role:

We are looking for a culturally plugged-in, commercially minded and strategically influential Social Strategy Director to join our dynamic team of Thinkers & Makers at Influential. In this role, you’ll set the strategic direction for social-first thinking across key clients and new business opportunities, turning audience behaviour, platform intelligence, creator culture and cultural insight into sharp, compelling strategies that drive brand relevance, business impact and measurable growth.

You will partner closely with senior social, influencer, creative, media, data and client leadership teams to shape strategic responses, lead content and channel frameworks, guide always-on social thinking, and elevate the quality of strategic output across the agency. You’ll be responsible for building persuasive narratives, identifying growth opportunities, strengthening senior client relationships and ensuring our work connects brands with culture in ways that are distinctive, effective and commercially valuable.

This is a senior leadership role, so we’ll be looking for confident communication, strong stakeholder management, high-quality presentation skills and the ability to translate complex social, cultural and commercial challenges into simple, inspiring and actionable strategic direction. You should be comfortable leading multiple clients, senior stakeholder conversations, briefs and workstreams, while mentoring strategists and broader agency teams to deliver stronger, more connected social and influencer thinking.

General Responsibilities:

• Set and lead the strategic direction for social and influencer across priority clients, campaigns, always-on programs and new business responses.
• Raise the strategic standard for the agency by shaping clear, insight-led narratives that connect audience, culture, platform behaviour and brand ambition.
• Partner with senior client, creative, media, influencer and production leads to ensure social strategy translates into distinctive, effective and executable work.
• Lead, mentor and develop strategists and broader team members, building confidence, strategic rigour and stronger social-first thinking across the business.
• Drive growth by identifying strategic opportunities within existing clients and contributing senior strategic leadership to new business pitches and proactive opportunities.
• Work with agency leadership to ensure strategic recommendations support commercial objectives, project scope, resourcing, profitability and long-term client growth.
• Represent and champion Influential’s social and influencer capability across Publicis Groupe, helping integrate with media, creative, data and production teams to deliver holistic brand experiences.

We are looking for someone who has:

• Extensive experience in social, influencer, creative, media or digital strategy, ideally within an agency environment.
• A strong track record setting strategic direction for major brands, campaigns, retained clients and new business opportunities.
• Proven ability to lead senior client conversations, shape strategic direction and influence stakeholders across multiple disciplines.
• Experience leading, mentoring or managing strategists, social specialists or cross-functional teams to improve the quality of strategic thinking and output.

With a proven understanding of:

• The social, influencer and creator landscape, including platform behaviours, audience motivations, cultural trends and how brands can earn attention in social spaces.
• How to turn research, data, cultural insight and business challenges into compelling strategic platforms, content territories, channel recommendations and creative springboards.
• How paid, owned, earned and influencer activity work together to create connected social ecosystems and measurable brand impact.
• How to build strong case studies, effectiveness narratives and strategic credentials that demonstrate capability and support client growth.
• Strong people leadership, stakeholder management and presentation skills, with the confidence to guide senior clients, internal teams and cross-agency partners.
• Commercial awareness, including how strategy supports scope, revenue, profitability, resourcing decisions and long-term agency growth.

What we will offer you:

Be a part of the Publicis Groupe family, one of the world’s most progressive and dynamic modern communications businesses. Enjoy all the perks that come with our network offering:

• Work with a diverse team where we value all the benefits of harnessing differences for our people, our clients, and our business.
• A committed Diversity and Inclusion and Belonging strategy driven through our Viva!
• Work Your World program enabling employees the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world for up to 6 weeks per year.
• A creative, fun, and rewarding office environment backed up by our Publicis Liberté flexibility approach “working your way, with us!”
• Access to employee benefits including – wellness programmes, learning and development opportunities, network events.
• Confidential 24-hour support via our employee assistance programme