Director, Brand Strategy

Relay; Toronto; On-site; CAD 194,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

Relay, a digital banking platform for small business owners, seeks a Director, Brand Strategy to steer brand vision and integrated marketing across social, influencer, and content channels. You will partner with the Creative Director to unify campaigns and ensure timely delivery that outperforms prior results.

You bring end-to-end marketing leadership, numerical fluency, and a bias for action. You will define strategy, develop briefs, measure brand health, and lead a small team to drive

Qualifications

• End-to-end integrated marketer with strong opinions on priorities and cuts.
• Numerically fluent and able to interrogate channel metrics critically.
• Assertive and process-oriented, able to enforce marketing workflows across teams.
• Proven ability to align stakeholders around a single plan beyond direct reports.
• Strong brand judgment and creative sensibility with execution discipline.
• Energized by ambiguity, change, and applying AI to work.

Responsibilities

• Drive integrated marketing across the team with a clear, sequenced plan.
• Oversee events, social, content, and influencer channels with strong creative.
• Set campaign strategy and author briefs aligning stakeholders early.
• Own the brand's evidence base: research, competitive analysis, and tracking.
• Measure brand health: awareness, brand lift, share of voice, campaign effectiveness.
• Define category framing, audience segmentation, and competitive context.
• Steward brand governance and assess partnership fit.
• Lead three managers and about seven people, remaining hands-on when needed.

Job description

Relay is a digital banking platform that gives self-made business owners the tools and know-how to be great with money—bringing clarity, confidence, and control to every dollar earned, so they can turn hard work into lasting success. We do this by replacing financial guesswork with real visibility, transforming cash flow from a constant source of stress into a clear signal owners can use to run stronger, more resilient businesses.

We are looking for a Director, Brand Strategy to own brand strategy and the channels that take our work to market (social, influencer, and content) plus the integrated-marketing function that keeps every campaign coordinated. You will partner closely with our Creative Director. Your mission is to make Relay's marketing run as one integrated system: on strategy, on time, and performing better than it ever has.

What You'll Be Doing

• Drive integrated marketing across the team. Turn competing priorities into one clear, sequenced plan so every person knows what to work on when they sit down in the morning. Success looks like campaigns shipping on schedule and no longer getting reshuffled mid-flight.

• Oversee Relay’s events, social, content, and influencer channels. Build systems that increase throughput and hit targets while raising the bar on differentiated, remarkable creative.

• Set campaign strategy and author the creative briefs: campaign-level positioning, success criteria, and the brief that the studio executes against. Ensure every brief aligns stakeholders early and translates strategy into clear, actionable direction for the studio.

• Own the brand's evidence base: customer research, competitive analysis, and brand tracking. Research and message testing are co-designed with the CD.

• Measure brand health: awareness tracking, brand lift, share of voice, and campaign effectiveness.

• Define category framing, competitive context, and audience definition and segmentation.

• Steward brand governance as policy and assess partnership fit.

• Lead three managers (content and social, influencer, integrated marketing) and about seven people total, staying close enough to the craft to jump in when a channel needs it.

Who You Are

• An end-to-end integrated marketer: you've built and run campaigns from strategy through execution, and you hold strong opinions about what to prioritize and what to cut.

• Numerically fluent: you can interrogate a channel metric like influencer performance, stay skeptical, and see what a number is not telling you.

• Assertive and process-oriented, with a demonstrated ability to implement and enforce marketing workflows across cross-functional teams while maintaining strong working relationships.

• Proven ability to align stakeholders with competing priorities around a single plan, exercising influence well beyond direct reporting lines.

• Strong brand judgment and creative sensibility, combined with the operational rigor to translate strategy into consistent execution.

• Energized by ambiguity and change, and curious about applying AI across your work.

The Interview Process

• Stage 1: A 45-minute Google Meet video call with a member of our Talent team

• Stage 2: A 60-minute Google Meet video call with the Hiring Manager

• Stage 3: A 60-minute working session with the hiring team

• Stage 4: A 45-minute Google Meet video call with a member of our leadership team

Our Compensation Approach

We believe Relayers should feel rewarded for the impact they have on our mission and growth. Compensation follows impact. As impact increases, compensation grows, and we do not limit compensation changes to a once-a-year review cycle.

The annual salary range for this role is $193,500 CAD to $236,500 CAD.

For candidates who demonstrate full readiness for the defined scope of the role, the typical starting salary is $215,000 CAD. Offers below this point reflect candidates we believe can grow into the full scope of the role with support and development. Offers above this point reflect impact that meaningfully exceeds the role’s defined expectations or an expanded scope from day one.

We encourage you to have a conversation with your recruiter and ask questions about compensation throughout the hiring process. For more information on our compensation philosophy and perks and benefits, visit our Candidate Hub.

Why Relay Might Be the Perfect Fit For You

• You push relentlessly for reinvention: You're always asking "how can this be better?" -- in your work, in your craft, in yourself. Comfort is a signal to push harder, not coast. You'd rather build something better than defend something familiar.

• You crave autonomy: We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you’re someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you’ll find the freedom here empowering.

• You own your work: You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.

• You build with AI, not just use it: You're actively embedding AI into how you work, pushing what's possible, and bringing your team along with you.

• You care about impact, not noise: You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition, and you let your work speak for itself.

• You’re energized by complexity and ambiguity: You enjoy tackling problems that don’t come with a playbook. You’re comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward.

• You seek out feedback: You see directness as respect, not criticism. You actively seek input, sit with hard truths and use feedback as fuel for improvement.

• Small businesses are why we're here: Relay exists to help them thrive -- and that mission has to resonate with you.

Join Us

We're looking for people who are relentless, curious, and care deeply about the work. We welcome diverse backgrounds and people who think critically, challenge the status quo, and want to help small businesses thrive.

If you require accommodations at any stage of the hiring process, please reach out to your Talent Partner.

Disclaimer: For compliance reasons, all offers of employment at Relay are conditional upon a successful background check and employment verification through Certn.