Senior Manager, Strategy

Journey Further; Leeds; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension matched up to 4%

Private medical insurance

Enhanced maternity, paternity & a­d o­

Home working allowance

Job summary

Journey Further in the UK is seeking a Senior Strategist to lead discovery work across search, social, creators, AI and more, using RDS and Salient to map how easily a brand can be found, understood and chosen.

You’ll present to senior marketers, shape new business pitches, mentor junior strategists and collaborate with Marketing Science, Organic, Paid and Creative to translate insights into integrated plans. Leeds salary £56,000–£63,000; Manchester £58,000–£65,000; hybrid/work from home options.

Qualifications

• Strong background in integrated communications and cross-channel media strategy, ideally agency-side.
• Able to turn messy business challenges into clear strategic frameworks.
• Understands discovery across paid, organic and AI surfaces.
• Skilled at reconciling qual, quant, performance, audience and culture insights.
• Proficient with key industry tools for insight and planning.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery work for clients and prospects using RDS and Salient to map brand standing.
• Identify blockers—presence, misreading, or not turning attention into preference—and build plans.
• Translate insights into integrated strategies across search, social, creators, AI and third-party platforms with KPIs.
• Create plans where paid and organic work together with clear channel roles.
• Translate strategy into practical media and comms recommendations considering context and culture.
• Collaborate with Marketing Science, Organic, Paid Media and Creative to ensure plan coherence.
• Track brand discovery over time and adapt plans to build momentum.
• Present to senior marketers, challenge thinking and land recommendations.
• Contribute to new business, shaping pitches and demonstrating Discovery System value.
• Mentor junior strategists and help grow the team.

Skills

Integrated comms

Cross-channel strategy

Agency experience

Strategic storytelling

Job description

Being seen isn’t the same as being discovered. People now move between search, social, creators, marketplaces and AI before they ever choose a brand, and every platform reads the signals differently. Our Strategy team built the Discovery System to make sense of that, and as Senior Strategist you’ll be one of the people putting it to work.

You’ll use the Relative Discovery Score (RDS) and Salient to map how easily a brand can be found, understood and chosen, spot where competitors have the advantage, and turn that into strategies that connect paid, organic and creative into one plan. You’ll take that work in front of senior marketers, win new business with it, and keep it moving long after the pitch. If you never settle for “this is how it’s always been planned”, you’ll fit right in.

What you will do

• Lead discovery work for clients and prospects. Research audiences, categories and competitors, and use RDS and Salient to show where a brand stands today and where its next growth opportunity is.
• Pinpoint what’s holding a brand back. Whether it’s not being present where people look, being misread by people and platforms, or not turning attention into preference, you’ll find the real constraint and build the plan around it.
• Turn insight into integrated strategies across search, social, creators, AI and third-party platforms, with clear KPIs tied to commercial outcomes.
• Build plans where paid and organic work together, not in silos, and make sure every channel has a clear job to do.
• Translate strategy into practical media and comms recommendations that account for context, culture, audience and content.
• Work side by side with Marketing Science, Organic Media, Paid Media and Creative to connect strategy to delivery, and brief and challenge specialists so the plan holds together all the way through activation.
• Track how a brand’s discovery is moving over time, double down on what’s working and keep evolving plans to build momentum before revenue shows up.
• Present to senior marketers with confidence, challenge their thinking and land recommendations that change what they do.
• Play a key part in new business, shaping pitches and showing prospects what the Discovery System could do for them.
• Mentor and develop more junior strategists, and help build a team that’s curious, collaborative and always pushing the work further.

• A strong background in integrated comms and cross-channel media strategy, ideally agency-side.
• You can take a messy business challenge and turn it into a clear strategic framework and a plan people can act on.
• You understand how people discover brands across paid, organic and AI-powered surfaces, and how those touchpoints work together to shift behaviour.
• You’re comfortable pulling together qual, quant, performance, audience and cultural insight, and you know which to trust when they disagree.
• You’re confident with the key industry tools for insight and planning, and keen to get stuck into ours.
• You’ve delivered results in multi-channel environments and can show the commercial impact.
• You understand business models, growth drivers and commercial levers, and can connect marketing activity to measurable outcomes.
• You can brief and challenge channel specialists without losing the room.
• You build trusted relationships with senior clients and aren’t afraid to push back when the evidence says so.
• You’ve coached or mentored other strategists and enjoy helping people grow.

Pension - Matched up to 4%

Health - Private medical insurance

Family - Enhanced maternity, paternity & adoption pay

Flexibility - 25 days annual leave, Christmas shutdown and home working allowance

Salary

Leeds - £56,000 - £63,000

Manchester - £58,000 - £65,000