Senior Strategist

DNA Recruit; Bedford; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

DNA Recruit is partnering with a fast-growing B2B agency operating in the Away From Home market. They seek a Senior Strategist to turn messy evidence into a clear commercial answer, primarily in the UK with growing US and European work.

You will report to the Strategy Director and lead defined workstreams, expanding to broader client strategy as you gain experience. A background in insight, strategy or related roles is ideal.

Qualifications

• Around 6 to 10 years’ experience in insight, category, customer, commercial or strategy roles.
• Away From Home, foodservice, hospitality, food and drink or FMCG background welcomed, agency/consultancy backgrounds also considered.

Responsibilities

• Market, consumer and operator intelligence: source, interrogate and pull together market, category, channel, customer, operator and competitor intelligence; spot patterns and shifts; translate evidence into implications and recommendations.
• Growth opportunity and proposition: identify, size and prioritise growth opportunities; contribute to segmentation, category, menu, occasion and portfolio strategy; support proposition and positioning work; turn insight into where-to-play and how-to-win recommendations.
• Go-to-market: turn growth opportunities into go-to-market recommendations; define priority accounts and operator audiences; contribute to customer propositions, B2B sales stories and sales enablement; support ABM, CRM, nurture and demand generation thinking; contribute to new business pitches.
• You’ll be able to show that you can interrogate complex market, category, customer or commercial information; turn evidence into clear recommendations; identify and prioritise growth opportunities; own defined strategic workstreams; build persuasive presentations for senior stakeholders.

Job description

I'm working with a fast-growing, award-winning B2B agency that knows the Away From Home market inside out. They've just put their first people on the ground in the US, where they're winning bigger budgets and more work from existing clients.

That growth means the strategy team is expanding, and they need a Senior Strategist who can take messy, incomplete evidence and turn it into a clear commercial answer.

Their clients are food and drink brands selling into foodservice and hospitality. That means manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and front-of-house and back-of-house brands. The core of the work is UK, with growing projects across the US and Europe.

This isn't a pure research job, and it isn't brand or creative planning. It's insight with a point of view. You'll work out what's happening, what matters, where the opportunity is and what the client should do next.

You'll report to the Strategy Director and lead defined workstreams yourself. As your experience grows, you'll take on more of the wider client strategy.

What you'll be doing

Market, consumer and operator intelligence

• Sourcing, interrogating and pulling together market, category, channel, customer, operator and competitor intelligence
• Spotting patterns, shifts and emerging opportunities
• Turning quantitative and qualitative evidence into clear implications and recommendations

Growth opportunity and proposition

• Identifying, sizing and prioritising growth opportunities across markets, channels, customers and operator segments
• Contributing to segmentation, category, menu, occasion and portfolio strategy
• Supporting proposition and positioning work that's grounded in evidence
• Turning insight into clear where-to-play and how-to-win recommendations

Go-to-market

• Helping turn growth opportunities into go-to-market recommendations
• Supporting route-to-market and customer strategy, and defining priority accounts and operator audiences
• Contributing to customer propositions, B2B sales stories and sales enablement
• Supporting ABM, CRM, nurture and demand generation thinking where it's relevant
• Bringing strategic thinking to the agency's own new business pitches

Who this suits

You’ll have around 6 to 10 years’ experience in insight, category, customer, commercial or strategy roles. Away From Home, foodservice, hospitality, food and drink or FMCG is ideal, but agency and consultancy backgrounds are just as welcome.

You’ll have a strong core in at least one of these:

• Category or customer strategy
• Commercial or growth strategy
• Research or strategy consultancy
• Agency strategy with a strong analytical bias

They don't expect you to be an expert in every area. If your background is deep in one and you want to broaden into the others, that's fine. Analytical strength, commercial judgement and the appetite to learn matter more to them than a perfectly matched CV.

You’ll be able to show that you can:

• Interrogate complex market, category, customer or commercial information
• Turn evidence into clear recommendations
• Identify and prioritise growth opportunities
• Own defined strategic workstreams
• Build persuasive presentations for senior stakeholders

Experience in segmentation, opportunity sizing, proposition development, go-to-market or B2B customer strategy is a real plus.

Current job titles might include Strategy Manager, Customer Strategy Manager, Category Strategy Manager, Senior Insight Manager, Commercial Strategy Manager or Growth Strategy Manager. Titles vary, so if the work sounds like you, get in touch.