Senior Strategist

Shaped By Ltd; West of England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday + Christmas + Bank/HOL

£500 annual training budget

Paid Birthday Off

Group Life & Health Cash Plan

Annual Profit Share

Cycle-to-Work / Tech Schemes

Culture days, charity days, off-site

Job summary

Shaped By Ltd. seeks a Senior Strategist to lead brand strategy for growth-stage B2B tech companies, often with US-headquartered roots.

You’ll own engagements from diagnostic conversations through to creative execution, collaborating with Strategy Director and design teams to ensure the strategy informs identity and campaigns. You’ll run discovery, synthesize findings, and write briefs that guide creative work.

Qualifications

• Five+ years in strategy, mainly brand consultancy or brand/design studio.
• Portfolio of positioning, brand architecture and brand platform work.
• Strong design literacy; can brief design teams and evaluate identity routes.
• Experience briefing senior clients and handling pushback with clarity.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end brand strategy engagements for growth-stage B2B tech clients.
• Plan and run discovery interviews, workshops and desk research.
• Write briefs and stay close through concept development to ensure strategy lands in campaigns.
• Present strategy to founders, CMOs, and heads of brand; set objectives and measures.

Skills

Brand strategy

Client leadership

Research & insights

AI in practice

Job description

Context

Strategy is a growing part of how we work with clients, and we're building the team around it. We're adding a Senior Strategist to lead focused engagements of their own and to be a core part of the strategy team on our largest accounts. It's a chance to help shape how the strategy practice works as it grows.

The role

As Senior Strategist you will lead brand strategy for growth-stage B2B tech companies, from Series A to pre-IPO, most of them US-headquartered and in categories where trust is hard to earn. You'll lead focused engagements yourself, from the first diagnostic conversation through to the creative. On our largest accounts you'll work alongside the Strategy Director, shaping the strategy from research to recommendation.

The core of the job is brand: positioning, brand architecture, brand platforms and messaging for companies that are usually building their foundations for the first time. Strategy here ends in identity, not a deck, so you'll work closely with our Creative Directors and design team. Reporting to the Strategy Director.

What's expected from you

Leading brand strategy

• You lead focused, single-scope engagements end to end, from the first diagnostic conversation through to the creative. On our largest programmes you work alongside the Strategy Director, owning the research and helping shape the strategy from the ground up. You build positioning, brand architecture, brand platforms and messaging that a creative team can pick up and run with. You fit the strategy to the stage of the business: what a scaling company can credibly claim now and what it still has to earn, and what an established one should keep, change or let go.

Research and insight

• You plan and run discovery: stakeholder, customer and expert interviews, workshops and desk research. You come into the first workshop with a view already formed from category and demand data, and you use discovery to test it. You turn research into a few findings that change the recommendation, and you're happy to cut the rest.

Into the creative

• You write the brief that sets the creative going, and you stay close through concept development so the strategy carries through the work, including into campaigns when a brand engagement leads there. You work hand in hand with the Creative Director: Visual & Design and the Creative Director: Concept & Verbal, so strategy, design and verbal land as one piece of work.

Clients

• You present strategy directly to founders, CMOs and heads of brand. You read the room, and you hold the strongest recommendation when it gets pushed on. You spot when a brief is aimed at the wrong problem, and you can make that case to a sceptical senior audience. You help set objectives and success measures at the start, so the work can be judged against something.

The agency

• You work with Client Services so strategy is scoped, resourced and delivered on brief, on time and on budget. You contribute to proposals, scoping and pitches, and you notice where an existing account could grow. You help build the strategy practice: its methods, its tools and how we use AI.

Capabilities

• Five or more years in strategy, most of it in brand consultancy or a brand and design studio. A portfolio of positioning, brand architecture and brand platform work you led, not just contributed to. Strong design literacy. You can brief a design team, judge whether an identity route expresses the strategy, and explain why in terms designers respect. You write clearly and with conviction. A positioning statement, a brand platform and a creative brief are all writing jobs, and you're good at all three. You can run a room with senior clients, hold a point of view under pushback, and change your mind when the evidence says so. You're comfortable with data. You can read category and search data, customer reviews and research findings, and you know the difference between a claim with evidence behind it and a judgement call. You already use AI in your work to go faster and think better, and you can talk about where it helps and where it doesn't, in line with our people-first values and AI manifesto. You can run several projects at once and keep each one moving on your own.

Ideally, you'll also have

• Experience with B2B technology brands selling to technical or enterprise buyers, where products are complex and buying groups are large. Campaign strategy experience, especially campaigns built on a brand platform you helped create. A working knowledge of marketing effectiveness evidence, and where it doesn't hold for early-stage companies.

When you have the essentials but not all of these, apply anyway.

• 25 days holiday + Christmas + Bank Holidays
• £500 annual training budget
• Paid Birthday Off
• Group Life & Health Cash Plan
• Annual Profit Share
• Our culture days, quarterly charity days, and annual off-site events further underscore our commitment to an environment where our people thrive.

• 25 days holiday + Christmas + Bank Holidays
• £500 annual training budget
• Paid Birthday Off
• Group Life & Health Cash Plan
• Cycle-to-Work / Tech Schemes
• Annual Profit Share
• Our culture days, quarterly charity days, and annual off-site events further underscore our commitment to an environment where our people thrive.

Diversity, inclusion and belonging

At Shaped By, we believe in putting people first and product before profit – it's embedded in our core principles. We're committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone is welcome and supported. No matter where you are in your journey with us, we're here to help you grow and succeed.