Director

Crowd DNA; New York (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

20 days PTO

Office in NY (3 days/week)

401k with employer match

Wellbeing Leave

Job summary

Crowd DNA is looking for a Director to lead client projects and multi‑market engagements, shaping strategic direction and ensuring consistent excellence. This fixed‑term maternity cover lasts 8 months and sits at the sweet spot between strategic oversight and hands‑on delivery.

The role requires steering quality, methodology integrity and influential client relationships to drive growth across major accounts and programs.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams on culturally informed strategic projects.
• Proven ability to translate insights into commercial strategies.
• Strong track record in delivering high quality work for major accounts.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic standard for cultural insight to drive commercial value.
• Lead delivery across major accounts and multi‑market engagements.
• Provide senior oversight and ensure profitability and quality of outputs.
• Anticipate and resolve project issues; manage scope with client discussions.
• Lead proposals and multi‑specialism projects end‑to‑end; ensure accountability.

Skills

Cultural insights

Qualitative research

Strategic thinking

Project leadership

Client management

Financial acumen

Team coaching

Communication

Cross-agency work

Job description

Formed in 2008, operating across 70+ markets, CROWD.DNA brings together trends specialists, researchers, strategists, data analysts, designers, writers and film-makers for the world’s most exciting brands.

Our values are tangible and connect with every member of the Crowd DNA team, regardless of their role or how long they’ve been with us. We believe they reflect how we wish to work with each other and with our clients and contributors.

Simple Is Always Best: that’s it, avoid the temptation to overcomplicate.

Better Blended: we’re not lone wolves, we work fluidly between ideas, specialisms, methods – and agencies.

Make It Count: we show up for our work, for our clients, and, most importantly, for each other.

We believe fully in the power of our work to fuel our clients with the evidence, inspiration and recommendation they need to grow and prosper.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The key focus of Director role is team leadership, leading client projects and accounts, winning and growing work, shaping strategic direction, andensuring consistent excellence in work and team performance. This role sits at the sweet spot between strategic oversight and hands‑on delivery, owning the quality, profitability and cultural direction of major accounts, programs and multi‑market engagements. The director serves as the steward for all work produced by the team, ensuring strategic quality of outputs, integrity of methodology execution, and maintaining relationships with clients that contribute to project success and continued growth.

This is a fixed‑term maternity cover role lasting 8 months.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Knowledge & Craft

• Set the standard for how cultural insight turns into commercial advantage, sharing best practice across the team and with clients
• Bring strategic thinking and best‑in‑class deliverables across own specialism whilst confidently articulating the full spectrum of the Crowd offer
• Review other specialisms' work and provides strategic guidance

Delivery

• Advise on project design, client management and debriefs, acting as final quality filter for all client‑facing deliverables
• Provide senior oversight across major accounts, programs and multi‑market engagements, ensuring highest quality and profitability
• Identify and resolves project issues proactively
• Support teams to turn things around and managing scope creep through strategic and sometimes challenging client conversations
• Ensure delivery excellence across multiple workstreams by providing clarity, direction, risk spotting and commercially viable, strategically impactful solutions
• Start leading major proposals and multi‑specialism projects end‑to‑end, producing strategically strong and commercially sound pitches
• Empower individuals by granting them autonomy within defined roles, ensuring clear accountability, and aligning work with their strengths

Influence & Growth

• Engage with senior client stakeholders as trusted strategic partner
• Grow existing client relationships and contributes to new business growth
• Give clear, constructive feedback to teams and sets out what quality looks like
• Play an active role in the senior team, helping shape business decisions and challenge for improvements

SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

• Demonstrated passion for the intersection of brands, culture and commercial strategy with proven impact
• Deep expertise in insights, strategy or cultural research with expert-level on qualitative research or mixed methods methodologies
• Proficiency in managing multiple complex projects simultaneously whilst maintaining quality and meeting tight deadlines
• Advanced financial acumen and commercial awareness, including proposal costing, profitability analysis and gross profit management
• Excellent attention to detail across numerical, written and visual deliverables with ability to spot risks and inconsistencies early
• Strategic thinking capability to reframe briefs, strengthen analytical approaches and guide decisions on major accounts
• Ability to synthesise complex information into commercially viable, strategically impactful solutions for clients and internal stakeholders
• Proven ability to inspire and coach teams, providing constructive feedback and building confidence in others' capabilities
• Confidence to challenge the status quo, engage with senior client stakeholders and navigate tricky conversations with diplomacy and credibility
• Great communication skills to share knowledge, articulate thought leadership and drive influence across senior team decisions
• Experience developing frameworks, tools or thought leadership content that raises the bar across diverse industries
• Track record of driving new business growth and landing repeat work through solid relationship management and trusted advisor positioning
• Understanding of cross‑agency synergies and ability to spot collaborative opportunities across the wider group

BENEFITS

The role comes with a competitive salary of up to $150,000 (pro‑rata). Benefits include:

• 20 days of PTO plus 10 nationally‑observed US holidays per year (Pro‑rata)
• Christmas closure – 3 days additional to entitlement – discretionary and non‑contractual leave (Pro‑rata)
• Early Finish Fridays throughout the whole year
• 3 days per week in the office (NY)
• 4% Employer matching for 401k
• Live Event Leave (x2 days per annum)
• Wellbeing Leave (x4 days per annum)
• Volunteering Leave (x2 days per annum)
• Charity Donation Matching (up to £100 currency equivalent)
• Betterment & Wellness Fund
• Others

RECRUITMENT

The cycle involves two interviews and a task

DISCLOSURE

STRAT7 is an Equal Opportunity Employer and our employees are people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds, who share a passion for research. Our commitment to inclusivity is not just about race and gender identity, but also age, disability status, sexual orientation, religion and many other parts of one's identity. All of our employee's points of view are key to our success, and inclusion is everyone's responsibility.