Head of Influence, Communications & Cultural Strategy

amika; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

amika, a Brooklyn-born haircare brand, seeks an AVP of influencer, communications and cultural strategy to architect and scale amika's influence ecosystem—spanning creators, VIPs, stylists, media, and cultural voices—to drive brand equity, trust, and measurable business impact.

The leader will define a modern, insight-led strategy connecting earned media, storytelling, paid programming, advocacy, events, and market execution into one cohesive engine.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience leading influencer, communications, PR, advocacy, social, or integrated brand marketing functions, ideally within beauty, prestige, lifestyle, fashion, or high-growth consumer brands.
• Proven track record building multi-market influencer, earned media, communications, or advocacy strategies that drive brand relevance, consumer engagement, earned conversation, and measurable business impact.
• Deep fluency in the creator economy, including paid and organic partnerships, gifting, VIP, affiliate partnership models, usage rights, whitelisting, creator licensing, always-on advocacy, and emerging platform behavior.
• Strong understanding of earned media strategy, brand communications, reputation management, and cultural storytelling.
• Demonstrated ability to connect brand storytelling to commercial priorities across retail, DTC, professional channels, product launches, social commerce, and paid amplification partnerships.
• Experience managing paid influencer programming, including agency oversight, creator briefs, content strategy, usage rights, approvals, performance reporting, and alignment with paid media partners.
• Experience developing playbooks, regional toolkits, agency models, governance frameworks, and market-level guidance across multiple countries or regions.
• Deep expertise across influencer and advocacy tiers, including VIP, macro, mid-tier, micro, emerging creators, stylists, professional advocates, media, and community voices.
• Strong command of influencer, PR, and communications measurement, including EMV, share of voice, sentiment, impressions, earned reach, engagement quality, content efficiency, creator retention, advocacy impact, and brand health indicators.
• Proven experience leading, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams.
• Experience managing external agency partners across PR, influencer, paid influencer, talent, cultural strategy, events, or communications.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leadership, cross-functional partners, agencies, international stakeholders, and external talent partners.
• Demonstrated negotiation skills across talent partnerships, brand collaborations, agency scopes, creator contracts, usage rights, and cultural partnerships.
• Experience developing and executing large-scale influencer, press, VIP, stylist, and advocacy events, including tentpole activations and launch moments.
• Crisis, issues management, and corporate/product communications experience in a fast-moving consumer environment.
• Deep familiarity with the beauty industry, haircare category, competitive landscape, creator culture, cultural trends, and consumer behavior.
• Data-driven mindset with strong analytical, strategic, creative, and commercial thinking skills.
• Highly collaborative, culturally fluent, brand-sensitive, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-growth, cross-functional environment

Responsibilities

• Architect amika's influence ecosystem—spanning organic advocacy, earned media, brand storytelling, and paid influencer programming to drive brand equity and measurable business impact.
• Define the annual communications, influencer, and advocacy roadmap, aligning to brand priorities, product launches, retail moments, professional initiatives, and market needs.
• Continuously benchmark amika against leading beauty brands to identify white space, emerging platforms, talent opportunities, cultural shifts, competitive threats, and new advocacy models.
• Build and evolve a multi-tiered advocacy ecosystem spanning VIP, macro, mid-tier, creator, stylist, micro, emerging, professional, and organic brand advocates.
• Translate culture signals into actionable brand opportunities, storytelling territories, creator partnerships, and campaign ideas.
• Lead earned storytelling strategies that reinforce brand equity, deepen consumer trust, and generate awareness, engagement, advocacy, and brand love.
• Oversee measurement and reporting across EMV, share of voice, sentiment, engagement quality, creator efficiency, earned reach, advocacy retention, launch impact, and brand health indicators.

Skills

Influencer strategy

Media relations

Brand marketing

Cultural strategy

Leadership

Agency management

Negotiation

Crisis management

Job description

amika, a Brooklyn-born haircare brand, seeks an AVP of influencer, communications and cultural strategy to architect and scale amika's influence ecosystem—spanning creators, VIPs, stylists, media, and cultural voices—to drive brand equity, trust, and measurable business impact.

The leader will define a modern, insight-led strategy connecting earned media, storytelling, paid programming, advocacy, events, and market execution into one cohesive engine.