Principal Strategist

Webstacks; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Webstacks is seeking a Principal Strategist in San Diego to own delivery across high-stakes accounts and lead the strategy team. You will guide complex engagements from strategy to execution, ensure backlog health, and drive growth for both clients and the team.

The role requires 7+ years in digital strategy with agency experience, a natural coaching ability, and a talent for turning ambiguity into structured plans. Reports to the Head of Strategy and manages Sr.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in digital strategy with agency experience.
• Led complex web engagements end to end.
• Trusted by director and VP-level stakeholders.
• Natural coach who develops others.

Responsibilities

• Lead flagship engagements with the most complex accounts and executive stakeholders.
• Model strategy-to-tactics translation to guide the team and clients.
• Coach strategists and drive performance improvements across the team.
• Pilot new frameworks and codify successful approaches into Webstacks methodology.

Skills

Coaching

Strategic thinking

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Communication

Job description

Webstacks is a high performance website operations and growth marketing agency established in 2020. We have quickly grown into a 45-person company because of our innovative website operations methodology , strong partnerships, and high-growth clients. We are constantly setting larger goals and stopping at nothing to achieve them. Our team’s dedication is humbling, and we are looking for another motivated individual to help us reach the next level. Our mission is to transform the way the world’s most influential SaaS, FinTech, and Blockchain companies compete in today's digital landscape.

OVERVIEW

The Principal Strategist owns the work itself: the quality of every strategy we ship, the health of every account's backlog, and the growth of every strategist on the team. Where the Head of Strategy owns the practice, the Principal owns delivery; the standard the work is held to and the people who produce it.

This is a player-coach role. The Principal Strategist carries a deliberate set of our most complex, highest-stakes accounts while managing the strategy team day-to-day.

The Principal Strategist is the reason the Head of Strategy can operate at market altitude. When the work ships client-ready without executive review, when escalations get resolved inside the team, when strategists level up quarter over quarter, that's this role working.

ROLE DETAILS

• Reports to: Head of Strategy
• Manages: Sr. Web Strategists & Web Strategists
• Salary range: $110,000-$130,000

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead a small set of flagship engagements: the most complex accounts, the highest-stakes relationships, the executive stakeholders who expect our best strategist in the room
• Model the strategy-to-tactics translation the whole team runs on; every recommendation becomes a roadmap, every roadmap traces to a client business goal
• Navigate the hard client dynamics: ambiguity, shifting priorities, competing stakeholders and coach the team to do it themselvesKnow your clients' businesses deeply: their model, their market, their internal pressures
• Craft & Quality
• Own the quality bar for everything the team ships: roadmaps, strategic narratives, and client deliverables
• Review and pressure-test strategist work before it reaches clients and run those reviews as teaching moments
• Pilot new frameworks, tools, and strategic models on your own accounts; codify what works into the Webstacks methodology with the Head of Strategy
• Keep the team's thinking structured and prioritized (i.e., Own how the team thinks by establishing methods of delivery.)
• Manage the strategy team day-to-day: weekly 1:1s, workload balancing, unblocking, and providing honest feedback that makes people better
• Coach strategists on the craft that can't be documented (client presence, consultative practice to C-suite, strategic storytelling, reading a room, holding ground under pressure)
• Develop Webstacks’ bench of exceptional strategists
• Own performance conversations at the team level; partner with the Head of Strategy on career paths and growth plans

Delivery Operations

• Audit every account's strategic backlog monthly, flag anything stale, or drifting from client goals
• Be the first escalation point for client tension, scope conflicts, and cross-functional misalignment; resolve at the team level what shouldn't reach the executive level
• Keep strategy, PM, design, and dev pulling toward the same outcome on every account
• Read the team's capacity honestly and flag the crunch to the Head of Strategy before it becomes a delivery problem

WHO THRIVES HERE

• 7+ years in digital strategy with agency experience; has led complex web engagements end to end, not just contributed to them
• Trusted by director and VP-level stakeholders
• A natural coach: gets genuine energy from making other strategists better, not just from their own wins
• Brings structure to ambiguity; the person the room looks at when nobody knows what happens next
• Holds a high bar and delivers the feedback that comes with it; directly, generously, often

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Strategist work ships client-ready, without executive review or rescue.
• No account backlog goes stale for more than 30 days.
• Strategists demonstrably level up — receiving positive client feedback, deliverable quality hit Webstacks’ standards, and show readiness for bigger accounts.
• Flagship accounts renew and expand under the Principal's leadership.
• The Head of Strategy operates at market altitude because delivery doesn't need them.

SD Pay Range

$110,000 - $130,000 USD

As set forth in Webstacks's Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.