Senior Director, AI Advisory - Enterprise Transformation

Dentsu International Americas, LLC; United States; Remote; USD 136,000 - 191,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, dental

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401k

Paid holidays

Job summary

Merkle is seeking a Sr. Director, Lead Strategist to drive strategic advisory across enterprise transformation initiatives. This role operates at executive levels, bridging organizational change with measurable client value while coordinating across delivery pods and resourcing groups.

The Lead Strategist will anchor program direction, oversee change enablement, and partner with Merkle leadership to realize strategic investments, with up to 25% travel as needed.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of consulting experience in business transformation, organizational change leadership, and/or integrated marketing strategy.
• 10+ years working in a top tier consulting firm and/or marketing agency
• Deep knowledge of end-to-end consulting approaches from strategy design through execution
• Strong experience assessing and recommending optimal team and operating structures
• Familiarity with change management frameworks and governance
• Understanding of marketing technologies to orchestrate customer experiences
• Exceptional communication and client-facing skills
• Travel up to 25% may be required

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic consulting engagements on enterprise transformations
• Design operating models and change management strategies for large-scale Adobe Cloud transformations
• Translate strategic priorities into activation sequences for delivery pods
• Partner with delivery teams to accelerate value and client capability
• Provide strategic guidance across all pods and client accounts
• Facilitate workshops and discovery to align stakeholders

Skills

Executive client mgmt

Change management

Strategic advisory

Communication skills

Problem solving

Leadership

Marketing tech know-how

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Adobe Experience Cloud

Adobe platforms

Job description

Job Description:

We welcome remote candidates based in the continental United States

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios.

The agency’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 16,000+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with additional offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu Aegis Network.

Job Description

Merkle is seeking a strategic business leader with Adobe Experience Cloud expertise and martech ecosystem knowledge to join the AI Advisory, Enterprise Transformation practice as a Sr. Director, Lead Strategist. This individual will operate at the executive level, combining organizational transformation expertise, change management rigor, and value-driven advisory to anchor the program's strategic direction and drive enterprise client outcomes.

The Lead Strategist is a program-level leadership role operating across two distinct dimensions: as the primary strategic advisor on a large enterprise account and as a senior thought partner providing coverage and oversight across all delivery pods and resourcing groups within a broader client engagement. This individual bridges strategic vision with tactical execution, ensuring the program delivers measurable business value while building client-side organizational capability.

The role combines the advisory mindset of organizational transformation consulting with hands‑on accountability for client value realization. There are no immediate direct reports for this role, but the Lead Strategist operates with influence across program leadership, delivery teams, and client stakeholder groups, carrying full ownership of strategic planning and change enablement.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead strategic consulting engagements that assess organizational readiness, operating model design, ways of working, governance, and change management within large-scale enterprise transformation initiatives and programs
• Lead organizational readiness, operating model design, and change management strategies for large-scale Adobe Experience Cloud transformations; assess current-state capability, identify operational gaps, and design future-state operating models that enable clients to sustain and scale their Adobe investments.
• Drive operational transformation through workflow analysis, business process optimization, capability mapping, and implementation roadmaps that prioritize improvement initiatives against strategic goals, feasibility, value
• Partner with delivery teams to identify and accelerate value drivers; translate strategic priorities into clear activation sequences, ensuring each engagement builds client capability while moving toward larger program objectives.
• Provide strategic coverage and guidance across all delivery pods within a critical client program with one of our leading partners; serve as a strategic sounding board for Pod Leads and the Merkle Leadership Team on value realization, client account health, and expansion opportunities.
• Facilitate workshops, discovery sessions, and prioritization exercises that require managing competing client opinions, agendas, and ambiguous inputs
• Translate the impact of AI tools and agentic capabilities on marketing workflows, skillsets, operating model, and ways of working
• Understand how AI tools, automation, and human expertise work together in modern operating models across business functions
• Lead change management activities and plans related to agentic capability enablement or deployment
• Surface operational risks related to technology implementation, migration, or adoption initiatives
• Support stakeholder mapping, readiness surveys, skillset and training assessments, change communication and messaging, as well as KPIs to measure and track ongoing change adoption
• Design governance structures to clarify roles, decision rights, and accountability in transformation programs
• Serve as a bridge between strategic vision and tactical execution workstreams
• Develop trusted advisor relationships with client senior executives to influence strategic investments and business decisions
• Partner with Merkle pods / delivery teams in identifying business value drivers / frameworks that measure impact of agentic technology enablement initiatives
• Partner with Merkle Innovation Lab Product Owner and Multi-Solution Architect roles on delivery engagements
• Partner with Merkle business units, sales, growth and account management functions to support expansion and growth opportunities on strategic accounts

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required. Master’s degree preferred
• 15+ years of consulting experience in business transformation, organizational change leadership, and/or integrated marketing strategy, with demonstrated executive-level client management
• 10+ years working in a top tier consulting firm and/or marketing agency
• Deep knowledge of end-to‑end consulting approaches to solve client problems, from strategy design through execution.
• Strong experience assessing and recommending optimal team and operating structures to facilitate integrated program execution
• Familiarity with change management frameworks, shared services models, organizational design, product and portfolio governance
• Understanding of marketing technologies to orchestrate and activate customer experiences
• Experience in leading a team and navigating complex projects by providing innovative, actionable solutions
• Proven experience in developing solutions to support the sale of new services to clients.
• Strong writing, presentation, and client facing communication skills
• Problem solving mindset, thrive in ambiguous and fast moving environments, and in informal, loosely structured and creative work environments
• Exceptional communication skills, with experience distilling complex, multi-threaded engagements into clear executive narratives
• Familiarity and working knowledge of Adobe platforms and agentic solutions (strongly preferred)
• Working fluency in financial or value modeling to partner with technical teams (nice to have)
• Up to 25% travel may be required (varies with client specific need)

The annual base salary range for this position is $136,000-$190,500. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law.Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.

Benefits available with this position include:

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance
• Life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• 401k
• Flexible paid time off
• At least 15 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick and safe leave, and
• Paid parental leave

Location:

• USA - Remote - Maryland

Brand:

• Merkle

Time Type:

• Full time

Contract Type:

• Permanent

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