Senior Strategist (San Diego)

LINK; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 112,000 - 151,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Internet stipend

Commuter stipend

Healthcare benefits

Retirement plan (401k)

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Bonus plan

Profit sharing

Job summary

LINK is actively hiring a Senior Strategist in San Diego who will interface with clients to shape strategy, distill narratives, and translate insights into visual products. The role requires deep expertise in strategic communication, stakeholder management, and design-thinking to deliver executive-level solutions across diverse industries.

Join a fast-growing, woman-owned small business and lead multiple engagements with cross-functional teams, ensuring high-quality deliverables and measurable

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication, English, Business, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in strategic communication, public affairs, program management, or strategy development.
• Active Clearance: Secret required, Top Secret preferred.
• Ability to build and maintain robust client relationships and foster positive interpersonal connections.
• Interest in visual storytelling, including data visualization and conceptualizing abstract ideas.
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, maintaining a strong focus on accuracy and attention to detail.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate in a clear, approachable, and knowledgeable manner.

Responsibilities

• Partner directly with clients to understand challenges, capture requirements, and define missions, visions, goals, and KPIs/OKRs.
• Collaborate with clients through well-designed meetings and workshops to co-create solutions and gather critical inputs.
• Perform high-quality primary and secondary research to inform strategic direction.
• Apply human-centered design and design-thinking principles to complex problem sets.
• Work iteratively by proactively gathering feedback from clients and internal partners to refine solutions.
• Identify opportunities to create tangible business value through current-state assessments and high-level requirement definition.
• Develop and maintain strong client relationships, including managing external stakeholders and converting new requests into business opportunities.
• Oversee multiple client engagements, ensuring alignment, clarity, and strategic impact across projects.
• Elevate content quality and thought leadership in partnership with the Strategy Competency Manager, ensuring strong standards for deliverables.
• Translate ideas into compelling strategic narratives, campaigns, and solutions.
• Identify content structures, hierarchies, and visual concepts for storytelling products, including content maps and wireframes.
• Collaborate with design teams to develop infographics, charts, diagrams, presentations, and other visual products that convey complex information clearly.
• Manage multiple internal project teams, organizing assignments and tracking progress, deadlines, and deliverables from both operational and financial perspectives.

Skills

Strategic communication

Public affairs

Program management

Strategy development

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Location: We are actively hiring in San Diego, CA.

Who We Are: LINK is a fast-growing Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) that leverages human-centered design to support strategy, innovation, communication, change, and branding within the federal government and adjacent industry partners. At LINK, we partner with engineers, futurists, and thought leaders to untangle complexity, discover opportunity, and communicate clearly with visual stories.

Let us be your partners in change.

About the Opportunity

LINK is actively seeking a Senior Strategist to join our dynamic team, where we leverage strong partnerships and a robust portfolio of clients across diverse industries.As a Senior Strategist, you will interface directly with clients to understand their unique challenges, provide consultative strategy and executive solutions, distill narratives from client provided content and work with the creative team to execute visual products appropriate to the client’s brand, industry and culture. You will work with team members across the organization to uncover meaningful insights, build game changing strategies and deliver client-oriented solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication, English, Business, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience in strategic communication, public affairs, program management, or strategy development
• Active Clearance: Secret required, Top Secret preferred
• Ability to build and maintain robust client relationships and foster positive interpersonal connections
• Interest in visual storytelling, including data visualization and conceptualizing abstract ideas
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, maintaining a strong focus on accuracy and attention to detail
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate in a clear, approachable, and knowledgeable manner

Client Partnership & Strategic Leadership

• Partner directly with clients to understand challenges, capture requirements, and define missions, visions, goals, and KPIs/OKRs.
• Collaborate with clients through well-designed meetings and workshops to co-create solutions and gather critical inputs.
• Perform high-quality primary and secondary research to inform strategic direction.
• Apply human-centered design and design-thinking principles to complex problem sets.
• Work iteratively by proactively gathering feedback from clients and internal partners to refine solutions.
• Identify opportunities to create tangible business value through current-state assessments and high-level requirement definition.
• Develop and maintain strong client relationships, including managing external stakeholders and converting new requests into business opportunities.
• Oversee multiple client engagements, ensuring alignment, clarity, and strategic impact across projects.

Content, Storytelling & Project Execution

• Elevate content quality and thought leadership in partnership with the Strategy Competency Manager, ensuring strong standards for deliverables.
• Translate ideas into compelling strategic narratives, campaigns, and solutions.
• Identify content structures, hierarchies, and visual concepts for storytelling products, including content maps and wireframes.
• Collaborate with design teams to develop infographics, charts, diagrams, presentations, and other visual products that convey complex information clearly.
• Manage multiple internal project teams, organizing assignments and tracking progress, deadlines, and deliverables from both operational and financial perspectives.

Work Schedule

• Full time, 40 hours per week
• Some travel required to attend relevant events and conferences, and participate in LINK team events

Salary

We're committed to offering competitive compensation. While the salary range for this position is$112,000-$151,000, your final offer may be adjusted based on factors like experience and location.

Benefits

• $100 monthly internet/cell phone stipend
• $150 monthly commuter stipend for eligible participants
• LINK sponsored healthcare benefits including medical, dental, vision
• Company-paid Short Term Disability Insurance
• 401K with employer contribution of up to 4%
• 11 Federal Holidays per year
• 15 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year
• Paid Holiday Time Off (Christmas Eve through the New Year)
• Annual bonus plan participation
• Annual profit sharing participation
• $2,000 Learning and Development program reimbursement
• Technology package that includes a LINK-owned MacBook Pro, monitor, mouse and keyboard

EOE