VP, Strategy Director (Retail)

Edelman Smithfield; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 105,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Edelman seeks a VP, Strategy Director to lead strategy for a major retail client, translating consumer insights and cultural trends into opportunities that inspire growth. You’ll partner with clients and agency teams to set the strategic vision, mentor talent, and strengthen trusted relationships.

You will shape integrated strategy across brand, purpose, reputation, and cultural initiatives, guiding planning and creating briefs that drive high-impact work.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in brand/communications strategy at a health agency or consultancy, with substantial healthcare experience.
• Ability to follow our hybrid work policy.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Shape the Strategy Lead integrated strategy across brand, purpose, reputation, and cultural initiatives.
• Lead clients to uncover human problems behind business challenges and define how communications create meaningful change.
• Turn research, cultural intelligence, social listening and data into clear, actionable opportunities.
• Develop strategic frameworks, narratives, and briefs that inspire breakthrough ideas.
• Guide annual planning and align on a clear vision and roadmap for success.

Skills

Brand strategy

Strategic leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentorship

Client leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Job description

We are in relentless pursuit of an equitable and inspiring workplace that is respectful of all, reflects and represents the world in which we live, and fosters trust, collaboration and belonging. Consistent with this approach, we hire the best qualified candidates for all positions. The VP, Strategy Director will lead strategy for a major retail client, turning business challenges, consumer insights, and cultural trends into clear opportunities that inspire creative work and drive brand growth. The role combines senior client counsel, integrated strategic leadership, cross-functional collaboration, business development, and mentorship. The ideal candidate is an experienced, culturally fluent strategy leader who can simplify complexity, build trusted relationships, inspire teams, and deliver inclusive, high-impact work.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a curious, culturally attuned, and collaborative strategy leader to help shape the future of a leading retail brand. As VP, Strategy Director, you’ll be the senior strategic lead for one of the agency’s key client relationships. You’ll partner closely with clients and integrated agency teams to turn complex business challenges into meaningful human opportunities—and those opportunities into ideas that earn attention, inspire action, and drive brand growth. This is a role for someone who loves getting close to the work while also seeing the bigger picture. You’ll set the strategic vision, inspire ambitious creative thinking, build trusted client relationships, and mentor the next generation of strategy talent. You’ll also play an important role in strengthening and growing the business, ensuring our strategic contribution continues to evolve alongside our clients’ needs.

What You’ll Do

• Shape the Strategy Lead integrated strategy across brand, purpose, reputation, and cultural initiatives.
• Help clients uncover the human problem behind a business challenge and define how communications can create meaningful change.
• Turn research, cultural intelligence, social listening and business data into clear, actionable strategic opportunities.
• Develop compelling strategic frameworks, narratives, and creative briefs that inspire breakthrough ideas.
• Guide annual planning and goal-setting, helping clients align around a clear vision and roadmap for success.
• Identify shifts in consumer behavior, culture, retail, fashion, and lifestyle that can unlock new opportunities for the brand.
• Ensure inclusivity is embedded throughout the strategic process and that the work resonates with diverse, intersectional audiences.

Inspire the Work

• Be a close, trusted partner to creative teams from the first spark of an idea through launch and optimization.
• Create the strategic conditions for work that is culturally relevant, emotionally resonant, and impossible to ignore.
• Keep ideas grounded in the brief while giving teams the space and inspiration to take the work somewhere unexpected.
• Ensure audience, channel, measurement, and activation plans connect back to the central strategy.
• Interpret campaign results and identify opportunities to optimize the work, extend successful platforms, and build long‑term brand equity.

Build Strong Partnerships

• Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior clients, bringing clarity, confidence, and a strong point of view to the table.
• Develop deep relationships across the client’s marketing organization and broader agency‑partner ecosystem.
• Lead strategic conversations, workshops, and presentations that create alignment and help clients make confident decisions.
• Proactively identify opportunities to expand the agency’s impact and deepen the client relationship.
• Partner with account leadership to protect, strengthen, and grow the business.

Bring People Together

• Collaborate across creative, account, production, earned media, influencer, digital, social, technology, experience, and data and intelligence teams.
• Connect different disciplines and perspectives around a shared strategic vision.
• Navigate multiple projects, priorities, and stakeholders while maintaining a high bar for the work.
• Create an environment where people feel supported, challenged, and empowered to do their best thinking.

Who You Are

You are an experienced strategy leader who is equally energized by people, culture, creativity, and business. You know how to simplify complexity without losing what makes a challenge interesting, and you can move comfortably between a senior client conversation, a creative working session, and a coaching conversation with a developing strategist. You bring:

• Deep experience leading brand, communications, creative, or integrated strategy within an agency, consultancy, or complex marketing organization.
• A strong understanding of how brands build relevance, admiration, and consideration through culture and communications.
• The ability to translate research and data into a sharp strategic point of view—and communicate it through compelling storytelling.
• A track record of inspiring creative teams and helping ambitious ideas become strategically sound, integrated work.
• Confidence building trusted relationships with senior clients and navigating complex stakeholder environments.
• A collaborative and generous leadership style, balanced by a commitment to rigor and high standards.
• Intellectual curiosity, cultural fluency, and a desire to continually find better ways to solve problems.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities without losing sight of the people, purpose, or quality of the work.

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years in brand/communications strategy at a health agency or consultancy, with substantial experience in healthcare (e.g., retail health, pharmacy, payer and benefits, care delivery, or consumer health); adjacent wellness experience is a plus, partnering cross-functionally with creative, analytics, and client leadership
• Ability to follow our hybrid work policy
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

What You’ll Find Here

You’ll have the opportunity to shape meaningful work for a highly visible client, collaborate with talented people across a wide range of disciplines, and play a defining role in the growth of both the business and the strategy team. We care deeply about the quality of our work and how we work together. We value different perspectives, generous collaboration, continuous learning, and leaders who are as invested in developing people as they are in delivering great work.

#LI-KW1

$105,000-$175,000 a year

An employee’s pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, travel requirements, revenue-based metrics, any contractual agreements, and business or organizational needs. The range listed is just one component of DJEH’s total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may be annual bonuses, a Paid Time Off policy, and region‑specific benefits. DJEH offers a wide range of benefits: medical and dental insurance, vision, 401K, life insurance, disability insurance, paid time off, travel assistance and wellness programing.

DJEH is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and believes in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We seek applications from all qualified candidates without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, military and veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. If you require a reasonable accommodation in any part of the employment process, please let us know.

It started with one man’s passion to make an impact through stories… 70years later, we are the world’s largest communications firm, which fosters an environment where people feel empowered to take the kind of bold action that makes careers, reshapes industries, and creates the unexpected. We are one global team, over6,000 strong across60 offices, grounded by our shared values. We promise an experience where our employees see that boldness is possibility, empathy is progress, and curiosity is momentum. Since Dan Edelman founded the firm in 1952, we have remained an independent, family‑run business, and our culture is one that brings understanding, collaboration, and respect to our work and to each other. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) transform our colleagues, our clients, and our communities, and propel us forward as a company. At Edelman, we are in relentless pursuit of a fair and inspiring workplace that is respectful to all, reflects and represents the world in which we live, and fosters trust and collaboration. Each day and on each project, we strive to ensure that our colleagues feel a sense of true inclusion and belonging and can bring their best to their work— taking action and shaping impactful moments and movements within our company, on behalf of our clients, and within communities around the globe.

The relentless pursuit of excellence The freedom to be constantly curious The courage to do the right thing The commitment to positively impact society. We grow our people We invite and celebrate differences Our reputation is our brand We’re global, yet local We offer more than just a career–we offer a place to grow, make a meaningful impact, and help drive change alongside some of the brightest minds in the industry. Our culture is built on trust, innovation, and inclusivity, where unique perspectives are not only welcomed, but celebrated. At Edelman, your ambitions are supported, your voice matters and your work contributes to shaping the future of communications and clients’ business.

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