Social Strategy Director

About the role

Looking to do the best work of your career? Do it with Dove, one of the most respected global brands on social. We’re building a team across 15 markets to own Dove’s social presence end to end: insight and ideation, platform-native creative, publishing, live ops, and community. From the first idea to the final reply, you’ll shape how Dove shows up every day and create work that influences culture. You’ll move at newsroom speed with rigorous craft—launching ideas that travel, partnering with standout creators, and turning comments into conversations that become cultural moments. The brief is straightforward: make Dove the most culturally relevant brand on social. You’ll have the scale, purpose, and creative freedom to make it real. If you’re motivated by ideas that matter, sharpened by data, and committed to making the internet more positive, this is the place to do it. Bring your craft and your courage. Together we’ll build culture—not just content—and do the best work of our careers.

You’ll lead the strategic direction for Dove's social content, bringing together consumer insight, cultural intelligence, platform expertise, and brand purpose to inform creative work that genuinely connects. Based in London with hybrid working arrangements, you’ll partner with creative, production, social media, and client teams to ensure every piece of social content is grounded in a clear, compelling strategic rationale. Your understanding of how people discover, consume, and share content on social platforms will be central to keeping Dove's voice distinctive, relevant, and effective.

We support flexible working and are open to different arrangements. We offer reasonable adjustments throughout the process. You’ll be the strategic engine behind Dove's social presence, turning audience understanding, cultural signals, and platform data into briefs, frameworks, and recommendations that guide the creative team to produce stand‑out work. Working across always‑on content, campaign activations, creator partnerships, and reactive cultural moments, you’ll ensure Dove's social output is strategically coherent and creatively ambitious.

We’re looking for someone who can think at brand level and act at platform level, someone equally comfortable articulating a long‑term content strategy as they are writing a sharp brief for a trending moment on TikTok. Success means social work that is rooted in real insight, aligned with Dove's brand purpose, and demonstrably effective in driving engagement, conversation, and brand affinity.

What you will be doing

• Lead social‑first strategy for Dove, developing content strategies, campaign platforms, and always‑on frameworks that connect brand purpose to audience behaviour on social.
• Mine consumer, cultural, and category insight to identify opportunities for Dove to show up meaningfully in social conversations and cultural moments.
• Translate platform data, social listening, and audience research into actionable creative briefs that give the team a clear strategic springboard.
• Develop audience and community strategies that deepen Dove's connection with diverse audiences across markets and platforms.
• Partner with the creative team to shape ideas from brief through to execution, providing strategic input that sharpens and elevates the work.
• Collaborate with social media managers to align strategic recommendations with publishing plans, platform priorities, and performance learnings.
• Inform creator and influencer strategy, identifying partnership opportunities that are authentic to Dove's brand and relevant to target audiences.
• Present strategic thinking and campaign recommendations to the Dove brand team with clarity, confidence, and a strong point of view.
• Analyze social performance data and campaign results to refine strategy over time, building a continuous learning loop between insight, creative, and outcomes.
• Stay ahead of social platform evolution, emerging audience behaviours, cultural trends, and competitive activity in beauty and personal care.
• Mentor and develop junior strategists within the studio, building strategic capability and fostering a culture of curiosity and rigor.
• Shape strategic processes and tools for the studio, including briefing templates, insight frameworks, and reporting approaches suited to social‑speed workflows.

What you need to be great in this role

• 10+ years of strategy experience, with a significant focus on social‑first or digital‑first work for consumer brands.
• Deep understanding of social platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and emerging channels), including how audiences behave, how content is discovered, and what drives engagement.
• A track record of developing strategies that led to effective, measurable social campaigns or content programmes.
• Experience in beauty, personal care, wellness, or FMCG, with a strong grasp of category dynamics, consumer motivations, and cultural context.
• Proven ability to turn research, data, and cultural observation into sharp, actionable briefs and strategic frameworks.
• Experience working with or briefing content creators and influencer partnerships as part of a social content strategy.
• Confidence presenting strategic recommendations to senior brand stakeholders, with the ability to simplify complexity and build conviction.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience using social listening tools, platform analytics, and audience research to inform strategy.
• A collaborative working style, with experience partnering closely with creative, production, and media teams.
• Experience mentoring or developing other strategists.
• Professional proficiency in English; additional languages are a plus.

Gen AI and Agentic Thinking

• Proficiency with Gen AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, research assistants) to enhance insight generation, trend analysis, audience research, and strategic development.
• Agentic mindset: ability to deconstruct complex strategic challenges, map out the most effective approach, and execute with rigor and adaptability.
• Experience using AI to accelerate research, identify patterns in data, and stress‑test strategic hypotheses.
• Understanding of AI capabilities and limitations, with strong critical evaluation of AI‑generated insights and a commitment to human judgement and contextual nuance.
• Ability to guide teams in using AI tools responsibly and effectively within the strategic process.

Qualifications

• Formal degrees are welcome but not required. Equivalent experience counts. Experience can be gained through work, study, volunteering, or self‑directed learning.
• Experience working on Dove or Unilever brands.
• Multi‑market or global brand strategy experience, with an understanding of adapting social strategy across regions and audiences.
• Experience in a social‑specialist, in‑house, or embedded agency environment.
• Familiarity with social commerce, community management strategy, or earned media approaches.
• Experience with brand purpose, inclusion, or social impact strategy.
• Knowledge of the evolving regulatory and ethical landscape in beauty marketing.

OLIVER, a part of the Brandtech Group, is an equal‑opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive working environment where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential, and individual differences are valued and respected. All applicants shall be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by local laws.