Strategist in London

About the role

This is a hands-on strategy role at the heart of Pink Squid. As a Strategist, you’ll be a strategic partner to your roster of accounts, your role is to bring clarity to clients, to creative teams, and to complex employer brand and employee experience challenges. You’ll dig beneath surface problems to understand what’s really going on inside organisations, using research, analysis and empathy in equal measure. You’ll then translate that understanding into a clear strategic direction, that inspires creative work and delivers meaningful outcomes whatever the task.

You’ll be involved throughout the full lifecycle of a project, from pitch and discovery through to defining employer value propositions (EVPs), shaping creative ideas, and presenting recommendations to clients. You’ll work closely with delivery, creative and digital teams, acting as a strategic partner at every step. This is not a purely theoretical role. You’ll be expected to take ownership, make decisions, and confidently stand behind your thinking including in front of senior client stakeholders.

What you’ll be doing

• You’ll be a strategic partner to your roster of accounts, building strong and trusting relationships with your client teams as their go-to partner, helping shape strategic ambition at an account and project level.
• Leading the strategic definition of employer brands and employee experiences, from early discovery through to clear, actionable strategic outputs.
• Design and deliver insight-led discovery phases, using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods to understand organisations, cultures and audiences.
• Facilitate focus groups and synthesise data into sharp insights that identify the real challenges, tensions and opportunities facing employers.
• Develop employer value propositions (EVPs), strategic frameworks and candidate experience principles to aid storytelling and guide creative and activation work.
• Translate strategic thinking into clear creative direction and briefs that enable bold, effective ideas.
• Work in close partnership with creative teams throughout projects, shaping and evolving ideas rather than handing over strategy at the start.
• Act as a strategic voice in client relationships, confidently presenting findings, recommendations and points of view to senior stakeholders.
• Help clients make informed decisions by simplifying complexity and clearly articulating trade-offs with priorities and competitor benchmarking.
• Recommend channels, content approaches and experience touchpoints that support attraction, engagement and retention goals.
• Contribute to new business thinking, including shaping strategic approaches for pitches and participating in pitch presentations.
• Staying informed on employer brand, workplace, cultural and behavioural trends, and applying relevant thinking to client challenges and sharing agency wide.

What you need to bring

• 3 years+ experience in strategy, brand, communications, marketing or a related discipline, ideally within an agency or consultancy environment.
• A solid grounding in insight and research, with experience planning, conducting and interpreting qualitative and/or quantitative research.
• Experience developing strategic frameworks, such as EVPs, brand or messaging platforms, positioning statements or experience principles.
• The ability to translate insight into clear direction, including writing effective creative briefs and strategic recommendations.
• Confidence presenting and discussing ideas with clients and internal teams, even when the answers aren’t black and white.
• Strong analytical and storytelling skills, able to simplify complexity and explain thinking clearly and persuasively.
• A collaborative mindset, comfortable working closely with creatives, account teams and senior stakeholders.
• Curiosity about people, culture and work, with an interest in employer branding, employee experience or behavioural science.
• Good self-management skills, including organisation, prioritisation and the ability to work flexibly in a fast-moving environment.

Benefits

• Bonus: Agency wide % bonus offered.
• Holiday: 26 days per year (plus public holidays) - annual increase after each full year of service up to a maximum of 30 days in total. We also offer a bank holiday exchange for alternative days of the year with religious or cultural significance, as well as a buy and sell option of up to 5 days per year.
• Pension: Aviva pension (5% employee / 3% employer).
• Medicash: Healthcare cash back plan.
• Annual xmas trip / Socials: Every year the whole agency goes away for a two night getaway. As well as frequent socials to get the agency together.
• Tank supplies: Drinks fridge, snacks and treats for those days when you’re in the office.
• Agency experience and direct employer brand experience are useful but not essential. We’re open to people from adjacent backgrounds who bring strong strategic thinking and a genuine interest in the space.