Director of Strategic Planning

We are seeking an exceptional Planning Strategy Director to be the right hand to a Chief Strategy Officer, leading planning transformation engagements for some of the world's most ambitious multinational brands. This role sits within our Planning Transformation and Operating Structures pillars, the two areas at the core of our current strategic focus. You'll work directly into the CSO and have real scope to shape how we grow this practice.

At the heart of this role is a love of planning. Not just the theory, but the practice - the ability to articulate what great planning looks like, to design the processes and frameworks that make it repeatable, and to bring whole organisations along on that journey. Our clients are complex, blue-chip multinationals with scale and genuine appetite for best practice and innovation. They need someone who can earn trust quickly, navigate politics with grace, and land meaningful change that sticks.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead planning transformation engagements end-to-end for major multinational clients - from diagnosis through to embedding new ways of working.
• Design and articulate what best-in-class planning looks like for a given organisation: the right frameworks, processes, tools, and behaviours.
• Assess and redesign planning operating models, including how marketing teams are structured, how agency relationships work, and how planning and buying connect.
• Develop practical planning playbooks, toolkits, and training programmes that translate strategic thinking into day-to-day practice.
• Facilitate workshops and capability sessions that build genuine understanding and lasting advocacy - not just compliance.

Strategic Vision & Thought Leadership:

• Challenge existing planning conventions and bring fresh, evidence-based perspectives on how communications planning is evolving.
• Bring deep knowledge of planning models, approaches, and frameworks - and an informed, thoughtful point of view on what works and why.
• Stay sharp on the changing media and communications landscape, including the role of data, technology, social, and digital channels in shaping planning practice.
• Contribute to RMA's own thinking and IP development - helping us sharpen our offer and build our reputation as the best in the business at this.

Stakeholder Engagement & Influence:

• Build immediate credibility and trust with senior clients - marketing directors, CMOs, and their agency partners.
• Navigate complex organisational politics with skill: ensuring all key stakeholders feel heard, managing competing agendas, and creating the conditions for alignment.
• Translate complex concepts into clear, compelling narratives that resonate with both creative and commercial audiences.
• Identify opportunities to deepen client relationships and bring in additional RMA capabilities - including our more specialist social, digital, and channel governance products.

Collaboration & Commercial Instinct:

• Work closely with the CSO and broader RMA team, contributing to the way we shape and evolve our planning transformation practice.
• Bring an enterprising mindset - able to figure things out independently, spot the opportunity in a client challenge, and propose the right next step.
• Understand the role of technology and measurement tools in planning without getting lost in the detail - able to bridge the gap between strategic intent and technical delivery.

About You:

• Significant senior experience in communications and comms planning - agency-side, client-side, or consultancy, or a combination.
• Deep craft knowledge of planning: models, frameworks, approaches, and what makes planning genuinely effective.
• Demonstrable experience designing planning processes and frameworks - ideally ones you've then trained others to use and embedded into a team or organisation.
• Experience leading or contributing to a planning transformation: redesigning how a marketing team or agency plans, potentially including operating model or structural change.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills - able to cut through jargon, simplify complexity, and make the case for change in a way that moves people.
• Experience working in a marketing consultancy, or the consultancy arm of an agency or auditor.
• Familiarity with agency relationship models and how to optimise them for planning excellence.
• Understanding of social, digital, and channel-specific planning best practice.
• Comfort engaging with measurement frameworks, planning tools, and marketing technology - enough to connect strategic recommendations to practical implementation.
• Experience working with FMCG, CPG, or other large-scale consumer brand organisations.

About Our Client:

When brands act responsibly in the media and marketing environment, their success deepens. Responsible marketing is a broad set of criteria - from a baseline of standards in brand safety, governance, and compliance through to future-proofing endeavours in sustainability, inclusion and diversity, and ethical marketing practice. Our clients' success hinges on making media and creative fit for progress.

Their team's passion for diversity, inclusion, sustainability, equality, and ethical practice through responsible marketing is what sets them apart. They help clients realise growth through media, digital, and marketing consultancy. They are at an exciting and critical phase of growth and, as we evolve, they want to bring together more passionate people who share these values. We're all about our business and our client's businesses reflecting the world around us, which means we embrace diversity and inclusion and promote equity and belonging. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experiences. Apply as you are, because we'd love to hear from you.