Midweight Strategist

Context

Strategy is a growing part of how we work with clients, and we're building the team around it. We're adding a Midweight Strategist to run parts of our brand engagements and take on smaller pieces of strategy work of their own. It's a chance to develop your craft alongside a senior strategy team as the practice grows.
The roleAs Midweight Strategist you will work on brand strategy for growth-stage B2B tech companies, from Series A to pre-IPO, most of them US-headquartered and in categories where trust is hard to earn.
You'll run defined workstreams within our engagements, from research through to the brief, and take on smaller, well-scoped projects yourself with support from the Senior Strategist and Strategy Director.
The core of the job is brand: positioning, brand architecture, brand platforms and messaging for companies that are usually building their foundations for the first time. Strategy here ends in identity, not a deck, so you'll work closely with our Creative Directors and design team. Reporting to the Strategy Director, with day-to-day coaching from the Senior Strategist.

What's expected from you

• You run defined workstreams within our brand engagements, such as category and competitor audits, audience work or messaging frameworks, and own them from planning to delivery.
• You take on smaller, well-scoped strategy projects yourself, with the Senior Strategist or Strategy Director reviewing the thinking at key points.
• You draft positioning options, brand platform elements and messaging that a creative team can work from, and you can set out the alternative routes and explain the one you'd choose.
• You interpret a client brief and understand the business behind it: how the company makes money, who buys, how the sale happens and where the brand has to do the work.

Research and insight

• You plan and run parts of discovery: desk research, category and competitor reviews, and stakeholder and customer interviews, including writing the discussion guides.
• You read category, search and review data and pull out insights the team can act on, and you know the difference between an observation and an insight.
• You synthesise what you find into clear implications for the strategy, so the team can see what each finding means for the recommendation.

Into the creative

• You write single-minded creative briefs and brief the creative team, with support from the Senior Strategist or Strategy Director on our larger programmes.
• You stay involved through concept development, giving the team useful stimulus and clear, considerate feedback on whether the work carries the strategy.
• You work closely with the Creative Director: Visual & Design, the Creative Director: Concept & Verbal and their teams, and you help plan and facilitate workshops and creative sessions.

Clients

• You present your parts of the work to client teams, and you build the presentations that tell the story of a recommendation clearly.
• You can set out a hypothesis and how we'd test it, and show data in a way that makes the argument easy to follow.
• You help define objectives and the measures that will show whether the work is doing its job.

The agency

• You work with Client Services to plan your time and deliver your workstreams on brief, on time and on budget.
• You contribute research and thinking to proposals and pitches.
• You lead initiatives within the strategy team, such as templates, tools and how we use AI.
• You know what you want to learn next, and you look for the projects and training that will get you there.

Capabilities

• Three to five years in strategy, a good part of it in brand consultancy or a brand and design studio.
• A portfolio of positioning, brand platform or messaging work you made a substantial contribution to, with a clear sense of which parts you owned.
• Good design literacy. You understand how strategy becomes identity, and you can give a design team clear feedback on whether a route reflects the strategy.
• You write clearly and simply. A creative brief and a messaging framework are both writing jobs, and you're good at both.
• You're confident presenting your work to clients and colleagues, you can explain your thinking when it's questioned, and you take feedback well.
• You're comfortable with data. You can read category and search data, customer reviews and research findings, and turn them into a point of view.
• You already use AI in your work to go faster and think better, in line with our people-first values and AI manifesto, and you're curious about where it helps and where it doesn't.
• You can manage your own workload across several projects, and you know when to ask for help.

Ideally, you'll also have:

• Experience with B2B technology brands, or another category where the product is complex and the buyer is technical.
• Some experience of campaign or content strategy.
• An interest in marketing effectiveness and how brand work is measured.

• 25 days holiday + Christmas + Bank Holidays
• £500 annual training budget
• Paid Birthday Off
• Group Life & Health Cash Plan
• Annual Profit Share
• Our culture days, quarterly charity days, and annual off-site events further underscore our commitment to an environment where our people thrive.

• 25 days holiday + Christmas + Bank Holidays
• £500 annual training budget
• Paid Birthday Off
• Group Life & Health Cash Plan
• Cycle-to-Work / Tech Schemes
• Annual Profit Share
• Our culture days, quarterly charity days, and annual off-site events further underscore our commitment to an environment where our people thrive.

Diversity, inclusion and belonging

At Shaped By, we believe in putting people first and product before profit – it's embedded in our core principles. We're committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone is welcome and supported. No matter where you are in your journey with us, we're here to help you grow and succeed.

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