Associate Director, Strategy

Impression Digital is a multi-award winning, high growth digital marketing agency based in Nottingham, London and Manchester. We’re looking for an ambitious Associate Director, Strategy to join the team and help us continue to deliver award-winning results for our clients. As a successful candidate, you will be given a clear progression path. We want talent to grow with us and there is ample opportunity for you to progress to the next level.

The Associate Strategy Director is a senior individual practitioner and strategic architect for the agency’s most complex, global, and enterprise-level partnerships. With a demonstrable background in digital and performance media, you’ll move beyond tactical execution to provide the long-term planning and rigorous measurement required to de-risk bold commercial shifts. Act as a high-level consultant to the wider agency, developing sophisticated planning methodologies and providing senior expertise to elevate the quality of work across all accounts.

Salary: £50,900 (Full-Time Equivalent), plus a £6,000 London Allowance where applicable.

What makes us different?

• Flexible, hybrid working options – as per ways of working charter
• 4.5 day working week
• Private medical insurance with access to EAP Impression funded specialist therapy sessions, up to 6 sessions where Impression funds 50% of the cost
• Enhanced sick pay
• Access to OpenUp, a virtual therapy platform
• Enhanced parental leave
• 28 days annual leave, plus bank holiday
• Life leave – when something unexpected happens in your life and you need some paid leave
• Pregnancy loss and parental bereavement leave
• Compassionate leave
• Eye‑care vouchers
• Opportunity to save on and spread the cost of new tech through Techscheme
• Travel to work scheme
• Railcard salary sacrifice scheme
• Budget for books, tools and software
• A full social calendar
• Summer and Christmas party (off‑site)
• Chance to attend national and international conferences
• Top Apple equipment to use at work
• Savings on bikes and accessories through Cycle Scheme
• Contributory pension scheme
• The usual agency stuff – office dogs, drinks fridge, ping pong and foosball, tea and coffee and office snacks

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

We’re listening and we’re learning. We’re committed to embracing diversity and promoting equal opportunities, both within our teams and through the services we provide. But we know we still have work to do. Improving fairness – in our agency and our industry – is something we’re passionate about, and we’re committed to having the conversations, making the changes and helping other businesses to do the same. We pledge to promote equal opportunities and, as per the Equality Act 2010, will not tolerate discrimination on the grounds of: gender, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, religion, age, disability, caring responsibilities or beliefs. We’ll also make every effort to represent different genders, ethnicities, socio‑economic backgrounds and sexualities at the events, panels and discussions we run.

Locations: London, Manchester, Nottingham

Responsibilities

• Strategic Transformation & Maturity: Lead the agency’s highest‑stakes consulting projects, auditing client digital maturity to reframe ambiguous briefs into actionable transformation roadmaps across media, data, and creative. Design and deliver compelling stories for C‑suite stakeholders, building the consensus and belief needed to secure investment for mid‑to‑long term growth plans.
• Evidence‑Led Architecture: Pressure test all strategic roadmaps using data and measurement intelligence, ensuring every recommendation, from creative messaging to technical data infrastructure, is rooted in commercial reality.
• Integrated Subject Matter Expertise: Act as the primary architect for cross‑discipline solutions, ensuring that Digital Media, Data/Measurement, and Performance Creative are integrated into a single, resilient engine.
• Media Effectiveness & De‑risking: Design advanced measurement frameworks, utilising methodologies like MMM, Incrementally, and ITSA, to provide the evidence required for transformative shifts in client investment.
• Pitch Leadership: Lead the strategic response for high‑value new business opportunities, articulating how integrated strategy across media, data, and creative drives P&L impact for a prospect’s business.
• Methodology Development: Translate bespoke, high‑value strategic solutions into repeatable frameworks and methodologies that can be utilised to raise the standard of work across the wider agency.
• Commercial Stewardship: Apply rigorous commercial logic to all strategic decisions, ensuring every initiative is backed by a robust financial case that supports agency growth and stability.
• Industry Authority: Represent the agency’s strategic expertise externally through opinionated thought leadership and industry engagement to build market reputation and inbound interest.

Required Skills and Experience

• Extensive experience in turning commercial business challenges into actionable strategic roadmaps for global or enterprise brands.
• Exceptional narrative leadership with a proven track record of navigating C‑suite environments to build belief, secure investment, and influence senior‑level decisions during planning and pivots.
• Authoritative knowledge of cross‑channel dynamics and advanced measurement techniques across digital media, data, and creative to prove the commercial impact of integrated strategy.
• Strategic foresight to anticipate trends and platform risks, with demonstrated experience in developing original frameworks, digital maturity models, and consultancy‑led service offerings.
• Rigorous commercial acumen in leading integrated strategic visions for high‑value new business pitches and ensuring all initiatives are backed by robust financial cases.
• Ability to inspire strategic excellence by defining a clear craft providing senior practitioner mentorship, and establishing the logic required for technically resilient cross‑functional teams.