Director of Strategy

About The Shelf

The Shelf is a fast-growing influencer marketing agency that blends data science with creativity to deliver standout campaigns. We work with top brands and platforms to craft strategies that are performance-first and culturally relevant.

Everyone claims to be data-backed. We prove it:

Our top-funnel campaigns outperformed a client's lower-funnel agency campaigns by 5x in conversions

TikTok verified that our campaigns perform 500x above their ad benchmarks in watch time

One of our TikTok ads ranked #2 globally for an entire month

But what really sets us apart? Our people-first culture. We actively discourage burnout, uphold a true 40-hour workweek, and invest deeply in our team's wellbeing and growth.

100% covered healthcare

Flexible PTO

Company holidays that actually get honored

In-person off-sites in Atlanta to foster real connection

About the role

• We're hiring a Strategy Director to spearhead strategic growth and new business development—translating cultural intelligence into performance-driven strategies that win pitches, expand accounts, and set new industry standards.

What you'll do

Strategic Leadership & Client Impact

• Be the senior strategic partner for priority accounts—setting vision, frameworks, and testing agendas that ladder to client KPIs.
• Architect multi-channel creator ecosystems and content architectures that align platform algorithms with brand goals.
• Shape and present high-impact POVs to C-suite and Executive stakeholders.
• Simplify complexity into crisp stories and decisions.
• Drive renewals and expansions with clear hypotheses, measurement plans, and ROI narratives.

Insights, AI & Innovation

• Build a social-first insights hub that transforms cultural signals and audience data into actionable creative direction.
• Leverage social listening, audience intelligence, and platform analytics to spark ideas that influence campaign concepts and creator casting.
• Leverage AI-powered systems to accelerate trendspotting, creative ideation, and content intelligence—turning insights into standout campaign ideas at speed and scale.

Creator & Culture Strategy

• Define creator selection rubrics and brand-safe guardrails; champion inclusive casting and community-led creative.
• Decode algorithmic shifts and cultural signals into actionable creative and channel bets.

Team Leadership & Operations

• Manage and mentor a team of strategists and analysts.
• Set standards for writing, storytelling, and visual craft.
• Resource plan across accounts; scope, price, and forecast strategy work in partnership with Account Management and Ops.
• Uplevel deck quality and strategic rigor.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Creative: Co-lead concept development and testing roadmaps.
• New Business: Increase pitch conversion with standout strategy and creator POVs.
• Marketing: Shape thought leadership, webinars, and case studies; represent The Shelf externally.

Product/Tech: Inform roadmap for internal tools and UI/UX; translate strategist needs into requirements.

Qualifications

8–12+ years in strategy, brand/creative strategy, social/influencer, insights, or similar; 3+ years leading strategists or cross-functional teams.

Portfolio of work that ties cultural insight to measurable performance.

Elite storytelling: you bring clarity to complexity and can command a room.

Fluency with tools like Infegy, YouGov, SparkToro, TikTok Creative Center, Reddit, and ChatGPT—or equivalent.

Strong deck craft (Google Slides/PowerPoint) and a bias for structured frameworks.

Bonus: trend forecasting, creator discovery, or early-stage AI experience; startup/agency/marketing-tech background.

Major Bonus: strong visual design sensibility.

Why You'll Love It Here

We're building something meaningful and sustainable without burning people out. You'll have the runway to push the industry forward while working with a team that values impact, balance, and craft.