Head of Strategy

The Head of Strategy is a senior leadership role responsible for building and leading OA's Strategy function from the ground up. You are a trusted advisor to clients and senior stakeholders across the business, shaping strategic direction for new business, existing accounts, and the agency's own growth.

This position requires a balance of media and digital expertise, commercial acumen, and hands-on strategic craft, combining research-led discovery, sharp analysis, and confident client leadership to deliver work that is insight-led and commercially effective. You'll directly manage and develop the existing Strategy Manager, with a clear path to build and grow your own team as the function scales.

Media Trafford Park, Manchester hybrid Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership & New Business
• Lead strategic development for new business, partnering with Research & Insight and Sales to build the position, narrative, and story for prospective clients.
• Own 360 campaign strategy across accounts, defining where and why to invest budget. Digest research and PCA data to shape insight-led, research-backed client proposals.
• Discovery & Analysis Interrogate client briefs, performance data, and category/competitor intelligence to diagnose what's worked and where the opportunity lies.
• Build audience personas, segmentation, and competitive positioning in partnership with Research & Insight.
• Spot category and channel opportunities on existing accounts.

Strategic Output

• Write and build strategy decks for pitches, campaign briefs, and account reviews. Translate strategic recommendations into briefs that Planning/Buying and Creative can work from directly.
• Develop positioning statements, messaging frameworks, and campaign platforms. Build measurement frameworks that define success before a campaign launches.

Client & Internal Leadership

• Present and workshop strategy directly with client stakeholders, fielding questions and pushback with confidence.
• Align Creative, Digital, Events, Media Planning/Buying, and Account Management around a single strategic direction.
• Deliver PCAs and QBRs, with regular check-ins with Account Managers on live business

Team & Function Building

• Directly manage and develop the Strategy Manager, and build out the wider Strategy team as the agency grows.
• Develop and maintain OA's own strategic methodology and toolkit, the operating framework the function will work to.
• Define a clear career path within the function, with progression toward Associate Director and Director-level roles.

What We're Looking For

• Strong, demonstrable experience shaping strategy across Above The Line and digital media, ideally with range across creative and events/sponsorship.
• A proven track record leading strategic development for new business and building compelling client narratives.
• A history of proactively identifying growth within existing client relationships.
• Experience managing and developing a strategist or small team, with a genuine appetite to build a function rather than simply operate within one.
• Gravitas and confidence presenting, workshopping, and holding your own in senior-level and client-facing conversations.
• Cultural fluency, strong brand understanding, and the ability to operate at pace across varied, fast-moving briefs.

Are You The One?

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