Senior Strategist (for a top Leeds Independent Agency)

Location - Leeds, hybrid - 2 days a week in the office

Salary - £45-60k, depending on experience

Reports to - Board Directors and Business Directors

Been there. Done that. Ready to lead the thinking behind brilliant work?

We're looking for an experienced Senior Strategist to help shape smart, insight led campaigns for a brilliant Leeds agency.

This is a role for a strategic generalist with strong media foundations - someone who can get under the skin of audiences, turn insight into clear direction, and help clients make better decisions across channels.

You'll work closely with media, digital, SEO, PR and client teams to build strategies that are joined up, commercially sharp and grounded in evidence. Media experience is important but this isn't a narrow media only role. It's for someone who can zoom out, connect the dots and bring clear strategic direction to a wide range of client challenges.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading strategic conversations with clients, helping them make sense of their challenges and spot the right opportunities
• Turning audience, market and campaign insight into clear, useful recommendations
• Shaping integrated strategies across paid, owned and earned touchpoints
• Bringing strong media thinking to the table across all channels
• Working closely with media, digital, SEO, PR and specialist teams to make sure campaigns are properly joined up
• Acting as a trusted senior advisor to key clients, building strong, long term relationships
• Leading planning conversations, workshops and presentations with confidence and clarity
• Supporting and mentoring the team, helping them sharpen their strategic thinking
• Spotting opportunities for growth, innovation and smarter ways to solve client problems

What You'll Bring to the Table

Skills & Experience

• Strong strategy experience within a media, marketing or integrated agency environment
• Solid understanding of media planning and buying
• Experience using audience, market and campaign performance data to shape strategic recommendations
• A broad, generalist strategic brain - comfortable thinking across brand, audience, channel, media and commercial objectives
• Proven ability to build and grow senior client relationships
• Confidence presenting strategic thinking in a way that feels clear, compelling and useful
• Experience supporting, mentoring or developing others
• Commercial awareness and the confidence to challenge thinking when needed

Mindset & Approach

• Strategic - you enjoy finding the real problem behind the brief
• Curious - you like digging into audiences, markets and behaviour
• Collaborative - you bring teams together rather than disappearing into strategy land
• Commercial - you understand that good strategy needs to drive real world results
• Clear - you can turn complex thinking into something people actually understand
• Media minded - you know the role media plays in building brands and delivering outcomes

Why Apply?

• Work with big name clients across a range of sectors
• Lead strategic thinking across varied, interesting briefs - not just one narrow lane
• Learn from experienced Board Directors while helping shape the agency's strategic offer
• Join a team that values smart thinking, collaboration and straight talking
• Hybrid working, with two days a week in the Leeds office
• A culture that looks after its people, from socials to sabbaticals

Sound like your kind of next move?

If you're a strategic thinker with strong media foundations and a brilliant generalist brain, we'd love to hear from you.