Senior Strategist

Our philosophy is simple: in a world fast approaching commoditization, our job is to make clients' brands unignorable. We believe creating unignorable brands begins with putting the consumer at the center of our thinking. We believe that people are smart and respond to brands that speak to them with intelligence, insight and purpose. Because when people don’t have to engage with your work anymore, you have to make them want to.

We believe in diversity and inclusion. We believe diversity drives better thinking, creativity, and innovation, and we are working to build a culture that includes and values different voices and perspectives. We also recognize that we’re still learning. To support an inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to share their experiences and ideas, we have a diversity and inclusion team, and mandatory Unconscious Bias Training, and rigour in our recruitment process

The Role:

As a Senior Strategist, you will turn curiosity into clarity and insight into ideas people actually care about. This is a role for a strategist who pushes further, beyond the obvious or the expected, and beyond the brief.

You will take day-to-day strategic responsibility for uncovering human insights, formulating brand communication strategies, and writing creative briefs that provoke. Partnering closely with the CSO, strategy partners, and creative teams, you will translate our clients’ business objectives into powerful cultural insights, unlocking the most persuasive space for creative ideas to live.

Ultimately, your job is to ensure our creative work is strategically sound, effectively influences consumer behaviour, and elevates our creative product.

What you’ll do:

• Help shape brand positioning, campaign strategy, and communications platforms, turning complex business challenges into clear, focused direction.
• Contribute to strategies grounded in consumer insight, expression, and connections, spanning big campaign moments down to the details of social ecosystems (paid and organic) and web.
• Craft clear, focused, and directional creative briefs that don't just inform, but inspire and give creative teams a springboard to push against.
• Actively collaborate with creative teams during reviews to build upon ideas, ensuring they hold together across every touchpoint while maintaining strategic integrity.
• Apply creative thinking to business problems, reframing briefs in ways that unlock unexpected creative solutions.
• Lead the charge in integrating AI and emerging technologies into our strategic process to streamline workflows and uncover deeper, predictive insights.
• Monitor campaign results closely, translating data into actionable insights for continuous testing, learning, and optimization.

Who you are:

• A Curious Explorer: You don’t take things at face value. You ask better questions, look for tension, and push past easy answers because you are genuinely fascinated by human behaviour.
• A Creative Catalyst: You believe strategy should open creative doors, not lock them down. You are collaborative but opinionated; curious but focused.
• A Persuasive Communicator & Presenter: You are a natural storyteller who can simplify complex research and strategic thinking into sharp, compelling narratives that align internal teams and bring clients with you.
• An Inspiring Leader: You are a generous teammate dedicated to fostering a collaborative environment and elevating the people around you.

The Experience

• You Bring: 4 - 6+ years of experience in strategic planning roles within creative or integrated advertising agencies.
• A strong foundation in brand and communications strategy, with working knowledge across digital ecosystems and social strategy.
• Some experience (or active curiosity) in integrating AI tools to improve research, efficiency, and strategic output.
• A deep understanding of, and respect for, the creative development process.
• Comfort with both qualitative and quantitative research tools (social listening, audience data, brand tracking).

The base salary for this position at the time of this posting may range from CA$85,000 to CA$115,000. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications.

john st. is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers