Senior Strategist (Contract)
3 days ago
City of London
The Role: Freelance or FTC Senior Strategist for VCCP Bernadette. Starting asap until the end of the year. We are looking for a Senior Strategist to join our team on a freelance/contract basis for a 2 – 3 month engagement. You will work on an exciting new digital experience project for a major UK brand with a global footprint that has recently become a client of ours. Working in a multidisciplinary team with our UX and UI designers, developers, and project managers, you will have the opportunity to use your full range of strategic thinking and doing skills. You will be passionate and knowledgeable about digital experience and design, including a holistic understanding of how touchpoints, channels, services, and ecosystems are deployed and connected to optimally support our clients’ customers, businesses, and brands. The key to success in this role will be your ability to bridge between strategy and execution, finding the right balance between big-picture strategic thinking and a tactical mindset to turn those visions into reality. Whilst an understanding of brand and comms is important, we are not looking for a Brand Planner, applicants should be experienced in digital experience strategy and working closely with designers. Key Responsibilities: • Analyse clients’ current ecosystem, customer base, strategic goals, performance, organisation, and operations to understand where they are today and what the future challenge entails., • Conduct desk research to identify technology, market trends, and comparative best practices, both in and out of category, and connect these with client goals and opportunities., • Conduct primary research with customers and internal stakeholders to identify key insights and areas of opportunity, and help ground strategic recommendations in customer needs., • Work with UX team to understand and map current cross-ecosystem journeys and experiences, to help build a picture and identify key opportunity areas., • Build a strategic framework or vision to articulate the opportunity and direction of the project., • Facilitate workshops to bring clarity and direction to the client and internal teams, including stakeholder alignment sessions with a wide range of potential contributors., • Collaborate with the UX/UI design, development, and delivery teams to develop a view of the future state experience and customer journeys that deliver on it., • Advise the client on measurement best practices to help drive continuous improvement., • Translate the strategy and vision into an actionable, prioritised roadmap that considers the experience we want to deliver and the client capability required to deliver it., • Develop compelling presentations to put forward our recommendations and simplify complexity. About you: • You’re naturally empathetic with our various clients and their diverse customers, able to build rapport and relationships, and always curious about their activities and goals, values, and world views., • You’re comfortable with ambiguity and enjoy negotiating complexity, happy to operate on different “zoom levels” from setting big picture vision to grappling with technical details., • You love to collaborate with team members across disciplines on key tasks and to develop and refine thinking with them., • You’re keen to play a role and have a voice across the project lifecycle from research, strategy, and ideation, into design, roadmapping, and the build., • You strive to understand the operational and organisational challenges our key client stakeholders face, and ground strategy in actionable recommendations that address that reality, • Strong facilitation and presentation skills for senior audiences (internal and client stakeholders), • Data literacy and experience working with and briefing data analysts, as well asan understanding of what is needed to inform business cases Your experience: • 5 years in a similar role within an agency or client-side., • Experience working in Agile/iterative-based projects., • Preferred experience working with B2B clients, at SME, corporate, or enterprise level., • Preferred experience working in fast-paced digital agencies., • Ability to work with data, UX and design, technical teams, and delivery teams to deliver high-quality work., • A working knowledge of digital content strategy would be useful. CCP DE&I STATEMENT We believe that DE&I is about creating a strong culture of inclusion within our agency, where everyone can thrive and be their authentic self. VCCP is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or ethnicity. If you require any adjustments during the application or interview process, please let us know via . CRIMINAL RECORDS INFORMATION As part of our onboarding process, you will be required to complete a Criminal Records Declaration regarding any unspent convictions. For roles in finance, HR, Legal, IT or senior management, we may be required to verify your declaration with a basic DBS check, as well as an Adverse Finance and ID check. Please note, we try to respond to as many applications as possible but, if you do not hear from us within two weeks of submitting your application, please assume we are unable to proceed with your application for this specific role. Thank you for your interest in VCCP.