SVP, Executive Director Strategy

About Us

Codeword is a communication agency that helps brands create breakthrough comms, content, and community experiences.

We’re a fast-moving team of writers, editors, designers, strategists, videographers, PR mavens, and even a few traditional marketers.

Our incredible roster of global brands trust us to launch their startups, run multi-channel campaigns, grow their user bases, and lead comprehensive PR and marketing initiatives. We're storytellers and brand engineers, and we love big ideas that serve a real purpose.

Codeword is a remote-first agency, with physical offices in NYC and SF that we won’t make you visit.

About You

• At least a dozen years of experience building brands and digital marketing programs in an agency setting, and working with technology and AI brands.
• A proven team leader and mentor.
• Up-to-speed on the latest industry best practices and approaches, with a clear POV on how Codeword can do things better.
• A very-online digital culture enthusiast, who’s just as comfortable on a subreddit as you are at Cannes.
• Ambitious and passionate about helping your clients grow their business, and helping Codeword grow ours.
• An innovator’s mindset that thrives on ambiguity and open-ended challenges.
• A master communicator across meetings, documents, decks, and presentations.
• Fluent in some combination of brand strategy, content strategy, social media, earned media, and measurement/analytics.
  
  

About This Role

The Head of Strategy will report to the agency partners, and be a vital member of the agency leadership team.

You’ll be responsible for Codeword’s work developing brands and communications strategies, and shaping our overall approach to our work. Codeword does a wide range of work for a wide range of brands, and our Head of Strategy needs to be a generalist leader who can guide a team of experts while also developing novel strategic solutions.

Our Strategy Practice Includes

• Audience research
• Digital strategy
• Brand strategy
• Content strategy
• Social media strategy
• Creator engagement strategy
• Earned media/PR strategy
• Measurement and analytics
  
  

The main thing we don’t do: We don’t make ads.

And unlike most agencies, we don’t have a hard line between our creatives and strategists. So if you like to mix it up, great, so do we!

The role demands an effective communicator, who’s just as comfortable consulting for executive clients as they are mentoring our team members, and isn’t afraid to get up on stage or speak to the trade press.

What You’ll Be Doing

INTERNALLY

• Guide Codeword’s strategic approach, and help it evolve
• Coach strategy team members to further develop their skills and help them grow
• Maintain a collaborative, connected, empowered team of strategists by retaining high performers, identifying growth opportunities, and attracting new talent to the team
• Advocate internally for Codeword’s strategy team and our approach to the work
• Collaborate with the agency leadership team on high-level business decisions
• Make strategic business recommendations to help Codeword grow and stay on the cutting edge.
  
  

EXTERNALLY

• Advocate for the agency’s point of view on brand communications
• Develop and productize our strategy offerings and frameworks
• Build relationships with our senior clients, and engage them in strategic business conversations
• Provide guidance and feedback on the agency’s client work
• Help drive new business through pitching and RFPs
• Represent Codeword at conferences and events
• Maintain a strong network of collaborators, freelancers, client contacts, and friendlies
  
  

Your Compensation

People – that's you! – are the heart of our business, and we believe in pay transparency.

We’ll talk more about this in our interviews, and our budget for this role starts around $200K, depending on experience.

Codeword Benefits

• Flexible work hours
• Minimum 20 days paid vacation annually
• 401k + financial wellness support
• Health Insurance (medical, dental, life, pet, mental health services)
• Home office allowance
• Bi-annual Wellness Credits
• Monthly Technology Credit (to offset internet / phone costs)
• Comprehensive Parental Leave Policy
  
  

A Few More Things You Should Know About Codeword

• The Codeword dream: Make good money doing work you care about with people you like.
• We love our clients (they write the checks!), which means maintaining a high bar for the creativity, smarts, responsiveness, and communication skills we offer them.
• We’re around 100 people, big enough to handle large-scale marketing programs, small enough that you’ll have an impact on our culture.
• We’re a friendly team, we look after each other, and we grow our careers together.
• We respect everyone’s personal life. After-hours emails are strongly frowned upon, night and weekend work is very rare, and employees are encouraged to pursue their side-hustles.
• We’re all grownups here, and we trust each other to get the work done, whether at home or in an office or a time zone on the other side of the world.
• We believe in defaulting to openness. Our calendars, our salary tiers, and our doors are open for all to see. (Except for secret client stuff, which we guard with our lives.)
• We’re a proud member of the global WE Communications family.
• Equal Opportunity: Codeword provides equal employment opportunity and doesn’t discriminate against employees or applicants because of age, race, color, religion, gender, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, or other legally protected class status.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Codeword works hard to foster a diverse team and an inclusive workplace where everyone thrives.
  
  

We aren’t a traditional agency, so we like to hire people who don’t necessarily fit the agency mold or check all the “right” boxes. If you’re on the fence about applying, please do!