Senior Strategist

Job Title:

Senior Strategist

TERM

Permanent

Reporting Into:

Head of Strategy

Working Pattern

Full-time, Hybrid Working (3 days in the office, 2 days remote)

About us

Buttermilk is a London-based global influencer marketing agency that connects brands with their target audiences through the leading storytellers of our generation, while embracing a community-first approach. We like to start with nano creators, whom we fondly refer to as our ‘brand fans’, building authentic relationships that resonate deeply with consumers.

Our team delivers compelling influencer campaigns that scale brand narratives to reach millions across the globe. Unlike typical influencer agencies that prioritise data, technology, or chasing the latest trends, we immerse our strategy, creative, and creator collaborations in genuine cultural movements. We work with true culture-setters who not only resonate now, but have the staying power to grow alongside our brands.

With a pitch success rate exceeding 90%, each week brings new and exciting opportunities. We are seeking a confident, charismatic, and self-driven Senior Strategist to help shape our strategy offering and ensure new and existing clients continue to receive the exceptional service that defines Buttermilk.

The Role

As a Senior Strategist, you will play a leading role in shaping how brands connect with audiences through creators, platforms and culture.

You will independently lead strategic workstreams from brief to recommendation, identifying the real business and audience challenge, uncovering meaningful cultural and behavioural insights, and translating them into clear creator and content strategies.

This is a hands-on, client-facing role. You will be expected to confidently build the thinking, shape the narrative and present the recommendation, working across a varied portfolio of global brands and categories.

You will work closely with Creative, Creator, Data and Client Services teams to turn strategy into culturally relevant and effective work, while contributing to new business, supporting junior strategists and strengthening Buttermilk's wider strategic product.

The Role Requirements

Strategic Thinking & Cultural Insight

• Independently lead strategy across client briefs, campaigns and defined strategic workstreams.
• Interrogate briefs to identify the underlying business, audience or behavioural challenge.
• Turn audience, cultural, category, competitor and performance intelligence into meaningful insights and clear strategic opportunities.
• Build compelling strategic narratives that connect challenge, insight, opportunity, creator role and creative direction.
• Identify cultural and category whitespace that gives brands a distinctive and credible way to participate.

Creator, Content & Platform Strategy

• Develop creator strategies grounded in audience behaviour, culture and clear brand objectives.
• Define the role creators should play, including appropriate communities, cohorts, tiers and content approaches.
• Build content and platform strategies that consider format, behaviour, cadence, distribution and amplification.
• Bring a strong existing understanding of influencer and creator marketing, rather than approaching creators solely through a creative or social lens.
• Stay ahead of changes across creators, platforms and culture and translate these into actionable implications for clients.

Client & Creative Partnership

• Act as a confident strategic partner across assigned client briefs and workstreams.
• Present and defend strategic recommendations clearly and persuasively.
• Write clear, inspiring creative briefs that provide a focused strategic springboard.
• Partner with Creative and Creator teams throughout development, ensuring ideas remain strategically grounded and creator-native.
• Adapt your strategic approach and communication style across different brands, categories and client needs.

Growth & New Business

• Play a significant strategic role across new business pitches and RFPs.
• Own defined strategic workstreams within major pitches and lead strategy on appropriate opportunities.
• Develop compelling pitch narratives rooted in audience, cultural and creator insight.
• Identify proactive strategic opportunities that strengthen existing client relationships.
• Contribute to the development of longer-term client proposals and strategic planning.

Effectiveness & Learning

• Partner with Data and Client Services to establish clear objectives and measures of success.
• Evaluate performance against the original strategic hypothesis.
• Turn campaign learnings into clear recommendations for future work.
• Apply learnings across briefs, clients and categories rather than treating campaigns in isolation.

Team & Agency Contribution

• Support and mentor junior strategists through clear, constructive feedback.
• Contribute to Buttermilk's strategic frameworks, tools and ways of working.
• Share relevant cultural, creator and platform intelligence across the agency.
• Contribute original perspectives to client and external thought leadership.

Your Background

To excel in this role, you will bring:

• Currently in a similar Senior Strategist role with proven experience independently leading creator, influencer, social or content strategy.
• Strong agency experience working across a varied portfolio of brands, categories and client challenges.
• Deep understanding of influencer and creator marketing, including creator roles, communities, content, platforms and measurement.
• Strong cultural and audience instincts, with the ability to turn research and data into a distinctive strategic point of view.
• Strong creative briefing and strategic storytelling skills.
• Confident client-facing experience, including presenting and defending recommendations with senior stakeholders.
• Experience contributing substantially to new business pitches.
• Experience working with global brands and audiences, with US market exposure strongly preferred.
• Confidence working across both qualitative and quantitative research.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Experience mentoring junior strategists is preferred.
• Adaptable, proactive and comfortable moving between different brands, categories, tones and types of strategic challenge.

*The working hours for this role are GMT. This position requires regular in-person

collaboration, with 3 days in our lovely and chic Shoreditch office.