Strategy Director at Koto in New York

The Role

You take the strategic lead on active projects, running the day-to-day thinking and turning what matters to a client's business into a real creative opportunity. You're the kind of strategist who's rationally optimistic about what a brand can do, and you hold the work to that standard from first brief to final delivery.

You are hands-on in the work, owning the development and execution of strategy while bringing the confidence and judgment to lead clients through it. You work shoulder to shoulder with Design through the creative phases, shaping and articulating territories and ensuring the strategic thread holds all the way through.

Reporting to our Senior Strategy Director, you have the autonomy to lead your accounts and projects while contributing to the continued growth of our strategy practice.

Your Responsibilities

1. You develop, refine, and deliver outstanding brand strategies. You can get deep into a client's business, audience, and culture, distilling complexity into a clear and compelling strategic opportunity. You bring both rigor and imagination to the work and know how to turn strong thinking into something creatively useful.
2. You take strategic ownership of several live projects at once. You are hands-on in your work and accountable for its quality from brief through delivery, while directing more junior strategists and external collaborators as needed. You understand the time, people, and inputs excellent work requires and manage scope, calendars, and expectations accordingly.
3. You are excellent in the room with clients. You build sharp, compelling presentations and deliver them with confidence, clarity, and authority. You know how to bring clients along in the thinking, read a room, respond thoughtfully in the moment, navigate challenging conversations, and build conviction around a strategic direction.
4. You become a trusted advisor to your clients. You develop a strong understanding of their business and ambitions, build relationships grounded in trust, and identify opportunities beyond the immediate brief. Clients value your perspective and look to you for guidance, not just deliverables.
5. You partner closely with Design throughout the creative process. You help shape and articulate creative territories, give useful strategic perspective as the work develops, and ensure the thinking translates into a distinctive and meaningful brand experience. You understand that great strategy doesn't stop when the brief is written.
6. You bring deep fluency in brand and a strong point of view. You understand how brands create value for businesses and connect with people and culture. You're excited by the opportunity to work across established global businesses and ambitious founders, and bring curiosity about what's changing in the world around them.
7. You make the people and work around you better. You collaborate generously across disciplines, share your expertise and practical skills with more junior strategists, and contribute to a high bar for strategic thinking across the studio. You seek out and act on feedback from Strategy leadership, taking ownership of your continued growth and impact.
8. You are willing to work in person at our New York studio, contribute meaningfully to our studio culture, and are open to global travel.
9. You have a strong working knowledge of Figma/FigJam, Pitch, and Notion.

Our Responsibilities

1. We will ensure you have meaningful and regular access to your manager to support your personal development and career trajectory.
2. We will actively reward performance with promotions, pay increases, and a discretionary annual bonus of up to 10% of salary to all employees.
3. We ensure Koto is an equal environment for all its employees.
4. We will support you in taking family leave and offer significant paid maternity and paternity.
5. We will actively encourage you to take 25 vacation days per year, in addition to US national holidays (on average, 10) and a studio closure between Christmas and New Year.
6. We offer a 401(k) that you can contribute to, and Koto matches contributions up to 4%.
7. We deploy a monthly ‘employee wellness’ benefits package via Juno of $105 per month.
8. We offer YCN access and fund relevant training opportunities for any employee looking to develop themselves and their career.
9. We reward five years of service with $5,000 and five days' holiday. We reward ten years of service with $10,000 and four weeks' holiday.
10. We will allow you to work from any of the five Koto studios globally, with appropriate planning and application.

Our Culture

• At Koto we encourage our team to be ‘rationally optimistic’ about the potential of our work, our clients, their businesses, and the power of brand.
• We pursue the best briefs, want to inspire meaningful work, and for those interested provide an opportunity to make the work of their lives. We are actively cultivating leadership, culture, and spaces to encourage this.
• We work in person, with an optional WFH day on Friday and an additional 20 remote days per year. We believe this produces the best work, mentoring opportunities, collective learning and culture.
• We encourage autonomy in each member of our team, allowing them to manage their own time, hours, and personal commitments appropriately to complete work.