Brand Strategy Associate Director

Brand Strategy Associate Director - EMEA

About Yonder

Yonder is a strategic transformation company dedicated to helping organisations stay ahead of change. We combine innovation, data, insight, strategy and culture expertise to empower clients to make faster, smarter decisions about their futures. We are uniquely positioned at the intersection of strategy, insight, creativity, and execution, partnering with clients to unlock new possibilities and take agency to shape the world around them.

Role overview

Brand Strategy plays a core role in our strategic transformation offer, both connecting existing brands with their audiences and shaping new breakthrough brands to position for growth.

The  Associate Director will be as a senior practitioner, responsible for leading the strategic content and quality of our work. It demands a combination of analytical and strategic rigour, deep insight, creativity and commercial acumen. You're 'creating a following', as a leader in our business, bringing together teams to deliver great work, and as a partner for our clients, listening and inspiring in equal measure.

You are deeply insightful and have a perspective on the world around you, using this to craft compelling opinions with our clients while also shaping your own voice in the market. This is where you take a stake in shaping a unique offer in the market, creating your own platform to step into the role of Director in due course.

You'll lead strategic projects with our client partners, ensuring our approach, thinking and output is of the highest standard and delivering measurable business impact. You will play a key role in identifying 'a better way', evolving methods and tools, shaping new ones, ensuring we never stand still.

The Associate Director will translate a breadth and depth of insight into clear opportunities to shape brands and experiences that drive value and impact for our client partners and those they serve.

What makes you different?

• You're a founder, not a follower
  You want a stake in the future, you exist to shape what's next, always seeking better —whether through new insight, methods or perspectives —to uncover possibility and express ideas.
  
  
• You think beyond the obvious
  Able to connect diverse signals, ideas, and data sources into transformational insights that reframe the conventional view about what's happening today and what that means for tomorrow.
  
  
• A compelling storyteller
  Skilled at distilling complexity into clear, powerful narratives that cut through the noise, inspire, and drive action.
  
  
• Confident yet adaptive
  Bring strong convictions and the ability to articulate a point of view with clarity, while remaining open to input, challenge, and evolution.
  
  
• Value obsessed
  You understand value creation, you never stop challenging new sources of strategic, commercial, and cultural value that can transform our clients business.
  
  
• A relentless source of energy and inspiration
  You bring presence, momentum, and inspiration that energise both clients and colleagues, helping to spark innovation and progress.
  
  

What craft skills do you bring into the role?

• An experienced brand strategy practitioner, you have a depth of experience in an agency or consulting environment, even applying these skills in a start-up or high growth environment.
• You are an expert strategic storyteller, using deep compelling insight, to shape a story that instils belief and inspires possibility. You easily land strategic choices and direction with senior clients.
• A natural border crosser, you may have committed into one discipline or industry then shifted to another, thriving on the exchanging of methods and approaches. You are very happy to work with a range of tools and methods from across the team, as a team to deliver great work.
• You bring a strong external, customer and cultural insight lens, while being able to dig deep and unpack a organisation's own story and identity.
• You understand and can shape the modern brand playbook, how brands need to adapt and scale in a rapidly evolving market and how to connect implications to the whole organisation.
• You have a handle and ongoing curiosity around emerging forces shaping culture and social change, and how that opens up new areas for growth and relevance, through brand or proposition.
• Despite being grounded in a strategic brand skillset you have a strong overlap into innovation, being able to pull through brand into implications for experience and proposition design.
  
  

Key responsibilities

Leadership & Programme Delivery

• Lead, manage, and deliver large-scale strategic programmes from conception to completion.
• Ensure projects are prioritised, delivered on time and within budget.
• Guarantee the highest quality of strategy outputs.

Strategy Development & Storytelling

• Produce insightful, actionable strategies supported by compelling storytelling.
• Own and shape the strategic narrative, integrating multiple sources of data and insight.
• Create a clear line of sight from insight to implication, opportunity, or strategy.

Insight & Problem-Solving

• Lead the strategic insight process from framing questions to selecting sources and lenses.
• Apply different perspectives (customer, brand, culture, commercial, capability) to unlock insights.
• Use insight and imagination to reframe challenges and create new possibilities.
• Facilitate debate and drive fresh avenues of thinking across teams.

Client Engagement & Business Growth

• Partner with project and programme teams to challenge briefs, set visions, and scope projects.
• Collaborate with Creative specialists to ensure ideas align with strategic objectives.
• Successfully sell revenue-generating recommendations to new and existing clients.
• Support pitching, proposal writing, and converting new business opportunities.
• Play a key role in senior client meetings and presentations.
  
  

Team Management & Development

• Line manage and mentor team members, supporting their growth and career progression.
• Contribute to a strong team culture of collaboration and delivery.
• Uphold and embody Yonder's values in leadership actions and decisions.
• Help to attract, retain, and develop world-class talent through visible, role-model leadership.

Key competencies

Leadership

You lead with positivity, confidence, and high standards, inspiring teams through effective communication, sound decision-making, and problem-solving. You collaborate with colleagues, adapt to change, and know when to escalate issues, demonstrating strong judgement and presence.

Client Excellence

You act as a trusted advisor by deeply understanding client sectors, listening effectively, and constructively challenging briefs. You manage multiple projects with professionalism, ensuring measurable outcomes and value for clients, while promoting Yonder's wider expertise. You collaborate across teams to generate insights and consistently deliver excellence.

Commerciality

You contribute to business growth by actively engaging in pitches, networking, and identifying new opportunities. You understand client impact on Yonder's commercial success, manage resources effectively, and explore ways to support clients beyond scope, balancing client service with commercial viability.

Collaboration

You build trust and strong working relationships, sharing ideas and fostering collaboration across teams and clients. You maintain and grow external networks, nurture long-term client relationships, and seek opportunities to expand your knowledge. You welcome feedback and demonstrate a growth mindset to continuously improve.

Mentorship

You lead high-performing teams by setting clear objectives, providing honest feedback, and addressing performance constructively. You manage workloads effectively, communicate with clarity, and act as a role model, mentoring colleagues to achieve shared success and strong client outcomes.

Culture Building

You contribute to a positive, inclusive workplace culture by upholding Yonder's values, promoting wellbeing, and demonstrating ethics and integrity. You support colleagues, foster a healthy work-life balance, and actively participate in making Yonder a great place to work.

What Yonder can offer you 

Yonder is a company on a mission to help our people and our clients take a stake in the future. We want to hire, retain and reward those who share and deliver on that ambition. We offer a competitive salary with company performance-linked incentives. Our work is rewarding and can also be demanding, so we provide the flexibility and conditions to do your best work while respecting what's important in your personal life - we offer 28 days holiday (plus your birthday day off), a 5% employer pension contribution, life assurance and other benefits like flexible working. More detail around our benefits can be found in the Yonder Benefits Booklet.

We have a hybrid working arrangement in place and expect the Consulting team to come in twice a week. 

Our Values and behaviours

We Focus 

• Engage / Express with clarity / Take a view / Be pragmatic 

We Go Further 

• Challenge the thinking / Be brave (backed by evidence) / Work at the edge/ Celebrate imagination 

We Pursue Brilliance 

• Discover what matters / Be a yardstick / Show professional integrity / Bring the energy  
  

We're In It Together 

• Connect with authenticity / Be open / Lift yourself by lifting others / Muck in