Founded in 2005, Big Sea is a fully-remote digital marketing and web development agency with offices in St. Petersburg, FL and Asheville, NC. We believe in the transformative power of communication to move hearts and minds, and we dedicate ourselves to magnifying our purpose-driven clients' efforts, enabling them to achieve their purpose.

We are seeking a director of marketing strategy to lead client strategy and execution across our nonprofit and purpose-driven brands.At Big Sea, Director of Marketing Strategy is responsible for the development of and successful management of digital strategy for client brands. The role requires an innovator, a trendsetter, and a progressive thinker who can connect digital to all other aspects of a client's business and drive growth opportunities.

The Director of Marketing Strategy at Big Sea builds strong and long-lasting client relationships and uncovers new business opportunities within existing partnerships.

Our perfect candidates will have agency experience doing marketing research, strategic planning, and leading marketing client accounts across nonprofit and healthcare brands; we are not looking for B2B or tech experience.

Requirements

Strategy Development

Your first job will be strategy development for some of our clients (and our agency). You should be able to determine what questions need to be asked, how best to answer those questions, and what to do with the answers. This will require some experience with research best practices, both qualitative and quantitative, to be able to answer key questions such as who are the target buyers, what differentiates this offering, how brands are communicated and experienced through digital interactions, and how digital interactions fit into broader customer experiences. This combines an in-depth knowledge of client business objectives, online strategies, and their competitive landscape with a rich background in the digital marketing industry to deliver effective digital marketing recommendations.

Work with cross functional teams including SEO, Content, Social, Paid Media, and Web during client onboarding to complete marketing research and to synthesize the various forms of research into a cohesive narrative
Development of buyer personas that are based on the client's position in the marketplace, unique value proposition, and the buyer's journey
Identification of client marketing goals and objectives as well as corresponding metrics to measure progress towards accomplishing goals
Development of supporting multi-channel campaign strategies across brand, content, SEO, web, and paid media that work in conjunction with the larger strategy
Build comprehensive content-led growth strategies that help our clients reach their financial

Leadership

Leadership is essential for our Account Strategist role. It is imperative for the strategist to see the big picture and present our recommendations confidently to the client. The Account Strategist will maintain insight on the client's industry and the work we do, is able to present confidently in front of the client's executive team, and can rally the client and team to accomplish shared goals.

Specifically, this will require:

Championing the client's needs and wishes when talking to the team
Ensuring that all client communication is clear and actionable; intervening on behalf of the client if not
Always knowing what is going on with a client project and relationship
Casting a vision for strategies and in-production pivots so that the client has agreement on ‘the why' of tactics and activities

Client Relationships

Client relationships are the keys to Big Sea's success. Building relationships with clients entails open and honest communication. A great strategist maintains the trust of the client and a deeper understanding of what works and what doesn't work for its business. Effective Director of Marketing Strategy anticipate problems versus simply reacting, and help their teams navigate through challenging points in the partnership.

Specifically, this will require:

Setting and managing client expectations
Identifying needs and evaluating alternative solutions
Seeking opportunities to increase client satisfaction and deepen client relationships
Always paying attention to what is important to the client, and defending their position to the team
Understanding how to communicate difficult/sensitive information tactfully
Resolving and/or escalating issues in a timely fashion
Advocating for the client's voice within the team and the team's voice to the client
Cultivating positive relationships with clients, measure client satisfaction, and develop a pipeline for future projects
Organizing regular account review meetings with the internal strategy team to review clients' strategies, goals, and satisfaction in order to affirm that we're on the right course or to establish action steps
Actively seek out opportunities for professional development by participating in educational opportunities, reading industry publications, maintaining personal networks and participating in professional organizations

Delivering Great Work

Delivering great work when and where it's expected is the primary goal of a great Marketing Strategist.

Establish a clear understanding of the clients' goals and expectations at the start of each project, using these as a guide to ensure the team delivers a product that meets client's expectations
Help create thorough marketing plans, leveraging resources and input from other agency departments as needed

Great Director of Marketing Strategy at Big Sea generally have:

Ability to communicate thoughtfully, accurately, and efficiently both externally and internally in order to establish and maintain strong relationships
Ability to diplomatically handle and resolve escalations impacting the project deadline and budget
Ability to manage both large and small client meetings and navigate through a variety of personalities in order to stay on track and engender trust
Strong and engaging presentation skills to be used in presentations with internal and external stakeholders as well as to pitch potential new work
Solid organizational skills, including attention to detail and the ability to multi-task as it applies to clients as well as self-organization
Ability to adapt to the daily shifts in priorities
Ability to act as a liaison between the multiple teams and lines of business
Must be team-oriented and comfortable with receiving constructive feedback and input from others
Active participation in team meetings, one-on-ones, and other company-wide meetings
Actively engaged and reporting on professional development
Ability to self-manage in a virtual work environment

This position reports directly to our CEO as the leader of our marketing department.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or higher in Marketing, Communications or related field
At least 10 years of agency experience managing digital projects and marketing campaigns
Experience with full-funnel marketing planning and architecture
Experience working with HubSpot, Asana, SEMRush, Google Analytics, WordPress, and other digital marketing tools
Understanding of digital marketing reporting tools and metrics
Strong written and verbal communication skills (samples will be requested)
Emotionally intelligent and likable, in general

Core Values

We are a values-based company. Our values define who we are as individuals and a team. Every decision we make is informed by our values and our performance as a team and as individuals are measured against these values.

Love the Who: We thrive on forging strong relationships. Each connection we make - be it within our walls or with our clients - is a bridge to new opportunities and understanding. We seek clarity, act kindly, and aim to become the partner every client seeks and the team everyone wants to be part of.

Are you committed to ensuring every person on your team—and every client you serve—feels genuinely seen, heard, and valued?

Positively Impact: We drive real change for our clients and our agency. We obsess over outcomes and actions and always focus on what matters. We value progress over perfection, and performance over process. Our success is shared with our client's success, so we're always seeking to better understand how the work we are doing is driving results.

Does your enthusiasm for achieving tangible outcomes extend beyond the finish line, driving you to celebrate successes and also simultaneously find areas for improvement?

Own It: Owning it involves a tendency toward action; it means we are the initiators, the forward-marching force that keeps projects moving and goals within reach. Our expertise is not static; it's dynamic, growing with every challenge we meet head-on. We don't linger in the shadow of instruction; we shine in the spirit of action.

Do you instinctively take the lead when opportunities or challenges arise, trusting your capacity to learn and adapt along the way?

Be Brave: Being brave means walking in confidence, embracing the full spectrum of who we are, and supporting one another. It's about resilience and vulnerability too. We know we're not perfect, that we make mistakes (and own them!), but we're confident in knowing that that's just what's expected of us.

When faced with tough conversations or challenging situations, do you willingly express your perspective even if it feels risky?

Benefits

As a full-time employee of the Big Sea team, you'll enjoy big-company benefits in a small-company setting. That's why every Big Sea team member receives medical insurance along with company-paid dental, vision, disability, life insurance, parental leave and flexible paid time off policy. A 401(k) program is also available for you to start saving for your future. Each year, you'll get a professional development budget to attend training, conferences, and industry events. But perhaps most rewarding of all is our commitment to giving you a creative, autonomous, and collaborative daily work environment—from our offices in St. Pete, Asheville or remotely. Working at Big Sea means growing personally, professionally, and as a team.

Big Sea is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team. We strongly encourage people of color, LGBTQ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities to apply. If you need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please, let us know (andi@bigsea.co).