Job Description:

We welcome remote candidates based in the continental United States

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios.

The agency’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 16,000+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with additional offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu Aegis Network.

Job Description

Merkle is seeking a strategic business leader with Adobe Experience Cloud expertise and martech ecosystem knowledge to join the AI Advisory, Enterprise Transformation practice as a Sr. Director, Lead Strategist. This individual will operate at the executive level, combining organizational transformation expertise, change management rigor, and value-driven advisory to anchor the program's strategic direction and drive enterprise client outcomes.

The Lead Strategist is a program-level leadership role operating across two distinct dimensions: as the primary strategic advisor on a large enterprise account and as a senior thought partner providing coverage and oversight across all delivery pods and resourcing groups within a broader client engagement. This individual bridges strategic vision with tactical execution, ensuring the program delivers measurable business value while building client-side organizational capability.

The role combines the advisory mindset of organizational transformation consulting with hands-on accountability for client value realization. There are no immediate direct reports for this role, but the Lead Strategist operates with influence across program leadership, delivery teams, and client stakeholder groups, carrying full ownership of strategic planning and change enablement.

Key Responsibilities

The responsibilities below span strategic advisory, program leadership, and direct enterprise account engagement, reflecting the full lifecycle of client transformation from discovery through sustained value realization.

• Lead strategic consulting engagements that assess organizational readiness, operating model design, ways of working, governance, and change management within large-scale enterprise transformation initiatives and programs
• Lead organizational readiness, operating model design, and change management strategies for large-scale Adobe Experience Cloud transformations; assess current-state capability, identify operational gaps, and design future-state operating models that enable clients to sustain and scale their Adobe investments.
• Drive operational transformation through workflow analysis, business process optimization, capability mapping, and implementation roadmaps that prioritize improvement initiatives against strategic goals, feasibility, value
• Partner with delivery teams to identify and accelerate value drivers; translate strategic priorities into clear activation sequences, ensuring each engagement builds client capability while moving toward larger program objectives.
• Provide strategic coverage and guidance across all delivery pods within a critical client program with one of our leading partners; serve as a strategic sounding board for Pod Leads and the Merkle Leadership Team on value realization, client account health, and expansion opportunities.
• Facilitate workshops, discovery sessions, and prioritization exercises that require managing competing client opinions, agendas, and ambiguous inputs
• Translate the impact of AI tools and agentic capabilities on marketing workflows, skillsets, operating model, and ways of working
• Understand how AI tools, automation, and human expertise work together in modern operating models across business functions
• Lead change management activities and plans related to agentic capability enablement or deployment
• Surface operational risks related to technology implementation, migration, or adoption initiatives
• Support stakeholder mapping, readiness surveys, skillset and training assessments, change communication and messaging, as well as KPIs to measure and track ongoing change adoption
• Design governance structures to clarify roles, decision rights, and accountability in transformation programs
• Serve as a bridge between strategic vision and tactical execution workstreams
• Develop trusted advisor relationships with client senior executives to influence strategic investments and business decisions
• Partner with Merkle pods / delivery teams in identifying business value drivers / frameworks that measure impact of agentic technology enablement initiatives
• Partner with Merkle Innovation Lab Product Owner and Multi-Solution Architect roles on delivery engagements
• Partner with Merkle business units, sales, growth and account management functions to support expansion and growth opportunities on strategic accounts

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required. Master’s degree preferred
• 15+ years of consulting experience in business transformation, organizational change leadership, and/or integrated marketing strategy, with demonstrated executive-level client management
• 10+ years working in a top tier consulting firm and/or marketing agency
• Deep knowledge of end-to-end consulting approaches to solve client problems, from strategy design through execution.
• Strong experience assessing and recommending optimal team and operating structures to facilitate integrated program execution
• Familiarity with change management frameworks, shared services models, organizational design, product and portfolio governance
• Understanding of marketing technologies to orchestrate and activate customer experiences
• Experience in leading a team and navigating complex projects by providing innovative, actionable solutions
• Proven experience in developing solutions to support the sale of new services to clients.
• Strong writing, presentation, and client facing communication skills
• Problem solving mindset, thrive in ambiguous and fast moving environments, and in informal, loosely structured and creative work environments
• Exceptional communication skills, with experience distilling complex, multi-threaded engagements into clear executive narratives
• Familiarity and working knowledge of Adobe platforms and agentic solutions (strongly preferred)
• Working fluency in financial or value modeling to partner with technical teams (nice to have)
• Up to 25% travel may be required (varies with client specific need)

The annual base salary range for this position is $136,000-$190,500. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.  

Benefits available with this position include:  

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance, 
• Life insurance,  
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance, 
• 401k,  
• Flexible paid time off, 
• At least 15 paid holidays per year, 
• Paid sick and safe leave, and 
• Paid parental leave. 

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies.  For more information regarding dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com. 

To begin the application process, please click on the “Apply” button at the top of this job posting. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps. 

At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.

#LI-Merkle #LI-REMOTE #LI-LE1

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