Director, Strategy (Comms Planning)

VaynerX

VaynerX is a family of companies building brands for the now. Founded by Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk in January 2017, the modern-day parent company is home to relevance-driving businesses including VaynerMedia, ChukMedia, Tamara Group, Gallery Media Group, Eva Nosidam Productions, Tingley Lane Trading, and VaynerSpeakers.

ABOUT VAYNERMEDIA

VaynerMedia is a global integrated creative and media agency, built for today's consumers. As the Modern Agency of Record, it understands the nuances of today's attention landscape, empowering brands to win attention, drive relevance, and deliver business results. Founded in 2009, by Gary Vaynerchuk, the independently owned agency operates in 15 offices worldwide, including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Chicago, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York, Tokyo, Toronto, Singapore, and Sydney. VaynerMedia is part of the VaynerX family of companies. 

Overall Purpose

We’re looking for a Director, Communications Planning to lead integrated communications strategy for a major CPG client within a social-first agency model.

Our approach is grounded in a clear operating model: strong insights create relevance, relevance earns attention, and attention drives behavior. This role is responsible for ensuring that every communications plan is built from real human insight—translated into culturally resonant ideas that capture attention and drive measurable business outcomes.

Equally critical to success in this role is a deep, instinctive understanding of culture. The right candidate doesn’t rely solely on research to “find” relevance—they are actively embedded in culture and able to recognize it in real time. They bring a point of view shaped by participation, not observation, and can translate fast-moving cultural signals into immediate strategic and creative opportunities.

This is not a “plan and hand off” role. You will work closely with creative, media, and analytics teams to ensure ideas are not only strategically sound, but built to earn attention in-market—and continuously improved based on performance.

Own Communications Planning for the Account

• Lead full-funnel, cross-channel strategy across campaigns, launches, and always-on activity designed to earn attention within platforms and cultural realities; key partner to IAT and creative agencies
• Bring a real-time understanding of culture—identifying emerging signals, shifts, and conversations without over-reliance on traditional research cycles
• Define the role of channels across paid, owned, earned, and creator ecosystems; Ensure every communications strategy is rooted in a clear, defensible insight 
• Build communications architectures that reflect how people actually discover, engage, and act
• Contribute to the development of creative territories, content systems, and channel-native executions

Bridge Media Strategy and Execution, Drive Integration Cross-Functionally

• Partner with Director and VP-level leaders in media and analytics to translate strategy into actionable, optimized media plans
• Align communications strategy with investment decisions, platform mix, and in-market performance

• Champion a connected ecosystem across content, media, creator partnerships, and cultural touchpoints

Co-Author Media/Content Measurement & Learning

• Define success across the full chain: insight strength, cultural relevance, attention quality, and business outcomes
• Build clear test-and-learn agendas and learning frameworks
• Design plans that earn attention through meaningful engagement—not just paid exposure
• Define how attention will drive specific brand and business behaviors

Who You Are

• 7-9+ years of experience in media strategy or integrated brand planning, and communications planning,
• Strong experience leading communications strategy for large, complex CPG businesses
• Build and maintain client and external agency relationships; Clear, compelling storyteller with strong client presence
• Proven ability to uncover compelling human insights and translate them into effective communications and creative direction
• Deeply attuned to culture, with the ability to recognize and apply emerging cultural signals in real time
• Experience working closely with creative teams and contributing to idea development and iteration
• Deep understanding of how platform dynamics and creative execution influence attention
• Proven ability to partner closely with media planning and buying teams

• Manage and mentor a team of 2 communications planners/strategists on how to identify insights and connect them to cultural relevance, creative ideas, and communications strategy