Senior Brand Strategist, Contract

About Brains
Brains is an independent creative agency and proud B-Corp. We're a group of no-a**hole, roll-up-our-sleeves creatives, united by a mission to spark market and cultural impact and connect people around shared values and passions. We partner with mission-driven brands looking to rethink and rewrite industry norms.

Overview
We’re looking for a contract Brand Strategist to help define, shape, and launch brands with clarity and intention. This role is about building strong strategic foundations—articulating positioning, sharpening audiences, and creating the systems that make brands coherent and differentiated from day one.

You’ll work across a range of engagements, from early-stage brand creation to campaign strategy, ensuring every expression of a brand is grounded in a clear point of view and aligned with business ambition.

This role is especially suited for someone who thrives in early-stage environments, someone who knows how to take a brand from undefined to undeniable.

Key Responsibilities

Brand Strategy & Development

• Lead and support brand strategy engagements, from insight through positioning, architecture, and messaging
• Build brands from the ground up—defining what they stand for, how they show up, and why they matter
• Develop clear, actionable brand frameworks, narratives, and guidelines that can scale
• Shape early-stage brand opportunities, including positioning territories, naming, and foundational storytelling

Research, Insight & Validation

• Design and conduct research to inform strategy, including IDIs, founder interviews, store visits, and competitive audits
• Synthesize market, cultural, and consumer insights into sharp, usable strategic direction
• Quickly validate ideas and directions through scrappy but effective methodologies

Creative & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with creative, design, and account teams to bring brand strategy to life
• Ensure strategic integrity across all touchpoints, from identity to campaigns
• Contribute to ideation, helping teams find the most distinctive and ownable ways a brand can show up

Client Engagement & Growth

• Present strategic thinking clearly and persuasively to clients and founders
• Build strong working relationships, particularly with early-stage teams
• Support new business efforts with insight-driven thinking and perspective

Who You Are

• Builder: You have real experience taking brands from zero to one—not just optimizing what already exists. You’re comfortable working in ambiguity and helping define the path forward.
• Strategic Thinker: You bring structure to complexity, distilling inputs into clear, compelling frameworks and directions.
• Culturally Tuned-In: You have a strong pulse on the consumer landscape, especially within retail, DTC, and consumables, and understand how brands can earn attention and relevance.
• Research Fluent: You’re comfortable designing and conducting research—from IDIs to in-market immersion—and know how to turn findings into action.
• Story Shaper: You can articulate positioning, narratives, and messaging in a way that’s both strategic and creatively inspiring.
• Collaborative: You work seamlessly with creatives, founders, and cross-functional teams, influencing without ego.
• Communicative: You’re clear, confident, and persuasive—both in writing and in the room.
• Adaptable: You’re comfortable working on a contract basis and navigating fast-moving, early-stage environments.
• Experienced: You have ~6–10+ years in brand strategy, planning, or consulting roles, ideally with exposure to early-stage or high-growth brands.