Associate Director
Role Overview
Crowd DNA is seeking an Associate Director to join its London team.
The role deepens cultural strategy expertise while leading key client relationships, shaping strategic direction, and delivering across multiple projects.
It carries near-full ownership of end-to-end delivery and contributes to commercial growth, team development, and a collaborative culture.
The Associate Director raises team standards through better tools and approaches, coaches colleagues, and consistently delivers high-quality work.
Key Skills for This Role
Full Job Posting
About Crowd DNA
Crowd DNA was formed in 2008 and operates across more than 70 markets, bringing together trends specialists, researchers, strategists, data analysts, designers, writers, and filmmakers.
The company emphasizes simplicity, collaboration across disciplines, meaningful work, and supporting client growth.
Position overview
Crowd DNA is seeking an Associate Director to join its London team.
The role deepens cultural strategy expertise while leading key client relationships, shaping strategic direction, and delivering across multiple projects.
It carries near-full ownership of end-to-end delivery and contributes to commercial growth, team development, and a collaborative culture.
The Associate Director raises team standards through better tools and approaches, coaches colleagues, and consistently delivers high-quality work.
Key responsibilities
- Set strategic direction and cultural or analytical lenses for briefs; lead high-level analysis across workstreams.
- Elevate debrief narratives and strategic recommendations; develop tools and frameworks that improve team capability.
- Coach cultural strategists in strategic thinking, synthesis, and storytelling, and lead specialist craft capability.
- Lead two to three projects end to end, managing quality, client relationships, delegation, commercial standards, and project health.
- Lead proposal writing and develop knowledge of budgets and financial planning; support resource planning and process improvements.
- Lead accounts, workshops, and senior client discussions; influence team decisions and develop colleagues through feedback.
- Model inclusive leadership and drive new business, repeat client relationships, and longer-term growth.
Essential skills and attributes
- Demonstrated passion and impact at the intersection of brands, culture, and commercial strategy.
- Solid insights, strategy, or cultural research experience, with expert-level qualitative research or mixed-methods methodology.
- Ability to synthesize diverse data, trends, and stimulus into strategic insights and bold conclusions.
- Exceptional writing for compelling reports, blog content, and globally relevant strategic narratives.
- Ability to combine creative insight and commercial sense in strategically grounded recommendations.
- Strong presentation and workshop facilitation, including high-stakes client discussions.
- Track record of client relationship building and trusted-advisor work.
- Awareness of financial processes, cost sheets, budget management, and commercial decision-making.
- Project management, team coordination, timeline management, and ability to anticipate challenges.
- Ability to mentor and provide feedback while building collaborative teams.
Desirable experience
- New business development and account management experience is desirable.
- Coaching and team development capability is desirable.
- Exposure to design, film, or content production is desirable.
Compensation and benefits
- The role offers a competitive salary of up to £57,000 and paths to promotion and new opportunities.
- The description lists 25 days of holiday plus UK bank holidays and begins to mention an office closure between Christmas and year end; the source text ends mid-sentence.
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