Brand Strategist, Planning

Great work starts with a great question. This role exists to find it — sitting at the intersection of strategy, consulting, and creative, sharpening the focus from first pitch to final walkthrough. Our mission is to reimagine destination experiences for the next generation of modern cultural attractions, and that mission plays out through story and space alike — content, media, design, interactive, and architecture, all pointed at one organizing idea instead of five.
You’re a planner at heart, with the range of a brand strategist and the account-planning discipline of an integrated agency — someone who finds what’s underneath a brief rather than just organizing what’s handed to you. At G&A, that means working across cultural institutions, museums, brands, and destinations, and staying close to the work as it moves through whichever discipline is building it. Twenty-seven years of practice has taught us that story is not packaging, it’s the thing itself, and that audiences measure an experience against the best one they’ve ever had — not against other museums, or other brands. A capital campaign isn’t a fundraising problem; it’s a chance to reframe how a community sees itself. Finding that reframe, and holding it as the organizing idea from pitch through walkthrough, is the job.
You’ll report directly into the CCO. You’re in the room from the first client conversation on — not buried inside a department, not waiting for something to be handed to you.
What You’ll Do
Set the Organizing Idea

Sit with Client Executives and Creative from the earliest conversations, turning an ambiguous client need into a single, sharp organizing idea
Write briefs and brand platforms that carry that thinking clearly to whoever builds it next
Stay attached after the pitch is won, so the organizing idea that convinced the client is still recognizable in what gets delivered

Do the Digging

Push past the stated ask to the real audience insight, cultural tension, or business need underneath it
Run the research and category analysis that turn a hunch into something defensible
Know when a project needs a full brand platform versus a sharper brief — and build the right one

Protect It in the Room

Sit inside reviews and critiques, asking the question that keeps the work honest to the organizing idea
Be the person who can name when things have drifted from it — and what would bring them back
Hold the line on simplicity, even under deadline pressure

Compound the Thinking

Turn strong pursuits into frameworks, POVs, and case studies that make the next one faster
Let thought leadership and market positioning fall out of doing the work well, not as separate tasks

What You Bring

8–12 years in brand strategy, planning, or strategic consulting, with hands‑on exposure to creative development and new business
A background specifically in experience design or experiential work — shaped by multi‑disciplinary, environment‑based creative, not solely traditional brand or communications strategy
Enough direct experience across content, media, design, interactive, or architecture to sit credibly in a room with any of them
A track record building brand platforms as well as briefs, with the judgment to know which a project actually needs
Comfort using AI to accelerate research and synthesis — in service of sharper thinking, not a replacement for it
The confidence to tell a creative director or client the organizing idea isn’t there yet — and the instincts to be right about it

What Success Looks Like

Sharper, more differentiated pitches that translate into stronger win rates
An organizing idea that’s still recognizable from first pitch to final walkthrough
Teams across every discipline who pull you in early because the work is better when you’re there
A body of frameworks and case studies that make each pursuit faster than the last

Why G&A
For 27 years, G&A has built destination experiences for the world’s most significant cultural institutions and brands alike — 850+ projects, 250+ awards, work spanning 12+ countries, including three of the top five Best New Museums in America in 2026. The range runs from the Smithsonian and the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center to global brands like Toyota and Coca-Cola.
BENEFITS:

Competitive Salary
Vacation
Sick and Personal Holiday
Volunteer Time Off
Company Paid Holidays
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
Employee Referral Bonus Program
Medical Plan & Dental and Vision Plan
Retirement Plan
Summer Fridays
Sabbaticals and more…

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the U.S.A. and live in or be willing to relocate to the New York City area.
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