Brand Strategist

2 days ago

Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Acorn Strategy Full time

JOB TITLE:

Manager, Brand

LOCATION:

Abu Dhabi

CONTRACT TYPE:

6-month secondment with the potential to extend

REPORTING TO:

Vice President, Brand

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

This role is responsible for shaping brand foundations, including brand purpose, positioning, messaging, and narrative and ensuring brand decisions are grounded in research, insight, and clear rationale. Working as a strategic thought partner, the Manager, Brand helps translate complex business priorities into coherent brand frameworks that guide decision-making across the Group. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Partner with the Vice President, Brand to develop and refine the Group brand strategy, including brand purpose, positioning, narrative, and messaging frameworks.
  • Lead and commission research and insight (qualitative and quantitative) to inform brand direction, validate choices, and build evidence-based recommendations.
  • Build structured strategic outputs (e.g., messaging frameworks, narrative structures, tone of voice guidance, key claim and proof points) that improve clarity and consistency across the Group.
  • Shape and steward the language of the brand, ensuring terminology, key messages, and claims are credible, consistent, and defensible.
  • Act as a strategic sounding board: challenge assumptions, stress-test ideas, and clarify the "why" behind brand decisions, with clear logic and supporting evidence.
  • Support the development of brand principles, guidelines, and decision frameworks that enable consistent application of the brand across business units and touchpoints.
  • Provide strategic brand counsel to internal stakeholders (brand, communications, marketing, business units), ensuring alignment to the core brand strategy before execution begins.
  • Contribute to relevant brand health and perception measurement approaches, synthesising insights into practical recommendations for refinement and optimisation.
  • Maintain strong project discipline across multiple workstreams, ensuring clear priorities, timelines, stakeholder alignment, and high-quality outputs.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • A Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Strategy, Business, Design, or equivalent.
  • A Master's degree would be encouraged but not required.
  • Typically 10–15+ years of experience in corporate brand, enterprise branding, or brand strategy roles (in-house or consultancy/agency strategy), ideally within large, complex, high-profile organisations.
  • Demonstrated experience developing brand purpose, positioning, messaging frameworks, and narrative structures, supported by research and insight.
  • Exceptional writing, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate clearly, influence senior stakeholders, and bring structure to ambiguity.
  • Highly organised, detail-oriented, and adaptable, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality work under pressure.
  • Strong strategic judgement and rigour: able to justify recommendations with evidence, logic, and clear reasoning (the "science" behind the brand).
  • Passionate about building brands with clarity, coherence, and long-term integrity, and committed to excellence and quality.

ABOUT ACORN STRATEGY

Voted Large Agency of the Year and winner of multiple international awards, Acorn Strategy is a full-service communications consultancy with offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Melbourne, Perth, and London, and an ever-expanding client roster. We are an integrated marketing, public relations, and digital consultancy that delivers sharp, agile, and creative strategies to help grow our clients' business.

OUR CULTURE

We understand that our success depends on recruiting and retaining the highest quality individuals. We have created an environment for people to grow and learn through a culture that empowers creativity, innovation, and professionalism. The core values we live by are collaboration, agility, bravery, curiosity, and growth.

OUR PEOPLE

Over the years we have come to realise that although each of our team members are unique, we each share a series of personal traits that have successfully linked us culturally as a team and as an agency at large. 

ACORN STRATEGY

is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to creating and building a respectful and empowering environment. We aim to create an inclusive workplace that supports our diversity and increases our potential to produce work that better represents and resonates with the world around us.

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