Director of Experience Strategy

Velir is an established mid-sized agency with a top-tier portfolio of clients, ranging from the world’s largest non-profits to Fortune 500 brands. As of 2023, Velir acquired Brooklyn Data Company, a premier data and analytics consultancy focused on leadership, process improvement, implementation, and advanced analytics.
At Velir, we believe people are our greatest asset. Our culture is built on a foundation of trust, collaboration, and continued improvement. We strive for excellence in everything we do, embracing challenges as opportunities for growth. Our success is driven by a shared passion for making a positive impact on our customers, our communities and each other. We are a remote first company that offers competitive pay and excellent benefits.
Overview:
Velir is seeking a Director of Experience Strategy to lead experience-driven strategy across complex client engagements.
This is a senior, hands-on role for a strategist who works in close proximity to delivery. You will shape grounded experience visions, partner deeply with design and delivery teams, and stay actively involved as work moves from framing into execution and optimization.
This role is not about overseeing from a distance. You are expected to be in the work, close to decisions, and accountable for the clarity, usefulness, and impact of the strategy you help define.
Responsibilities:
Set Grounded Experience Vision

Lead the creation of experience visions that align business goals, customer needs, brand intent, and delivery realities.
Help clients and internal teams clearly articulate what problem they are solving and why it matters.
Translate ambiguity into clear strategic frames that design, UX, engineering, and data teams can act on.
Use research tools, data analysis, and AI-assisted synthesis where appropriate to accelerate understanding and surface patterns, while applying judgment to define direction.
Define success in business terms, not just experience metrics.

Diagnose Client Challenges Deeply

Lead discovery and strategy efforts that go beyond surface-level requirements gathering.
Develop a deep understanding of client business models, operating constraints, and competitive context.
Leverage qualitative research, analytics, and AI-supported analysis to identify behavioral patterns, friction points, and opportunity areas.
Quantify, where possible, the business impact of experience challenges and strategic recommendations.
Ground strategy in evidence, insight, and informed judgment, not assumption or novelty.

Partner Closely with Design

Work as a true partner to design leadership and UX teams.
Provide clear intent, priorities, and constraints so creative work is purposeful and focused.
Participate actively in concept development, journey definition, and experience narrative creation.
Use AI thoughtfully to explore concepts, test variations, or accelerate iteration, without replacing creative authorship or critical thinking.
Help teams navigate tradeoffs without losing sight of the experience vision.

Strategy and design are expected to operate as a single system.
Lead Strategy in Active Client Work

Lead experience strategy from discovery through delivery and ongoing optimization.
Stay close to delivery so strategy evolves based on learning, performance, and real constraints.
Own strategic narratives, roadmaps, hypotheses, and prioritization decisions.
Partner with engineering, data, experimentation, and delivery teams to ensure strategy is realized in the work.
Apply AI where it meaningfully improves speed, clarity, or insight across planning, experimentation, personalization, and optimization workflows.

This role assumes regular, meaningful involvement in active client engagements.
Shape and Expand the Work

Identify opportunities within client work to clarify scope, deepen engagement, or reframe the problem being solved.
Partner with account, design, and delivery leads to shape meaningful strategic work.
Contribute to proposals and strategic framing for new or expanded engagements.
Use insight, data, and emerging tools to help define smarter, more relevant opportunities.
Take ownership of the work you are involved in and the quality of the problems being addressed.


Contribute to the Strategy Practice

Contribute to shared frameworks, POVs, and reusable strategy assets.
Bring learnings from client work back into the organization to improve how strategy is practiced.
Help evolve processes, tools, and ways of working, including the responsible use of AI in strategy and delivery.
Support internal learning through case studies, reviews, and collaboration across disciplines.

What Success Looks Like

Clients experience clarity where there was ambiguity.
Design and delivery teams know what they are building and why.
Strategy shows up in decisions and outcomes, not just documentation.
Experience visions are grounded, actionable, and resilient under real-world constraints.
Data, experimentation, and AI are used thoughtfully to improve decisions and outcomes, not as shortcuts.

Skills & Qualifications
Required

8–12 years of experience in experience strategy, digital strategy, or related roles.
Strong experience partnering with design and UX teams on complex experience challenges.
Proven ability to frame ambiguous problems and turn them into actionable direction.
Experience leading discovery, visioning, and strategic definition in active client engagements.
Comfort operating in uncertainty and making informed decisions without perfect information.
Clear, confident communicator with strong writing and storytelling skills.
Practical experience using modern tools, including AI-enabled tools, to support research, synthesis, analysis, or delivery workflows.

Preferred

Experience in enterprise or complex digital ecosystems.
Familiarity with experimentation, analytics, and optimization models.
Exposure to composable platforms, CMS, CDP, or data-driven experience systems.
Experience working within multidisciplinary teams across strategy, design, data, and engineering.

Physical Requirements:

Frequent sitting at a desk performing work on a computer
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions
Travel will be required for this role


Compensation Range: $165,000 - 180,000 annually
Please note that compensation packages are finalized after the interview process is concluded. We use a competency-based approach to base pay, which means it is based on the competencies and skills demonstrated for this role.

Core Company Values

Take the Long View - Ensure the company is built to last
Be Courageous - Make the right decisions even when they aren't the easiest decisions
Be Genuine - Bring honesty and authenticity to all that you do
Work with Focus + Passion - Display purpose and pride in your work and never stop learning

As an equal opportunity employer, we are firmly committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our hiring efforts. We recognize that we need team members from all backgrounds and experiences to successfully shape a positive employee experience as well as deliver our product and service solutions. To that end, we actively seek candidates who can bring diverse experiences and backgrounds to our team. We know that complex factors and systemic bias can get in the way of us meeting strong candidates, so please don't hesitate to apply even if you're not 100% sure.
At this time, Velir does not sponsor candidates and unfortunately cannot accept those on OPT or CPT.


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