The Role

Koto is a global creative company building the most beloved brands, compelling campaigns, and evocative digital experiences. As an experienced strategist, you are a sharp, multi-disciplinary thinker who is proactive, self-aware, motivated by collaboration, and driven to refine your craft. You thrive on creating strategic platforms that both stand on their own and inspire world-class work in the teams around you.

At Koto, strategy sits at the center of the work. It’s not just a deliverable, it’s a practice. We don’t believe in making decks that collect dust. We do the deep, difficult work of figuring out exactly what a brand needs to be to matter. As a Senior Strategist in our LA studio, you are the bridge between a designer’s wildest dreams and the undisputable needs of the business. 

You’re not just a researcher or a writer; you’re a strategic partner. You’ll take the messiness of a high-growth startup or the forgotten legacy of a global icon and distill it into fresh and memorable truths that can’t be ignored. You’ll collaborate with world-class design talent to create work that shapes culture as we know it.

Your Responsibilities

1. Generate original, compelling strategic platforms and communicate them clearly through writing, workshops, and well-designed, narrative-led client presentations.

2. Build a deep understanding of client businesses and continuously evolve your expertise in brand strategy and architecture.

3. Lead primary and secondary research, craft strategic frameworks, and crack open creative territories via both internal and external design workshops that raise the quality of work across the team.

4. Collaborate closely and openly with designers, writers, client services, and other strategists to embed substance in the creative process, ensuring ideas carry through every phase of a project.

5. Harness strategic tools and frameworks with curiosity and flexibility to help evolve a Koto approach to brand, campaign, and digital thinking.

6. Engage with the strategy team from the earliest project stages, building on their perspectives to shape each brand's vision; actively seek outside inspiration to stretch the thinking of all departments in the studio.

7. Partner with directors as an emergent mentor to younger strategists.

8. Take proactive ownership of your role: action feedback, manage your time effectively, and strive for outcomes you’re proud to celebrate.

9. Confidently use tools such as Figma/Figjam, Pitch, Notion, and Google Workspace.

10. Show eagerness to work in person in our LA studio, take an active role in our studio’s culture, and remain open to travel globally.

Our Responsibilities

1. We will ensure you have meaningful and regular access to your manager to support your personal development and career trajectory.

2. We will actively reward performance with promotions, pay increases, and a discretionary annual bonus of up to 10% of salary to all employees.

3. We ensure Koto is an equal environment for all its employees.

4. We will support you in taking family leave and offer significant paid maternity and paternity leave.

5. We will actively encourage you to take 25 vacation days per year, in addition to US national holidays (on average 10) and a studio closure between Christmas and New Year.

6. We offer a 401(k) plan you can contribute to, and Koto matches up to 4%.

7. We deploy a monthly ‘employee wellness’ benefits package via Juno of $105 per month.

8. We offer YCN access and fund relevant training opportunities for any employee looking to develop themselves and their career.

9. We reward five years of service with $5,000 and five days' holiday. We reward ten years of service with $10,000 and four weeks' holiday.

10. We will allow you to work from any of the four Koto studios globally, with appropriate planning and application.

Our Culture

• At Koto, we encourage our team to be ‘rationally optimistic’ about the potential of our work, our clients, their businesses, and the power of brand.

• We pursue the best briefs, want to inspire meaningful work, and, for those interested, provide an opportunity to make the work of their lives. We are actively cultivating leadership, culture, and spaces to encourage this.

• We work in person with an optional WFH day on Friday and an additional 2 weeks of remote work per year. We believe this produces the best work, mentoring opportunities, collective learning, and culture.

• We encourage autonomy in each member of our team, allowing them to manage their own time, hours, and personal commitments appropriately to complete work.