Senior Strategist – Deputy Program Manager

Role Overview

• Partner directly with clients to understand challenges, capture requirements, and define missions, visions, goals, and KPIs/OKRs.
• Collaborate with clients through well-designed meetings and workshops to co-create solutions and gather critical inputs.
• Perform high-quality primary and secondary research to inform strategic direction.
• Apply human-centered design and design-thinking principles to complex problem sets.
• Work iteratively by proactively gathering feedback from clients and internal partners to refine solutions.
• Identify opportunities to create tangible business value through current-state assessments and high-level requirement definition.
• Develop and maintain strong client relationships, including managing external stakeholders and converting new requests into business opportunities.
• Oversee multiple client engagements, ensuring alignment, clarity, and strategic impact across projects.
• Elevate content quality and thought leadership in partnership with the Strategy Competency Manager, ensuring strong standards for deliverables.
• Translate ideas into compelling strategic narratives, campaigns, and solutions.
• Identify content structures, hierarchies, and visual concepts for storytelling products, including content maps and wireframes.
• Collaborate with design teams to develop infographics, charts, diagrams, presentations, and other visual products that convey complex information clearly.
• Manage multiple internal project teams, organizing assignments and tracking progress, deadlines, and deliverables from both operational and financial perspectives.
• Act as a thought partner to the PM in managing day-to-day program operations and evolving client strategy.
• Track and manage delivery timelines, milestones, budgets, and team capacity across multi-workstream government contracts.
• Provide input to internal reporting on project health, budget usage, risks, and staffing capacity for informed PM decision-making.
• Support tracking of period of performance (POP) deadlines, deliverable quality, and communications related to project-specific changes.
• Coordinate internal resource allocation in alignment with PM priorities and contract scope.
• Maintain key internal documentation, including timecard reviews, deliverable tracking, and project updates.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication, English, Business, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience in strategic communication, public affairs, program management, or strategy development
• 4-6 years of program or project coordination experience including familiarity with Agile methodologies and project delivery best practices.
• Experience in government contracting or client services preferred
• Ability to build and maintain robust client relationships and foster positive interpersonal connections
• Interest in visual storytelling, including data visualization and conceptualizing abstract ideas
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, maintaining a strong focus on accuracy and attention to detail
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate in a clear, approachable, and knowledgeable manner
• Active Clearance: Secret required, Top Secret preferred
• Experience with defense communications or creative work for government clients valuable
• Detail-oriented with ability to thrive in dynamic environments

Benefits

• $100 monthly internet/cell phone stipend
• LINK sponsored healthcare benefits including medical, dental, vision
• Company-paid Short Term Disability Insurance
• 401K with employer contribution of up to 4%
• 11 Federal Holidays per year
• 15 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year
• Paid Holiday Time Off (Christmas Eve through the New Year)
• Annual bonus plan participation
• Annual profit sharing participation
• $2,000 Learning and Development program reimbursement
• Technology package that includes a LINK-owned MacBook Pro, monitor, mouse and keyboard