Data Strategist

Job Title: Senior Manager, Creative Strategy Location: New York, NY or Remote Start Date: ASAP   Whalar is the leading, most awarded, independent Creator and Social agency.  We transform brands into cultural drivers by unlocking the full creative power of Creators.  We go beyond the conventional social and influencer strategy. We have the technology and methodology to tap into the beating pulse of communities, listen to nuances that move culture, and connect brands in ways that make them unforgettable. With hubs in London, Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles, our reach is global. Learn more: https://www.whalar.com/ [https://www.whalar.com/] ABOUT THE ROLE: The Senior Manager, Creative Strategy, will develop insight driven strategies that connect culture, consumers, creators, and creative execution to deliver impactful social first work for clients. This role will translate cultural trends, audience insights, and campaign objectives into clear strategic direction, while partnering closely with Creative, Client Services, and cross functional teams to inspire breakthrough ideas and drive meaningful client impact. The ideal candidate is a curious, culturally fluent strategist who understands the creator landscape and knows how to turn observations into compelling insights and creative opportunities. HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL DO DAY-TO-DAY: Strategic Foundation * Develop internal and client-facing POVs and strategic foundations for project-specific and AOR clients. * Proactively deliver insight-driven strategic thinking that uncovers opportunities, challenges, assumptions, and inspires teams and clients. * Foster cross-functional collaboration between Creative and Creative Strategy, seamlessly bridging strategic thinking with creative execution. * Translate cultural, consumer, and platform insights into actionable strategic recommendations. Campaign Development & Management * Translate client briefs into clear strategic objectives, identifying key opportunities, priorities, and success metrics. * Lead productive brainstorms and ideation sessions internally and externally. * Partner with Client Services counterparts to develop cohesive campaign narratives. * Ensure creative output aligns with strategic goals, audience insights, and campaign objectives. Cultural Trend Analysis & Insight Development * Monitor social trends, insights, and online behaviors to strategically inform creative ideation for timely, relevant, and social-first executions. * Monitor and analyze cultural trends on an ongoing basis to shape strategies that resonate with brands & target communities. * Lead cultural and community audits that fuel brainstorming sessions, campaign development, and audience understanding. Creator Brief & Content Review * Partner with Client Services counterparts to review and refine creator briefs. * Partner with Client Services counterparts to review and refine creator content. * Ensure creator deliverables reflect platform best practices, build upon past learnings, and are optimized against campaign objectives. * Provide strategic and creative feedback to strengthen content performance and brand alignment. Performance & Industry Analysis * Leverage measured campaign outcomes to refine and evolve future strategies and ideas. * Stay ahead of emerging social trends, creators, and platforms, incorporating insights into strategic thought leadership and client work. Client Collaboration & Growth * Provide strategic and creative guidance to key clients across accounts, strengthening relationships and building trust in partnership with Client Services. * Collaborate cross-functionally with paid media, measurement, and Client Services teams to deliver integrated client solutions and seamless execution. * Contribute to agency growth through proactive thinking, innovative ideas, and strategic leadership. HERE’S WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: * 4+ years of experience developing and executing social strategies within an agency setting, with a strong understanding of social platforms, culture, and audience behavior. * Relentless Curiosity: Remain in constant pursuit of “the why” — embody the willingness to dig deep. We live inside the zeitgeist, not just observe it. We get below the surface of our data, audiences, and communities to unlock the central heartbeat of where Strategy and Creative connect. * Translating Observations Into Insights: Ability to take hard facts, stats, trends, and observations, and turn them into truths that reveal underlying tensions and motivations that will resonate with our audiences.  * Creative Writing: Copy should be concise, precise, and simple… where simple doesn’t mean easy. It means being clear. Every word must earn its place on the page. Our words should fuel a feeling – we want to spark, provoke, and excite something in the reader.    * Creator Intelligence: Deep understanding of what makes creator partnerships feel authentic, credible, and culturally relevant, ensuring creators remain at the heart of every story we tell. * The “Creative” In Strategy: Develop insight-driven strategies that inspire bold creative thinking, providing clear strategic direction while creating space for breakthrough ideas. The salary range for this role is $75,000 - $80,000 and serves as a general guideline for the potential compensation. The final salary offer will be determined based on a comprehensive evaluation of factors such as the candidate's experience, expertise, alignment with the position's requirements, location, and, ultimately, budget approvals. OUR VALUES: At Whalar, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) isn't just a statement, it's our collective strength. Our people are our superpower. A diverse team and inclusive leadership have shaped Whalar since our inception in 2016, fueling a constant evolution of growth. We champion a culture of respect and empathy, fostering a sense of belonging that transcends demographics. We hire individuals of all backgrounds and empower them to thrive, challenge stereotypes, and actively break societal barriers.  THE PERKS: Whalar provides flexible benefits and collaborative work environments/experiences, so employees can work productively in a setting that best and uniquely suits their needs. * Medical, Dental, Vision * 25 days of PTO + Sick days + Winter break * Monthly phone/internet reimbursement * Professional development stipend * New joiner's Home office allowance  * Up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave * Volunteer days * Identity theft protection & Legal assistance * Company Paid Life & Disability Insurance * Voluntary Life Insurance Policy * Voluntary Hospital and Critical Illness Insurance * Voluntary Pet insurance * Employee Resource Groups Whalar provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Equal opportunity extends to all aspects of the employment relationship, including hiring, promotions, training, working conditions, compensation, and benefits.

ABOUT NOVA CREDIT Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data. The company leverages its unique data infrastructure, industry-leading analytics & FCRA-compliance to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics. Nova Credit provides access to the fragmented universe of consumer financial data and transforms it into compliant, actionable risk analytics through a suite of solutions designed to increase conversion through expanded coverage, speed, and reliability. Nova Credit supports over 7,000 businesses including organizations such as HSBC, SoFi, Scotiabank, Appfolio, and Yardi, who work with Nova Credit to make smarter credit decisions through cash flow underwriting with Cash Atlas™, quickly and accurately verify income with Income Navigator, verify income and assets with Eligibility Compass, and reach new-to-country consumers with Credit Passport®. We were named in Forbes’ Fintech 50 [https://www.forbes.com/lists/fintech50/] in 2025 and Built In’s Best Places to Work, 2025 [https://www.novacredit.com/corporate-blog/built-in-honors-nova-credit-in-its-esteemed-2025-best-places-to-work-awards]. THE OPPORTUNITY The Senior Solutions Architect, Partnerships will work within our Go-To-Market team and be dedicated to our Partnerships business unit, focused on the 0-to-1 market opportunities that the BU pursues, most notably our current effort to expand into the automotive lending space. As a consultative product expert, you'll help clients unlock business value while collaborating with the Account Team, Product, Engineering, and Data Science teams throughout the customer journey. This is a 0-to-1 role at its core. You'll operate in an environment where the product, ideal customer profile, ideal use case, and sales motion are not yet fully defined, and you'll help define them. While you'll support both pre-sales and post-sales, this role carries a strong bias toward pre-sales, partnering closely with Account Executives to shape and advance new deals in an emerging market. In this role, you'll engage with our U.S. customer base of large financial institutions, as well as key technology and platform players within the financial space. Many of our strategic partnerships are Business-to-Business-to-Consumer in nature, so you'll own the technology and product aspects of these relationships, including both the partner integrations themselves and the end-customer implementations served through the platform. A working familiarity with HTML, JavaScript, RESTful APIs, and scripting languages such as Python will be essential for demonstrating the value of Nova Credit's platform to customers and prospects. You don't need to be a full-stack engineer, but you should be comfortable reading HTML, making light edits, and speaking credibly to technical stakeholders. Your contributions will be critical to the company's overall success! This is a full-time hybrid role (3 days per week in office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays), based in the New York City Metropolitan area, reporting to the Director of Solutions. WITHIN THE FIRST MONTH, YOU'LL * Establish a technical and strategic understanding of Nova Credit's implementation operations * Learn the go-to-market motion of Nova Credit and the Partnerships BU's 0-to-1 initiatives, including our automotive expansion * Run your first client meetings WITHIN THE FIRST QUARTER, YOU'LL * Partner with Account Executives to advance the technical dimensions of pre-sales strategic enterprise deal processes, establishing trust and credibility amongst all stakeholders * Partner with Deployment Leads to advance the technical dimensions of post-sales strategic implementation processes, establishing trust and credibility amongst all stakeholders * Shape the technical decisions our customers make when integrating our products to maximize the business value of their deployment * Work cross-functionally with the Partnerships BU, Build, and Data Science teams to develop the collateral, technical approach, and sales motion for an evolving product and market * Launch or close your first customer engagement WITHIN THE FIRST YEAR, YOU'LL * Close and launch critical enterprise customers * Help set up the automotive opportunity for success * Scale the SA function by contributing to foundational processes and content, particularly for 0-to-1 motions * Shape the trajectory of Nova by working cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Data Science to prioritize road map features which unblock critical accounts YOUR SKILLSET * 5+ Years Experience in customer facing pre- or post-sales roles, with a bias toward pre-sales, ideally in financial services, credit, or a related industry. Familiarity with indirect (dealer-financed) lending, dealer platforms (RouteOne, Dealertrack) would be a bonus.  * Experience with 0-to-1 GTM motions, meaning sales motions where the product, ideal customer profile, ideal use case, and sales motion are not yet fully defined. This often looks like time at an early-stage company (seed, Series A, or Series B) or leading the 0-to-1 motion for a newly launched product at a later-stage company * A builder's mindset and the temperament to thrive when the sales process, collateral, and motion are not yet established. You're comfortable with ambiguity and driven to create structure where none exists * Highly cross-functional, with a proven ability to collaborate across business, engineering (Build), and Data Science teams to drive outcomes * Working familiarity with HTML, JavaScript, RESTful APIs, and a scripting language such as Python. You're able to read code and make light edits, without needing to be a full-stack engineer * Familiarity with UX design tools such as Figma, Adobe, or Paper * Proven experience in Enterprise IT solutions and implementations * Experience managing multi-party integration partnerships, where you must identify and reconcile competing needs across partner platforms, lenders, dealers, and the end consumer * An understanding of the nuance of operating within a channel partner ecosystem, where much of the complexity comes from having to balance the needs and capabilities of Nova, the partner, the lender, and the consumer simultaneously to arrive at the right solution for each end user * Above all, intellectual curiosity, drive, and coachability will be critical to ensure you help Nova's partners unlock the value of the platform ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Salary Range: $182,000 - $216,125 USD per year  The above compensation range is for U.S.-based candidates and is dependent on individual experience, skills, education, location, and qualifications. This range reflects On-Target Earnings (OTE) for this role, which includes a combination of base salary, incentive compensation, and/or commission-based earnings. We consider all elements of compensation as a part of the value we provide to Novans. This may include base salary, equity grants, incentive compensation for eligible roles, professional development, flexible PTO, and tenure rewards. We offer U.S.-based Novans competitive, employer-subsidized medical, dental, and vision plans, in addition to mental health and wellness benefits and a range of other benefits & perks.  We are an equal-opportunity employer where everyone is welcome at Nova Credit. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected class, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We encourage all qualified candidates, including those with a criminal history, to apply. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION, PLEASE REVIEW OUR APPLICANT PRIVACY NOTICE [https://www.novacredit.com/applicant-privacy-notice] TO LEARN HOW WE COLLECT, USE, AND PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION DURING THE APPLICATION PROCESS.