Associate Director, AEO Creative Strategy

SALARY: $125,000 + $135,000

Placement within the range for this position is based on a number of factors, including but not limited to, years of experience, relevant qualifications, skills, local market and budgetary considerations.

LOCATION: New York (Hybrid // In-Person 2x/week )

Who are we?

At the heart of our growth is Waves - our proprietary AI-driven operating system that powers every step of the creator campaign lifecycle, from creator discovery and contracting through to live reporting and payments. As we pursue our mission to pay creators $1 billion, Waves is the engine behind that goal.

Job title

Associate Director, AEO Creative Strategy

Reporting of the role

SVP, Global Creative Strategy & Cultural Insights

Overview of the job

Reporting into the Creative Strategy & Insights organization, the Associate Director, AEO Creative Strategy will help build and deliver Influencer’s emerging Creator-First AEO capability while also playing an active role across our broader Creative Strategy practice.

This role sits at the intersection of AI search intelligence, creator strategy, cultural insight and client strategy. You will take complex data about how brands are understood, surfaced and cited across AI-driven discovery and turn it into clear, actionable creator strategies.

You will partner closely with Marketing Science to understand the intelligence, then connect those findings to the work: identifying the narratives brands need to strengthen, the questions creator content should answer, the creators best positioned to build authority, and the content and platforms most likely to matter.

Alongside the AEO remit, you will support on other strategic work across priority clients, pitches and proactive opportunities, helping raise the standard of creator-first strategy across the business.

Best Things About The Job

• Help build a new strategic capability at the intersection of creator marketing and AI-driven discovery.

• Turn emerging technology and data into strategies that clients can actually understand and action.

• Work across Creative Strategy, Marketing Science, Performance, Creator and Commercial teams to connect intelligence directly to activation.

• Contribute to major pitches, client relationships and strategic work beyond AEO.

Measures of success - in the first few months, you will have:

• AEO intelligence is consistently translated into clear, actionable creator strategies.

• Strong client confidence in Influencer’s Creator-First AEO recommendations and strategic expertise.

• A repeatable AEO strategic methodology that can scale across clients, categories and markets.

• Strong integration between Marketing Science insights and Creative Strategy activation.

• High-quality strategic output across both AEO and BAU client work.

• AEO engagements contribute to expanded client relationships and new commercial opportunities.

Roles & responsibilities:

AEO Intelligence & Interpretation

Partner closely with Marketing Science and analytics teams to understand how brands currently appear across AI-driven discovery.

• Interpret AEO intelligence including prompts, citations, competitive positioning, sources, topics and visibility gaps.

• Identify the questions and narratives that matter most to a brand, category and consumer.

• Understand where competitors are gaining authority and what content, voices or sources appear to be contributing to that advantage.

• Stay close to developments across AI search, consumer discovery and creator behavior and translate them into implications for clients.

Creator-First AEO Strategy

Turn intelligence into clear and actionable creator strategy.

• Translate AEO findings into strategic recommendations and creator briefs.

• Identify which brand narratives need to be strengthened and which questions creator content should help answer.

• Determine the creator profiles, platforms, formats and content approaches most relevant to the opportunity.

• Develop creator-first strategies that balance AEO objectives with authenticity, cultural relevance and brand priorities.

• Ensure recommendations are actionable and can be translated directly into activation.

Client Strategy & Storytelling

Act as a credible strategic partner to clients and commercial teams.

• Build clear client narratives that explain what AI currently understands about a brand, why it matters and what we recommend doing about it.

• Present AEO findings and recommendations to senior client stakeholders.

• Support AEO pitches, workshops, audits and proactive opportunities.

• Help translate an emerging and complex area of marketing into simple, compelling recommendations.

• Partner with Commercial teams to identify opportunities to expand AEO engagements and broader strategic relationships.

Activation, Measurement & Learning

Connect strategy through to execution and continuous learning.

• Work across Creative Strategy, Creator, Performance and Marketing Science to ensure AEO insights make their way into briefs and campaigns.

• Partner with Marketing Science to establish clear hypotheses and measurement approaches before activation.

• Review post-activation findings to understand what changed and what should inform the next strategic cycle.

• Build repeatable frameworks and methodologies that allow Influencer to scale Creator-First AEO across clients and markets.

Creative Strategy Overall

Contribute to the broader Creative Strategy team beyond AEO.

• Lead and support strategic development across priority client briefs, pitches and proactive opportunities.

• Turn audience, cultural, platform and category insights into strong creator-first strategies.

• Develop briefs and strategic narratives that inspire creators and creative teams while solving client business challenges.

• Support senior strategists on major integrated opportunities and independently lead appropriate client workstreams.

• Contribute to strategic frameworks, POVs and thought leadership across the wider Creative Strategy & Insights practice.

What you will need:

• 7+ years of experience across creative strategy, brand strategy, social strategy, digital strategy, insights or creator marketing.

• Strong ability to turn complex data and insights into simple, compelling strategic recommendations.

• Deep understanding of creator marketing, social platforms, consumer behavior and digital culture.

• Curiosity and working knowledge of AI-driven search, AEO, SEO or emerging discovery behaviors; direct AEO experience is advantageous but not essential.

• Experience developing creator briefs, strategic frameworks and client-facing narratives.

• Strong commercial instincts and confidence presenting to senior clients.

• Comfortable working with analysts and quantitative data without needing to be the technical measurement owner.

• Ability to operate across emerging innovation work and established BAU client responsibilities.

• Strong collaborator who can work effectively across strategy, measurement, performance, creator and commercial teams.

A few of our core benefits:

• Medical Benefits through Insperity

• Wellbeing support including EAP & Mental Health cover

• 401K with match opportunity

• 22 days of Paid Time Off (+ Federal Holidays which can be flexed to your needs)

For more information on our benefits, perks and what makes us unique, please visit our website here

At Influencer, we’re committed to cultivating an environment that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion. We promote DEI in our workplace and are a global community who believe our unique qualities should be celebrated. We want everyone at Influencer to bring their authentic selves to work everyday, irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We are committed to embedding Diversity, Equity & Inclusion into everything we do at Influencer, making it part of our culture. All we ask is that you have a passion for Influencer Marketing and a desire to be a part of one of the fastest growing companies within this exciting industry.