Head of Strategy (Vietnamese or Expatriate Candidates Welcome)

Full Time | Ho Chi Minh City

Job Summary

The Head of Strategy leads the Strategy Department and oversees multiple strategy teams (approximately 20 strategists). Each team is led by a (Senior) Strategy Manager or Associate Director who manages day‑to‑day strategic work.

This role combines strategic expertise with strong leadership and management capability to lead and develop a large and diverse strategy team. The primary focus is to align and develop strategists with strong personalities, analytical thinking, and independent viewpoints.

The Head of Strategy ensures high‑quality strategic thinking across the agency while building a collaborative, high‑performing team culture that supports client success and business growth.

Supervisory Responsibility

The Head of Strategy leads the Strategy Department and develops the team’s leaders to ensure alignment, strong collaboration, and consistent strategic quality.

  • Mentor and develop strategy team leaders and strategists.
  • Align teams with diverse perspectives and working styles.
  • Build a collaborative culture focused on shared goals.
  • Support professional growth and leadership development.
  • Oversee the allocation of strategic resources to ensure balanced workload, diverse client exposure, and sustainable team performance.
  • Ensure effective communication and coordination across teams.

Job Responsibilities

♦ Strategic Leadership

  • Guide strategic direction for key clients and major campaigns.
  • Ensure consistent strategic quality across teams.
  • Provide strategic perspectives that support brand and business growth.
  • Support new business and major pitch opportunities.

Team Leadership & Management

  • Lead and align multiple strategy teams toward shared objectives.
  • Coach and develop Strategy Managers and Associate Directors.
  • Guide team leaders on workload management, priorities, and delivery timelines.
  • Encourage collaboration across teams with diverse viewpoints.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

  • Partner with Creative, Account, and Media teams to translate strategy into effective campaigns.
  • Collaborate with senior leadership on strategic initiatives.
  • Engage with key clients when strategic leadership is required.

Organizational Development

  • Strengthen processes and collaboration across the Strategy Department.
  • Develop future strategy leaders.
  • Build a stable, engaged, and high‑performing strategy team.

Required Leadership Mindset & Capabilities

  • Growth mindset.
  • Entrepreneurial mindset – Thinks beyond managing the Strategy Department as a functional team, bringing a business-building mindset and contributing to the growth of both the agency and client businesses.
  • Accountable leadership with a servant leadership mindset.
  • Strong collaboration and influence across cross-functional teams and back-office functions.
  • Ability to manage complexity and prioritize effectively in a fast-paced environment.

Experience & Education

  • 15+ years of experience in strategic planning, preferably within advertising agencies, brand consultants, or related strategic environments.
  • Proven experience leading strategy teams and managing team leaders, with responsibility for teams of approximately 15–20 members or more.
  • Experience working with major brands or complex client organizations is preferred.
  • Experience working with diverse international client portfolios across Western and Asian markets, including Japanese, Vietnamese, and ASEAN clients, is a strong advantage.
  • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, communications, or related fields.
  • Fluent in English; Vietnamese or other Asian languages is a plus.

Benefits

  • Working in a dynamic, friendly, and supportive environment.
  • Growing business.
  • Once the employee has passed probation and signed a labor contract, the employee will have other benefits as follows:
    • 16 annual leave per year;
    • 13th-month salary;
    • Year-end bonus based on performance and business result;
    • Salary review annually;
    • Annual health check;
    • Social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance (Vietnamese Law);
    • Insurance benefits package;
    • Mobile phone fee allowance based on the company’s policy;
    • Participate in company events, company trip;
    • Participate in the company’s training programs, self-studying program (supported by the company).

We thank all applicants for your interest; please note that only candidates whose qualifications closely match the requirements of this role will be contacted for further steps.
By submitting your CV, you consent to us processing and retaining your personal information for recruitment purposes, including potential future opportunities.

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Strategic Planning Manager

Full Time | Ho Chi Minh City

Job Summary

As a Strategic Planning Manager, you will lead the strategic planning process, oversee research activities, and ensure the successful delivery of presentations to clients. You play a key role in analyzing market trends, identifying growth opportunities, and developing comprehensive strategic plans to achieve organizational goals. You will partner with cross-functional teams to align strategies with business objectives and provide insights to drive decision-making.

Supervisory Responsibility

As part of this role, you will directly mentor and guide a team of 1- 2 members including Planners and Senior Planners. You foster their professional development and ensure high-quality output by providing direction and support to them to achieve departmental and organizational goals, helping them sharpen their thinking and deliverables through structured feedback and mentoring.

Job Responsibility

  • Participate in the client’s briefing sessions. Take the overall responsibility and lead the full strategic planning process.
  • Examine the information or insights from the research and develop a strategic direction to formulate and develop creative briefs
  • Conduct and manage any necessary research including but not limited to desk research, internal research, etc.
  • Collaborate actively with Account teams, Creative teams and Media teams, contributing to idea development and ensuring strategic consistency throughout the creative process.
  • Build strong working relationships with Creative Directors by being a reliable strategic partner and communicator.
  • Create plans for the strategy with measurable KPIs for marketing communications campaigns. This typically necessitates tight coordination between Planners and Media Specialists/ Media agencies/ Market research agencies.
  • Oversee the execution of strategic plans to ensure alignment with the intended direction, proactively monitoring campaign progress to identify and address any deviations or opportunities for optimization in real time
  • Deliver clear, concise, and engaging presentations in both Vietnamese and English, tailored to client needs with a strong emphasis on storytelling and logic.
  • Assist in designing and facilitating internal and external workshops (e.g., alignment, idea development), under the guidance of the Planning Director or Strategic Lead.
  • Mentor and support young strategic talents in the department.

Required Skills/ Abilities

  • Rational thinker with strong strategic thinking capability.
  • Ability to look at both the big picture and details.
  • Excellent research and analytical skills. Ability to synthesize different data/ inputs into a clear and accurate roadmap or direction.
  • Exceptional presentation skills to influence decision-makers and drive success for our business presentation.
  • Deep understanding of all marketing communications platforms, especially emerging digital and social ones, ensuring our plans are integrated and scalable.
  • Confidently applies Hakuhodo’s planning tools (e.g., Sei-katsu-sha Creative Brief) and contributes to embedding them into day-to-day team practice.
  • Embraces and reflects Hakuhodo’s “Unimagined Way” philosophy in strategic recommendations, showing a growing ability to inspire fresh perspectives and challenge conventional thinking.

Experience and Education

  • More than 7 years of working experience in planning/ brand strategy.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Marketing/ Communications/ Journalism or related fields.

Benefits

  • Working in a dynamic, friendly, and supportive environment.
  • Growing business.
  • Once the employee has passed probation and signed a labor contract, the employee will have other benefits as follows:
    • 16 annual leave per year;
    • 13th-month salary;
    • Year-end bonus based on performance and business result;
    • Salary review annually;
    • Annual health check;
    • Social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance (Vietnamese Law);
    • Insurance benefits package;
    • Mobile phone fee allowance based on the company’s policy;
    • Participate in company events, company trip;
    • Participate in the company’s training programs, self-studying program (supported by the company).

We thank all applicants for your interest; please note that only candidates whose qualifications closely match the requirements of this role will be contacted for further steps.
By submitting your CV, you consent to us processing and retaining your personal information for recruitment purposes, including potential future opportunities.

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Strategic Planning Intern

Internship | Ho Chi Minh City

Job Summary

As a Strategic Planning Intern, you will assist the Strategic Planning department in researching, developing integrated marketing communication strategies, and generating valuable insights for client campaigns. You will work closely with planners, creative and account teams, supporting them in creating effective, insight-driven campaigns for multiple clients.

Job Responsibility

  • Assist in collecting and analyzing market, consumer, and competitor data.
  • Conduct desk research and support the team in identifying consumer behaviors, cultural trends, market movements, and relevant insights. 
  • Support the development of communication strategies and creative briefs. 
  • Participate in brainstorming sessions and contribute ideas to strategy and creative development. 
  • Prepare reports, presentations, and documentation for internal and client meetings.  
  • Coordinate with internal teams to ensure smooth workflow and timely delivery. 
  • Support day-to-day operational tasks and other ad-hoc projects assigned by the Strategic Planning team.

Required Skills/ Abilities

  • Critical & creative thinking.
  • Be able to communicate and explain things simply, and logically.
  • Teamwork, proactive, responsible, flexible.
  • Self-motivated, can-do attitude, and optimistic.
  • Proficiency in English and Vietnamese.
  • Ability to work under tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
  • MS Office: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Experience and Education

  • Be able to work on-site, full-time for 6 months.
  • Fresh graduate/ final year student majoring in Marketing, Business, Economics, Communications, Advertising, or related fields. 
  • Strong interest and passion for Advertising, Media, and Marketing.
  • Understand thoroughly the fundamentals & correlation of marketing strategy, brand strategy & communication strategy.

Benefits

  • Internship allowance: 3.000.000 VND/month.
  • Working in a dynamic, friendly, and supportive environment.
  • Growing business.
  • Parking allowance.
  • Join Happy Hour Party each month.
  • Computer, stationery, other working tools, etc. will be provided.

We thank all applicants for your interest; please note that only candidates whose qualifications closely match the requirements of this role will be contacted for further steps.
By submitting your CV, you consent to us processing and retaining your personal information for recruitment purposes, including potential future opportunities.

Fill in your details