Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. The terms of our culture should not be set by gate-keeping legacy media or chaos-fueling social media, but by the people who make and participate in that culture. Substack's model, based on direct subscriptions, has fueled an explosion of independent publishing. It empowers creators with economic autonomy, creative ownership, and a direct connection to their most engaged audiences.
About the Role
The Brand Partnership team at Substack is building our sponsorships business from the ground up. The Creative Strategist sits between the brands and their agencies and the publishers and their agents on Substack. Your job is to turn a brand's goal into a campaign idea, find the publishers who can carry that idea credibly, and stay with it from the first pitch through the work going live and wrapping post-campaign. This is a founding role on a small team, so the frameworks are yours to write.
Responsibilities
Craft creative, culture-defining ideas that work for a brand and feel native to Substack, rather than an ad bolted onto someone's content
Match brands with the right creators and publications, using judgment about audience, voice, and what a given publisher will want to do
Own the creative side of the pre-sale: read the brief, build the proposal, and respond to client feedback with new concepts and pivots
Run campaigns from idea through execution, keeping the brand, the publisher, and our team pointed in the same direction
Join client and agency calls to pull out the information you need to sharpen brand goals into clear pitch materials that help brands picture what they can do on Substack
Manage campaign reporting and metrics reports
Watch what's working across the platform and feed real examples back into the next round of ideas
About You
5+ years in creative strategy, branded content, or content strategy, at a publisher, an agency, or a platform
A portfolio of campaign ideas you've taken from concept to live work, ideally involving creators, social and/or publishers
A feel for the brand RFP process and for writing proposals that win
Real instincts for the creator and media space, and a sense for what's fresh versus what's played out
The range to hold a creative conversation with a CMO and a practical one with a creator, sometimes on the same day
Strong writing, and the organization to run several campaigns at once without dropping the details
Sharp project management and attention to detail to ensure no balls are dropped and execution is tight
Familiarity with how creator brand deals are structured and contracted is a plus
Substack’s compensation package includes a market-competitive salary, equity for all full-time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $130,000 - $170,000. Multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise, determine final offer amounts and may vary from the amounts listed above.
Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.
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