Director, Content & Social Media

The Director, Content & Social Media, is a creative-strategist hybrid who shapes how Build-A-Bear shows up in culture through social-first storytelling. This role requires deep cultural fluency, the ability to build recognizable, repeatable content formats that multi-generational audiences love, and hands‑on experience planning, creating, publishing, and optimizing content across today's most relevant platforms.

The Director, Content & Social Media, is passionate about advocating for social as a brand and business driver, but is also comfortable jumping into the work, shaping creative in real time, making bold calls, and guiding ideas from concept to execution.

Responsibilities:

• Own and evolve our content and social strategy across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and emerging platforms, ensuring everything we create feels native, timely, and culturally relevant.
• Lead hands-on creative concepting for social-first storytelling, from episodic formats and creator collaborations to reactive moments and platform experiments.
• Set a clear creative bar for what "great" looks like on each platform, balancing brand consistency with the flexibility social demands.
• Champion brave, culturally relevant ideas.
• Stay fluent in platform mechanics, algorithms, formats, and trends, and translate that knowledge into actionable creative direction for the team.
• Build content that is designed for how people consume social: fast, emotional, participatory, and shareable.
• Oversee and evolve our social listening and community management strategies.
• Partner closely with our performance, media, and PR teams to ensure organic, paid, and earned social work together as one connected ecosystem.
• Use performance, engagement, and earned signals to iterate, refine, and scale ideas that resonate both culturally and commercially.
• Confidently advocate for social-first ideas in cross-functional settings.
• Lead and grow a high-performing team of social strategists, creators, and community managers.
• Foster a team culture that values creative courage while providing clear creative direction, actionable feedback, and strong mentorship.
• Manage agency partners as extensions of the team.
• Define success metrics across platforms.
• Translate performance data into clear insights and strategic rationales for senior leadership.
• Continuously test, learn, and evolve how Build-A-Bear shows up in social spaces.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 10+ years of experience in social, content, or digital storytelling, with a strong emphasis on consumer-facing, culturally relevant brands.
• A clear track record of hands-on social media leadership, including content planning, creation, publishing, and optimization.
• Demonstrated success growing followers, engagement, reach, and/or conversions through strong creative and platform fluency.
• Experience working with creators and influencers.
• Ability to think holistically about content ecosystems while still sweating the creative details.
• Comfort using analytics, social listening, and insights to guide decisions and improve performance.
• A genuine curiosity about internet culture, creators, fandoms, and emerging platforms.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Background in toys, entertainment, lifestyle, fashion, or youth culture.
• Experience scaling social for a brand in a period of growth or transformation.

Behavioral Traits for Success:

• Driven to achieve results that align with the strategic goals of the organization
• Initiative, sense of urgency, and the ability to stay focused on results despite changing conditions
• Decision-making is focused on implementing practical and timely solutions
• A natural leadership style that trains and engages others in an enthusiastic way
• Learns quickly and thoroughly while continually recognizing and adapting to change
• Effective delegator
• Innovative and creative problem solver
• Action-oriented
• Influences and stimulates others to action

Working Environment:

• Typical office environment with climate control and sufficient lighting, ergonomic desk/chairs
• Corporate office located in St. Louis, MO
• Hybrid work week

Your Performance Will Be Measured On:

Your performance will be measured by your ability to achieve annual department objectives and corporate goals which include but are not limited to the following:

• Decision-making, judgment, and execution
• A bold, distinctive social presence that feels unmistakably Build-A-Bear, and undeniably of the moment
• Consistent growth in engagement, reach, and community relevance
• A confident, creatively energized team that's pushing the brand forward every day
• Stakeholder feedback