How to hire a strategic planner

How to hire a strategic planner, step by step

Here's a step-by-step strategic planner hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a strategic planner job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new strategic planner
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a strategic planner do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the strategic planner you need to hire. Certain strategic planner roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a strategic planner to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a strategic planner that fits the bill.

   This list shows salaries for various types of strategic planners.

   Type of Strategic Planner	Description	Hourly rate
   Strategic Planner	Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.	$29-60
   Business Development Director	A business development director specializes in crafting plans and strategies to develop the relationship between the brand, clients, and other key characters in the industry. It is their responsibility to examine and understand everything about the brand and figure out which areas require improvement or changes... Show more	$34-92
   Marketing Director	Marketing directors are responsible for the overall branding and marketing direction of the company. They are in charge of identifying goals and strategies related to marketing... Show more	$32-92

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Project Management
   • DOD
   • Logistics
   • PowerPoint
   • Portfolio
   • Lean Six Sigma
   • Strategic Plan
   • Program Management
   • Strategic Development
   • Market Research
   • Data Analysis
   • Adaptive
   • Strategic Thinking
   • National Security

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Leverage native CRM service calendar to automate sales appointment and service activity scheduling & dispatch.
   • Select to ramp up research portfolio and ensure compliance with DoD guidelines and customer requirements.
   • Research, plan and draft the first-ever strategic plan for training DoD advance counterintelligence professionals.
   • Utilize Facebook and LinkedIn as a primary marketing tool due to their limit budget.
   • Plan production master schedule (MPS) & are responsible for MRP accuracy using an Ingress-Mimi MRP system.
   • Analyze the configuration of MRP planning parameters for consistency with to ensure accuracy of material.

   More strategic planner duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your strategic planner job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A strategic planner salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, strategic planners' average salary in alaska is 45% less than in rhode island.
   • Seniority. Entry-level strategic planners earn 51% less than senior-level strategic planners.
   • Certifications. A strategic planner with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a strategic planner's salary.

   Average strategic planner salary

   $88,718yearly

   $42.65 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level strategic planner salary

   $62,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 17, 2025

   Average strategic planner salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$103,035	$50
   2	New York	$97,719	$47
   3	Massachusetts	$97,711	$47
   4	Arizona	$94,344	$45
   5	Oregon	$91,191	$44
   6	Connecticut	$89,386	$43
   7	Georgia	$88,915	$43
   8	Virginia	$88,348	$42
   9	Minnesota	$85,281	$41
   10	District of Columbia	$84,247	$41
   11	Texas	$83,072	$40
   12	Illinois	$82,258	$40
   13	Nevada	$78,942	$38
   14	Missouri	$78,427	$38
   15	Colorado	$76,502	$37
   16	Oklahoma	$76,186	$37
   17	Florida	$72,133	$35

   Average strategic planner salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$127,754	$61.42	21
   2	Genentech	$125,858	$60.51
   3	Applied Materials	$125,603	$60.39	2
   4	Microsoft	$118,321	$56.89	41
   5	Nike	$115,574	$55.56	12
   6	Intel	$112,347	$54.01	7
   7	Amazon	$105,671	$50.80	98
   8	Sandia National Labs	$105,619	$50.78
   9	Booz Allen Hamilton	$104,268	$50.13	26
   10	Philips	$103,490	$49.75	1
   11	Northrop Grumman	$103,090	$49.56	10
   12	Torch Technologies	$102,129	$49.10	2
   13	DCG Systems	$101,732	$48.91
   14	Lattice Semiconductor	$101,150	$48.63
   15	Micron Technology	$99,803	$47.98
   16	RPA	$98,213	$47.22
   17	YASH Technologies	$95,183	$45.76
   18	Daimler Trucks North America	$93,648	$45.02
   19	mcgarrybowen	$92,752	$44.59
   20	Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide Inc	$91,857	$44.16

4. Writing a strategic planner job description

   A good strategic planner job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a strategic planner job description:

   Strategic planner job description example

   As a Senior Strategic Planner, you will work with teams in developing and implementing strategies that solve clients' problems and inspire new ideas and work that gets people excited. You will be asked to challenge and elevate so that we're always delivering bold and innovative thinking.
   
   The candidate must be a change agent who is excited to contribute to the culture in our planning department.
   
   The Senior Strategic Planner is an inspirational thinker and a fearless collaborator with a passion for culture and uncovering human truths. He/she/they must be curious and a quick learner, a creative thinker who values all sources of intel (social media comments, articles and pop culture news. Someone whose writing skills are exceptional. They are the ultimate insight-miner, someone who enjoys gathering and analyzing trends, research findings and turning them into opportunities for brands to better connect with people. The person in this role will have access to a wide variety of planning tools (qual and quant) that will be very helpful in the development of POVs, creative briefs and well crafted presentations.
   
   A Senior Planner will also be able to lead both the creative strategy and the process it takes to get there, and collaborate well with other internal teams (creative, media, account) and clients.
   
   For this role, we're especially seeking a candidate who also has a solid understanding of and love of multicultural marketing, especially Hispanic audiences. This role will work across both Hispanic and general markets.
   Roles and Responsibilities include:
   
   Turning observation, data, research, and culture into insight. This means partnering with our data team on analysis and profiling, and collaborating with other members of your team to uncover the problem we need to solve and the insights to help us do it.
   
   Challenge and elevate strategic thinking, add new perspective, and ensure creative briefs are best in class
   
   Be a trusted partner and reliable resource for clients and for creative teams
   
   Understand research and reporting methodology, and guide the team through the development of those projects
   
   Present material in a clear, concise, and impactful manner
   
   Partner and mentor strategists to further develop their skills as strategic thinkers and storytellers
   
   Keep a pulse on culture and trends, and be able to identify new and creative ways to authentically impact our clients' brand and audiences

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right strategic planner for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with strategic planners they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit strategic planners who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   To find strategic planner candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with strategic planner candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new strategic planner

   Once you've found the strategic planner candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new strategic planner. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a strategic planner?