head of creative

Location: Chiswick, London

Employment Type: Full-Time

Office Attendance: Hybrid – 3–4 days per week in office

Travel: Some international travel and shoot attendance required

About 16K Agency

16K Agency is a creative, content and social agency specialising in motorsport and global sport. We work with brands, rights-holders and teams to create work that genuinely cuts through – from strategy and storytelling to production and real-time social. We are entering a new phase of growth and are looking for a Head of Creative to elevate our output, protect our standards, and lead the next chapter of our creative evolution.

Role Overview

This role is central to elevating the creative output of the agency – from day-to-day social content and platform-native edits, to large-scale brand campaigns, partnership activations and F1 race-weekend deliverables. The Head of Creative will be responsible for leading and developing the creative team, raising the standard of ideas and execution across all client work, and overseeing creative direction from brief through to final delivery. You will collaborate closely with Production, Content, Social and Client teams to ensure that all output meets the highest possible creative standard while remaining commercially viable and strategically aligned.

This is a senior leadership role suited to someone with significant agency, sport, lifestyle or global brand experience, who is confident managing multiple workstreams in a fast-paced, reactive environment and is comfortable presenting and defending ideas at senior client level. The successful candidate will have strong production experience (filming and/or editing), but will operate primarily as a strategic and leadership figure – stepping in as DOP or senior creative lead on selected key shoots where appropriate.

Key Responsibilities

• Creative Direction & Vision
  • Set and uphold the creative standard across all agency output
  • Lead concept development for campaigns, brand partnerships, and race activations
  • Translate briefs into compelling, platform-relevant creative directions
  • Ensure storytelling, visual language, tone and execution remain distinctive and consistent
  • Drive innovation in format, editing style, and digital-first content approaches
  • Shape the agency’s evolving creative identity and positioning
• Team Leadership & Development
  • Directly manage Content Creators and Editors
  • Conduct structured performance reviews in line with the agency’s performance cycle
  • Implement regular creative critique sessions and feedback loops
  • Identify skill gaps and create development pathways within the team
  • Support hiring decisions and onboarding within the creative department
  • Foster a culture of ambition, accountability, and creative curiosity
• Creative Sign-Off & Quality Control
  • Provide final creative approval on major campaigns and key deliverables
  • Establish scalable quality control processes for ongoing social and reactive content
  • Reduce unnecessary amends through clearer creative direction and pre-production alignment
  • Ensure production value and execution quality meet agency standards
  • Protect the agency from creative dilution as the team scales
• End-to-End Creative Oversight
  • Oversee the creative journey from brief to delivery, in collaboration with Production
  • Work closely with Account teams to align creative ambition with client objectives
  • Contribute to production feasibility discussions and creative budget alignment
  • Select and oversee external creative vendors where required
  • Maintain strong cross-department collaboration to ensure seamless delivery
• New Business & Commercial Contribution
  • Lead creative development for new business pitches
  • Present concepts confidently to senior clients and stakeholders
  • Identify creative upsell opportunities within existing accounts
  • Contribute to strengthening the agency’s external creative reputation
  • Support award submissions and industry recognition initiatives
• Production & Shoot Involvement
  • Attend and creatively lead selected key shoots
  • Step in as DOP or senior creative lead where strategically appropriate
  • Ensure pre-production creative alignment before major shoots
  • Provide on-set direction to maintain concept integrity and visual quality
• Tools, Systems & Standards
  • Work alongside Production to ensure creative processes are embedded within Zoho Projects and associated systems
  • Establish creative review checkpoints within project timelines
  • Standardise templates and frameworks for briefs, concept decks and creative presentations
  • Continuously refine internal creative processes to improve clarity, efficiency and output quality

How To Apply

If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you. Please send your CV along with a short cover note outlining:

• Why this role interests you
• Your relevant experience within sport, events or agency environments
• Your availability and preferred contract structure (day rate or pro-rata)

Applications should be sent to: work@16kagency.com - subject: Head of Creative

If you have any questions before applying, feel free to reach out to us directly. We’re looking to move quickly and appoint the right candidate as soon as possible.