Performance Creative Strategist in Lewes

About Us

Ancient + Brave is a female founded, mission-driven wellness brand with an award-winning range of collagen, supplements and functional blends. Rooted in ancient wisdom and validated by science, our simple daily rituals support our community in nurturing whole body health. Ancient + Brave has been recognised in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies for three consecutive years - most recently placing 7th - and ranked 4th in the Oresa Retail Growth Index in 2025. It's a reflection of the quality of what we build, the community we serve, and the discipline with which we operate. Social and environmental responsibility has always been at the heart of the business and woven into how we operate. We're a certified B Corp, a member of 1% for the Planet, and through the Made By Brave Foundation we direct 1%+ of all revenue to environmental and social causes. As an equal-opportunity employer we are committed to an inclusive and diverse workplace culture, where we are brave, connected and intentional - and lead with integrity.

The Role

We are building a performance creative function in-house, and this is a critical role. This person will own the creative strategy behind everything we put into paid social. That means knowing our audiences better than anyone else in the building, working in partnership with the performance team to read the account data every week, spotting where the opportunity is, and turning that into briefs the team can make against immediately. Meta is where the volume sits today. TikTok is in our sights, this person will be instrumental to both. This is a focused role, it is not brand strategy, and it is not a campaign planning job. It is the engine room of a high-volume content operation: personas, angles, hooks, briefs, testing, learning, and then doing it again the following week optimising with what you learned.

What You'll Do

• Own the creative strategy for paid social
• Build and maintain the audience and persona work that sits underneath our paid creative, using brand strategy, performance data, customer insight, reviews, community listening and category research.
• Identify the angles, messages and product truths worth testing, and know why each one is on the list
• Run a testing framework in partnership with the performance team that produces clear reads: what won, what lost, what we do next
• Track what is working for other brands on Meta and TikTok and bring it into the room proactively.
• Brief and lead the work
• Write the briefs for all performance creative, in a format the designer and editor can act on the same day
• Work with the wider team to set the volume, the variants and the priorities each cycle, so the creative and marketing team knows what is being made and why
• Sit with the creatives while the work is being made rather than handing over and stepping away - ensuring work is optimised to brief and opportunity every time
• Protect quality at pace, never compromising the brand or mission for a sale that damages the wellness of the customer.
• Connect performance, marketing and creative
• Work in tandem with the performance marketing team on spend, results and ensure the creative is not the constraint to success.
• Work with the UK, EU and US market teams so the creative pipeline serves their trading calendars and local nuances
• Support the development in the long term of an approach that can truly serve a global need
• Feed learnings back into brand, product and content planning, using paid performance intelligence to support the team in building an exceptional brand
• Write Hooks, headlines, ad copy, captions and CTAs, at volume and to a high standard
• Messaging frameworks that can be split, tested and rebuilt
• Copy that sounds like Ancient + Brave while doing a direct response job

WHO YOU ARE

To be successful in this role, you will need the following skills / knowledge / experience:

• You have done this specific job: performance creative or creative strategy for a brand or agency running meaningful paid social spend, with Meta as the core platform.
• You can demonstrate work you briefed and explain what it delivered, with a clear and deep understanding of what it takes to make work that works.
• You are comfortable in ad accounts and reporting.
• You do not need someone to interpret the numbers for you, but can work in tandem with a performance team as a partner to their work.
• You have built or run a creative testing process, and can describe how you kept it clear, and optimised it through time
• Strong short-form copywriting, evidenced in your portfolio
• DTC experience, ideally wellness, beauty, supplements or food and drink
• TikTok experience, or a clear point of view on how you would build our presence there
• You work at pace and you like it. High volume does not frighten you and you have a system for it
• You are motivated by results. A creative idea that does not sell is an unfinished idea
• You are close to the creatives, not above them. This is a partnership, not a briefing service
• You can hold your own with performance marketers and with the Creative Director, and change your mind when the evidence requires it
• You are highly organised - nobody ever has to chase you for the brief and you take full responsibility for your output.

Further, to truly thrive at Ancient + Brave you will need to embody the spirit of our brand and align with our company culture. For us that is a series of shared beliefs:

• WE BELIEVE IN BRAVERY — We are: Courageous, Bold, Experimental
• WE BELIEVE IN INTEGRITY — We are: Honest, Accountable, Ethical
• WE BELIEVE IN CONNECTION — We are: Collaborative, Inclusive, Open
• WE BELIEVE IN INTENTION — We are: Purposeful, Proactive, Focused

WAYS OF WORKING

We're a fast-paced scale-up and being together in person makes a real difference to how we collaborate and move the business forward. We've worked hard to make our riverside office an inviting and genuinely enjoyable place to be, and we're proud of the environment we've created for our team. Therefore, please only apply if you’re happy to commute to our HQ in Lewes, East Sussex on a full-time basis.

As part of being an equal-opportunity employer, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace culture. We embrace varied perspectives and encourage creativity that knows no bounds. While most of our roles are advertised as full-time, we are open to discussing part-time setup where appropriate. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you through the application or interview process, please don't hesitate to let us know.

WHY JOIN US

At Ancient + Brave you’ll find an engaging, collaborative and inclusive work environment where your talents will be nurtured, and your contributions valued. Here's what joining us looks like:

• We pay a discretionary bonus based on a mix of company performance and individual contributions and review our salaries annually.
• Our Private Medical Insurance is designed to support your health and wellbeing, providing swift access to high-quality care whenever you need it most.
• Our Medicash plan offers access to specialist consultations, 24/7 Virtual GP and health screenings as well as dental, optical and complementary therapies and access to confidential support via its EAP programme.
• In addition to our regular annual holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays, we also offer one Wellbeing day to use as needed.
• Our pension contributions are ESG invested (so no pharma, weapons or other ethically questionable investments).
• Our Mintago platform gives employees access to financial wellbeing advice and support as well as retail discounts and salary sacrifice schemes, which cover childcare, cycle to work, gym membership, groceries, electric vehicle and mobile/tech purchase.
• We offer continuous training & professional development opportunities and our team members get to enjoy complimentary nutrition and meditation sessions in the office.
• Our kitchen is fully stocked with the usual supplies as well as a limitless supply of A+B products (you also get 50% off on any product you wish to purchase).
• We hold two social events a year to come together and connect in a meaningful way.
• We provide all our team members with suitable laptop computers & headphones and our office is equipped with monitors, ergonomic chairs and sitting and standing desks.