Creative Director in Lewes

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.

We operate from beautiful head offices overlooking the river Ouse in Lewes, East Sussex.

We’re looking for an exceptional and experienced Creative Director to partner our founder and Chief Brand and Creative Officer to shape the future of the Ancient + Brave brand. This role calls for visionary thinking paired with disciplined execution, a person who can set direction, build efficient processes, lead people, and still lean into the smallest detail of craft. You’ll report to our Interim Chief Brand and Creative Officer and work closely with our founder to lead the Creative team day-to-day across design, art direction, copy, social and content, and performance.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Set and champion the creative vision across all brand activity and all markets for Ancient + Brave, delivering the majority of work internally, with support from selected partners where required.
• Build and lead a world class Creative team, growing its capability over time to deliver high quality outcomes across multiple touchpoints.
• Partner closely with leaders across the business to ensure everything we make builds the brand for the long term, whilst balancing our shorter term commercial objectives.
• Work alongside marketing teams across all markets (UK, US, De, Es) to deliver stand out creative thinking in campaigns, GTM planning, and market-specific outputs.
• Partner the Chief Brand and Creative Officer and Founder to develop and maintain the brand position and to use this position to ideate cut through creative and lead execution across all output.
• Work closely with our Nutrition and Science and Innovation teams as collaborators, bringing them into the process early and seeing them as a brand USP.
• Work strategically with senior teams to ideate cut through, fame driving creative campaign ideas for all markets.
• Own and evolve the brand guidelines, developing a powerful set of fluent creative assets and using this clarity to raise the bar for creative excellence.
• Take accountability for the production function, approving brand and creative direction on shoots and output, and overseeing the day-to-day logistics led by your Creative Ops and Production team.
• Lead the content and social team to develop always on content which drives organic engagement and cut through, positioning the brand at the cutting edge of the cultural and wellness zeitgeist.
• Oversee an always on, high output performance creative team, ensuring that we maintain a high velocity of high quality creative and that we work in lock steps with media teams to optimise at pace.
• Coach and develop individuals on the team to create a world class creative team with a culture of excellence, bravery and enjoyment.
• Be on the pulse of the culture, brands, trends and platforms shaping the category and utilise this knowledge to take extraordinary creative steps.

WHO YOU ARE

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

• An exceptional portfolio with a strong visual sensibility, showing a history of award-winning brand work including conceptual thinking, storytelling and craft.
• 10+ years in the creative industries, spanning agency and in-house experience with experience in a DTC scale up environment highly preferred.
• Experience leading across a wide ecosystem of touchpoints with oversight of content across organic social, newsletters, and site content a bonus.
• 5+ years building and leading creative teams and a proven track record creating high performance, high enjoyment cultures in a fast paced environment.
• A track record of working successfully with stakeholders, partners and external teams to develop creative work that truly works to drive business forward.
• A proven ability to translate category understanding to point of view, and point of view to category defining work.
• You understand the wellness landscape and are ready to create work that not only cuts through but which moves the category forward and positions Ancient + Brave at the forefront of a new chapter in global wellness.
• You’ve operated in-house at a senior level and understand what that takes.
• You understand the difference between agency thinking and in-house delivery and have done both with demonstrable success.
• You have the highest creative ambition and know how to deliver it with limited budgets and to coach teams to become greater than the sum of their parts.
• Your definition of creativity runs wide, seeing it in content, partnerships, talent, social, and how the brand shows up in culture, not just in campaigns or traditional advertising formats.
• You are truly cross-functional, wanting to lift the thinking of the people around you in marketing, ecommerce, product and beyond.
• You elevate more than your team’s output.
• You understand the relationship between creative and commercial performance, using data and insight to improve the work and to take braver creative leaps.
• You think strategically about the brand’s long-term creative direction while staying close to what’s on screen and in-market today.
• You are a clear, confident communicator, able to articulate a creative point of view to the founder, to the board, and to a junior designer.

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. 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.