Creative Director

HLabs is an independent digital creative agency specialising in web design, interactive storytelling, and no-code technology for enterprise publishers and brands. We're a team of 30+ working across ten countries with no holding company above us, no creative committee, and an agile, start-up culture with real growth ahead. We work with enterprise-level publishers, global consumer brands, and hospitality groups who need high-quality creative on fast turnaround times. We're technology-driven; experimenting with AI, partnered with 15+ no-code platforms like Webflow, Framer and Vev with storytelling at the heart of everything we make.

This is a genuine senior leadership role. You'll sit on the Senior Leadership Team, partner directly with the CEO, and take creative ownership across every discipline we touch; design, editorial, and no-code development. Our best relationships are long-term retainer clients who want HLabs to be a true extension of their team, alongside shorter standalone projects that could be anything from an illustrated infographic to a full rebrand and website launch. You'll bring the people skills to build on those relationships and spot the next opportunity within them. We're not looking for someone to execute everything, but you should be comfortable diving into Figma when it counts. What we need is someone who can read a client brief, find the story inside it, and direct a talented team to deliver something exceptional, on a tight turnaround.

What You'll Own

• Creative Direction & Client Strategy: You'll translate complex client briefs into clear creative strategies, from the first sales conversation through to final delivery. You'll work closely with Sales & Delivery to scope projects accurately, and lead creative vision across our five core pillars; fast starts, faster publishing through no-code, content built from scratch, data-driven engagement, and being clients' truest extended team. You'll direct output across print, digital, branding, editorial, illustration, animation and interactive work, without needing to build it yourself, and stay close enough to live projects that you can step into any client conversation at a moment's notice.
• Team Leadership & Development: You'll lead and line-manage the design team, manage skills-based allocation, performance, and professional growth. You'll work with the Head of People to build the team development framework that doesn't yet fully exist: clear expectations, structured feedback cycles, show-and-tell sessions, and real development pathways. You'll coach with honesty and evidence, adapt your communication to different working styles including neurodiverse team members, and actively protect team culture rather than just managing it.
• New Business & External Presence: You'll partner with Sales on pitches, RFPs and client presentations, showing up as a face of HLabs both in person and online. You'll help shape our external creative identity beyond client work including our annual HiFest event, our website, our socials, our award entries; bringing fresh upsell ideas to the table without waiting to be asked. You'll also lead training workshops, both for clients (we run Figma and creative strategy sessions) and internally for the team.
• AI, Innovation & Tooling: You will help shape how HLabs uses AI creatively and commercially, setting standards, building team confidence, and knowing where it genuinely improves the work. You'll stay ahead of emerging tools and platforms, and push the creative possibilities of the no-code platforms we use, not by building, but by knowing what's possible and directing accordingly.
• Operations & Delivery: You'll be the escalation point for creative blockers, internal or client-facing. You'll work with the PM team on resourcing, spot workflow bottlenecks, and bring a creative perspective to SLT decisions that balances artistic integrity with commercial reality.

What We're Looking For:

• You've worked as a Creative Director within an agency environment, not in-house, not a production company or studio, leading multi-disciplinary teams across editorial, brand and digital work for enterprise clients and recognisable brands.
• Your portfolio leans toward publishing-style storytelling and brand work, editorial content, brand campaigns, and digital experiences rather than art direction, video or film.
• Show us how you've shaped a brand's or publisher's story across multiple touchpoints, not a single shoot or campaign.
• You've built and developed creative teams, with structured feedback, mentorship and real career development.
• You've led or supported new business pitches at a senior level, and you understand how creative choices affect timelines, budgets and outcomes.
• You lead with solutions, not problems; bringing proposals to the CEO and owning outcomes rather than waiting for permission.
• You hold high standards through empathy, not fear, and your team trusts you because of it.
• You're equally comfortable presenting to 100 people at HiFest or running a quiet 1-2-1 with a junior designer.
• You see developers, editors, PMs and clients as creative partners, not support functions.
• You're fast, adaptable, and genuinely energised when a brief evolves mid-project.

Tools You'll Need to Know Well:

• Expert-level Adobe Creative Suite and Figma are non-negotiable.
• Strategic familiarity with Ceros, Framer, Vev and Webflow is expected- you don't need to build in them, but you need to know what they can do well enough to brief your team accurately and push what's possible.
• Comfort with Google Slides & Docs, curiosity about AI creative tools (Claude, Gemini, Midjourney), and working knowledge of Slack, Float and Google Drive round out the toolkit.

A Note on Culture: HLabs is an agency where high standards and genuine kindness aren't in conflict. We listen. We don't shout. We don't bring old-school agency behaviour through the door. Our best work and our best relationships are built on trust earned over time. This isn't the job for you if you want a large team, huge budgets, and well-defined briefs at every step. It is the job for you if you're ready to challenge what a "normal agency" looks like and make things clients can't wait to try.