Senior Lead - Copy (Brand Foundations) in City of London

At On, we believe in the power of storytelling. Whether it’s celebrating the achievements of our athletes, the passions of our communities, or the innovation behind our products, our stories captivate and inspire. Key to this success is our Brand Foundations & Culture team, which is responsible for defining On’s tone of voice. We’re seeking a highly strategic senior creative leader to steer this team and act as a central authority on our tone of voice.

Reporting directly to the Head of Copy, you will define and codify the global tone of voice through strategy and systems, empowering writers across On to speak with one consistent, unified, and compelling voice. This is a role for a strategic copy leader with a strong background in brand strategy, eager to build the foundational tools that will enable our brand to scale globally while maintaining its premium, distinct identity. With your small, focused team, you’ll drive TOV strategy, deliver narratives for our most critical brand moments, and build toolkits and guidelines that enable all teams to sound like one united voice.

Your Mission

• Lead the strategic direction and definition of our brand's tone of voice (TOV), working in close partnership with the Head of Copy, Head of Brand Creative, Brand Voice and Strategy. This includes defining TOV systems, attributes, and guardrails across all product categories, channels, and partnerships.
• Direct and write high-priority brand narratives for our most critical global moments, key brand partnerships, and define our vertical POVs in the market.
• Shape, codify, and guide the essential brand DNA and voice guidelines. You’ll steer global toolkits, guides, and internal workshops that enable consistent, high-quality execution by copywriters and agencies.
• Lead, mentor, and inspire a small team of copywriters.
• Act as a copy and TOV authority when collaborating with external creative and branding agencies, ensuring foundational work aligns with our strategic intentions.
• Own the global copy toolkits and guidelines portal, ensuring it is a dynamic, accessible, and up-to-date resource for all teams.

Your story

• You’re a strategic copy leader with a minimum of 8+ years of experience in copywriting, brand strategy, and tone of voice development, ideally within a premium, global consumer brand.
• You have a proven track record (ideally from a leading branding agency or a senior in-house role) of defining, shaping, and successfully scaling a brand's tone of voice and foundational identity across multiple categories and markets.
• You are adept at translating complex brand strategy into clear, inspiring, and actionable guidelines, toolkits, and presentations that brief and excite wider teams.
• While this is a strategic role, you maintain exceptional writing craft and can write high-impact, final-level copy for priority brand narratives.
• You possess a strong ability to build TOV systems – not just singular assets – that can adapt and scale consistently.
• You’re a natural leader capable of guiding a small, specialist team while effectively collaborating with senior leaders across copy, creative, and marketing. You thrive in a dynamic, high-performance environment.
• You maintain a strong understanding of emerging technologies in the copywriting space, including Gen AI and LLMs, and possess the strategic foresight to integrate AI tools into your workstreams where appropriate.

About the Team

The On Creative Studio is the heartbeat of the brand — a global collective of thinkers, makers, and dreamers redefining performance for a new era. Home to nearly 3000 parks, a population speaking more than 300 languages, and a vibrant art and music scene, London is one of the world’s most loved cities for good reason. Just by the banks of the Limmat you’ll find our largest global hub in Zürich West – On Labs – where you can hike up 12 floors through our custom-built spiral trail.

I think something that unites people here is the pace and the drive. The ambition is quite high in everything we do and when you bring these people together, you see the outcome can be multiplied. It’s super impressive to see what happens when you put these creative teams together who really help each other grow.

What we offer

On is a place that is centered around growth and progress. We offer an environment designed to give people the tools to develop holistically – to stay active, to learn, explore and innovate. Our distinctive approach combines a supportive, team-oriented atmosphere, with access to personal self-care for both physical and mental well-being, so each person is led by purpose.

On is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a work environment that is fair and inclusive, where all decisions related to recruitment, advancement, and retention are free of discrimination.

We want to set everyone up for success, so here’s the lowdown on how we hire. Our process is a two-way street – bringing you into our culture, while helping us learn how you think. Our full process can last about eight weeks from application to offer, because we care about getting it right. These steps explain how we usually do things.

Before you get started, feel free to consider if you want to work with us. Strange question? Well, we give people a lot of space to navigate their day-to-day and that style isn’t for everyone. We want you to be passionate about what you do and be sure this is the right fit. Because when skills and passion combine – it creates that 'Wow' moment.

Step One: It starts with you... You’ll start by submitting your application to a specific role. We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. If you’re a good fit to the role, a recruiter will follow up with you directly. If you didn’t receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.