Manager, Creative Strategy & Design

Location: Remote (US or UK)

Reports to: Creative Director, Global Brand

About Pearson Studio

Pearson’s Studio is the in‑house creative engine powering Pearson’s global brand. We bring ideas to life—connecting creativity, strategy, and execution to build one unified Pearson brand experience across every touchpoint. The Studio operates as a center of excellence—partnering with Pearson’s business units worldwide to deliver world‑class creative, marketing, and brand expression.

About the Role

The Creative Lead, Creative Strategy & Design is the central creative force within The Studio — guiding the vision, concepts, and strategic underpinnings of Pearson’s most important work. You will lead with a mix of conceptual excellence, editorial clarity, brand intuition, and cross‑disciplinary collaboration. You shape what the work is and why it matters. As one of the leaders within The Studio, you will guide creative thinking across brand, campaigns, digital, motion, content, and events — ensuring that every idea, narrative, and design expression reflects Pearson’s values, tone, and identity. This is a role for a conceptual thinker, a systems‑level designer, a storyteller, and an empathetic creative leader who thrives in an environment where collaboration is constant and the work spans many mediums.

Why You’ll Love This Role

Because this isn’t a sit‑back‑and‑direct job — it’s a roll‑up‑your‑sleeves, make‑the‑work‑happen role. You’ll shape the ideas and help bring them to life. You’ll concept, design, write, build, iterate, and get deep into the creative craft alongside the team. You’ll have real ownership, real impact, and a central seat in defining how Pearson shows up creatively — while still doing the hands‑on work that keeps your skills sharp and your ideas strong. If you want to lead and create — this role gives you both, every single day.

Key Responsibilities

• Creative Strategy & Concept Development: Elevate the overall creative standard by developing ideas that reflect agency‑level quality. Lead conceptual thinking for campaign‑level, brand‑defining, and high‑impact Studio projects. Translate complex ideas into clear creative strategies, narratives, and design approaches. Shape briefs, frames, stories, and creative territories that guide the rest of The Studio. Provide creative direction across digital, editorial, environmental, social, and motion work.
• Cross‑Pillar Creative Leadership: Serve as the anchor point between all creative verticals — ensuring alignment, clarity, and consistency. Partner with Video & Media, Content & Copy, Digital Design, Brand System Management, and Operations to ensure shared understanding of creative direction. Facilitate idea development sessions, ideation workshops, and creative alignment conversations. Guide project teams so that all disciplines work cohesively from a unified creative foundation.
• Brand Stewardship: Champion Pearson’s brand identity system and ensure conceptual work pushes the brand forward while staying grounded in its strategic foundation. Ensure creative ideas reflect Pearson’s tone of voice, narrative priorities, and design system. Help evolve the Pearson brand through thoughtful experimentation and creative innovation.
• Creative Reviews & Quality Control: Lead creative reviews at all project stages; from concept through final delivery. Provide constructive, inspiring feedback that helps teams refine and elevate their work. Maintain a high bar for storytelling, clarity, craft, and visual excellence.
• Collaboration with Leadership: Work closely with the Creative Director, Global Brand to establish Studio‑wide creative vision, standards, and long‑term direction. Partner with the Studio Account Director and Strategic Creative Operations Manager to ensure timelines, staffing, and scopes enable great creative outcomes. Represent the The Studio leadership forums, offering perspective on creative direction, priorities, and opportunities. Oversee a team of Art Directors and Graphic Designers — guiding their growth, development, and creative excellence. Provide hands‑on creative direction, feedback, and coaching to help them stretch their skills and deliver their strongest work. Ensure the Creative Strategy & Design team is operating with clarity, alignment, and shared creative standards.

About You

You’re a creative conceptual thinker who naturally becomes the creative “center of gravity” in any organization. You know how to turn strategy into story and story into compelling creative ideas that can flex across campaigns, content, design, and motion. You’re a collaborator at heart, confident in your vision but deeply committed to shared creative ownership. You understand the dance between clarity, craft, and cross‑disciplinary alignment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in creative direction, design, or creative strategy in an agency or in‑house studio.
• A portfolio that demonstrates strong conceptual thinking, campaign development, and editorial/design excellence.
• Experience leading creative teams and guiding multi‑disciplinary creative work.
• Skilled at shaping narratives, briefs, concepts, messaging frameworks, and design direction.
• Strong ability to communicate ideas visually and verbally, with clarity and inspiration.
• Deep understanding of brand systems, storytelling, and integrated creative development.
• Comfortable navigating a global matrixed organization with multiple stakeholders.

Who we are:

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world’s lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn’t just what we do. It’s who we are.