Head of Creative Strategy

Department: Creative Strategy | Performance Creative

Reports to: Chief Creative Officer

Location: Hybrid, Central London (Camden Roundhouse) Monday & Wednesday.

Compensation: Competitive Base + up to 10% Quarterly Bonus + Benefits Scheme + 28 Days Paid Holiday + Private Health

About Soar Group

The Soar Group is a UK performance agency group comprising three specialist agencies. With over £100M+ in yearly ad spend under management and a team of 130+, we work with 7-9 figure DTC and e-commerce brands across Meta, TikTok, and Google. We were nominated for Meta's Creative Diversity Award 2025 and were named the UK's #1 independent Meta agency group by Meta. Our creative department is the group's biggest growth lever - and this role is central to where it goes next.

Our values: Extreme Ownership. Radical Curiosity. Kind Candour. Outcome Obsessed.

KPIs You’ll Own

• Department P&L - Dept EBITDA is the headline KPI
• Department utilisation rate - sustained at target across all roles
• Department Engagement Score - team health, with a future talent density target of >40%
• Creative Lead leadership development trajectory - objective uplift across all four direct reports over 12 months

The Opportunity:

We're looking for an experienced leader to join the senior management team of the UK's largest performance creative department. Hambi Media (ECD) is the creative engine of the Soar Group - the UK's #1 independent Meta agency group. The Creative Strategy department is the group's biggest revenue driver, producing performance creative across High Production video, UGC, and Static design for 7-9 figure DTC and e-commerce brands. We manage over £100M+ in ad spend yearly and operate 13 creative pods. This isn't a role for someone who wants to be deep in execution or write scripts. This is a senior leadership hire - and the most senior people-and-operations role inside the department. You will own the operational backbone of a 20+ person creative team: leading four Creative Leads, scaling process, building culture, driving commercial performance, and developing the next generation of department leaders.

Your job will be to create the environment that our Creative Strategy team can thrive and grow in.

What You’ll Own:

Department Leadership & Team Development

• Line-manage four direct reports: 3-4 Creative Leads
• Cascade development through the layered structure: Creative Leads → Senior Creative Strategists → Creative Strategists → CS Executives
• Own the people strategy for the department: performance management, progression frameworks, capacity planning, utilisation mapping and succession
• Coach Creative Leads into confident, autonomous leaders - through difficult conversations, client escalations, strategic thinking, team management and coaching
• Build and maintain a department culture of ownership, curiosity, and relentless improvement - one where the team is motivated, and proud to work
• Be a true empowering voice and leader of the department

Operational Excellence & Process

• Own department structure, org development, operations, hiring, and team retention
• Champion process improvement and identify bottlenecks before they become blockers - from briefing workflows to reporting cadences to production handoffs
• Drive accountability through clear KPIs and a rhythm of performance conversations that keep the department sharp
• Lead the operational delivery and quality control of the Creative Lead leverage model (framework set by the CCO, scaled and protected by you)
• Develop the organisational structure in the department to allow for exponential revenue growth in the next 12-24 months

Strategic & Commercial Impact

• Own the department P&L - EBITDA is your number
• Own department utilisation, capacity planning, and FTE strategy
• Own the Department Engagement Score (with a future target of >40% talent density)
• Support the commercial growth of the department - working with the CCO and wider C-suite to evolve the service offering, identify revenue opportunities, and contribute to business strategy
• Bring strategic and commercial rigour to SMT discussions - you're a voice on group strategy, not just departmental updates

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Account Management, Production / Post / Design, Growth Strategy, and People department heads to ensure seamless delivery and aligned priorities across the group
• Feed macro learnings, risks, and opportunities up to the CCO and C-suite
• Be a visible, trusted leader across the wider group - not just within the Creative Strategy team
• Contribute to department-wide rituals (Monthly Momentum, Friday shoutouts, quarterly reviews) and drive cross-pod knowledge sharing.

What You Won’t Own

This is the leadership and people‑operator role that makes the department compound. It is explicitly NOT a strategy or creative‑direction role.

How You’ll Spend Your Time

Indicative time allocation:

• People Management + Leadership Development 50% of scope: CS leadership huddles, management and coaching of 4 DRs, hiring, succession planning.
• Process + Operational Excellence 30% of scope: Department cadence, utilisation tracking, workflow design, cross‑functional ops, hiring and FTE ownership
• Commercial + Strategic 20% of scope: SMT contribution, department P&L, budget ownership, retention conversations, OKR design
• Domain delivery / striking 0% - Explicitly not the job

What You’ll Bring:

Must‑Have

• Proven experience leading large teams (20+ people minimum) - you've built, scaled, or led a department or function of this size, ideally within an agency or marketing services environment
• Track record building leadership benches - you've coached senior individual contributors into leaders, set progression frameworks, and built the kind of leadership bench that lets a department run without you in every room
• Strong commercial acumen - you've owned department P&Ls and are confident with budget, utilisation, and capacity modelling
• Process‑led mindset - you know how to design and scale complex operating systems, and protect them from drift
• Cultural leader - you naturally set the tone for the teams around you. People want to work for you because you make them better
• Excellent communicator - you can present in an empowering and inspiring way, lead team meetings, deliver tough feedback with care, and write clearly
• Experience leading through significant change - you've operated in organisations going through transformation (restructure, scaling, M&A, model shift) and brought your team through it with momentum, not friction
• AI‑literate and tech‑enabled - you understand the trajectory of AI in creative and marketing, are comfortable using AI tools yourself, and can lead a team through AI‑augmented workflow adoption

Strongly Preferred (Adjacent Industry Experience)

• DTC brand‑side at scale (Head of Creative / Marketing / Growth at a 7‑9 figure DTC brand)
• Performance or growth agency leadership
• Creative agency with similar org complexity (production + creative + AM under one roof)
• Marketing services or large agency department leadership
• Games companies (deep operational experience managing large creative teams)
• Ex‑management consultancy who scaled creative or marketing operations

Outside the Bubble

This is deliberately NOT a hire for another deep creative strategist. The CCO and Domain Creative Lead hold the craft. We're hiring you for organisation‑running ability, not domain mastery. You don't need prior creative strategy, paid social, or production‑resourcing experience. Domain literacy enough to engage credibly with the team is the bar - leading the craft is not the job.

Nice‑to‑Have (Not Required)

• Performance creative or paid social domain experience
• DTC / e‑commerce business model literacy
• Familiarity with Meta / TikTok / wider paid social ecosystems
• Experience with AI‑augmented creative workflows or production innovation

Enjoy 28 days of annual leave, giving you the time to recharge and maintain a healthy work‑life balance. Benefit from our long‑service reward scheme, with 1 additional day of annual leave awarded each year after 2 years of service. Work in a flexible hybrid model, with 2 days in our Central London office at the Roundhouse in Camden and the remainder from home. Access private health and life insurance, providing additional peace of mind and support for you and your family. Participate in our company pension scheme to help you plan and save for the future. Take advantage of a one‑month annual work‑abroad allowance, giving you the flexibility to work remotely from another location each year.