Head of Creative Strategy in Birmingham

Reports to: Chief Creative Officer

Function: External Creative Division (ECD), Business Unit 2

Location: Hybrid, Central London (Camden)

Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefit Scheme + 28 days Paid Holiday + Private Health

The Opportunity

We are looking for an experienced operator and leader to join the senior management team of the UK’s largest performance creative department. This is a senior leadership hire focused on how the department runs, scales, and performs. You will partner with the Head of Creative Strategy while taking ownership of operational excellence, leadership structure, and department performance. Your role is to turn a high-performing department into a world-class one through systems, standards, and people.

What You’ll Own

• Department Leadership & Team Development
  • Lead and line-manage a team of Creative Leads, Senior Creative Strategists, and Creative Strategists – setting the bar for performance, accountability, and professional standards across the department.
  • Develop senior strategists and creative leads into confident, autonomous leaders – coaching them through difficult conversations, client escalations, strategic thinking, and team management.
  • Partner with the Head of Creative Strategy on department direction – you bring leadership and operational excellence; she brings creative strategy domain expertise.
  • Own the people strategy for the department – performance management, progression frameworks, capacity planning, and succession.
  • Build and maintain a department culture of ownership, curiosity, and relentless improvement – a team motivated, stretched, and proud to work.
• Operational Excellence & Standards
  • Set and enforce quality standards across all creative output – High Production, UGC, and Static – ensuring consistency across every pod.
  • Champion process improvement and identify bottlenecks before they become blockers – from briefing workflows to reporting cadences to production handoffs.
  • Act as the feedback loop between the Creative Strategy team and senior leadership – surfacing patterns, risks, and opportunities the CCO needs to see.
  • Drive accountability through clear KPIs and a rhythm of performance conversations that keep the department sharp.
• Strategic & Commercial Impact
  • Ensure the department's creative output is commercially impactful – work that drives measurable results for clients across Meta while remaining profitable.
  • 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.
  • Think beyond delivery – help shape what the department becomes, not just keep it running.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Work closely with Account Management, Production, Post-Production, and Media Buying teams to ensure seamless delivery and aligned priorities.
  • Contribute to department-wide rituals (Monthly Momentum, Friday shoutouts, quarterly reviews) and drive cross-pod knowledge sharing.
  • Be a visible, trusted leader across the wider group – not just within the Creative Strategy team.

Requirements

Who We’re Looking For

This role demands someone who can lead from the front, raise the bar on creative thinking and leadership, and take ownership of outcomes, not just output.

Must-Have

• Proven experience leading large teams (20+ people minimum) – built, scaled, or led a department or function of this size, ideally within an agency or marketing services environment.
• Experience developing senior executors into leaders – coached managers, set progression frameworks, and built a leadership bench that lets a department run without you present.
• Strong commercial acumen – owned department P&L, experienced with spreadsheets.
• Agency or marketing services background – understands the pace, client dynamics, and operational complexity of agency life.
• Excellent communicator – presents in an empowering and inspiring way, leads team meetings, delivers tough feedback with care, and writes clearly.
• Cultural leader – naturally sets the tone for the teams you lead; people want to work for you because you make them better.

Nice-to-Have

• Experience within creative strategy, performance creative, or paid social – valuable but not essential.
• Understanding of DTC/e-commerce business models and the brands we serve.
• Familiarity with Meta and TikTok advertising ecosystems.
• Experience with AI-augmented creative workflows or production innovation.

What Success Looks Like In Your First 3 Months

• Built trust with every Creative Lead and Senior Strategist – they see you as someone who makes them better.
• Established a clear operating rhythm: regular 1:1s, performance check-ins, and a visible presence across the department.
• Identified the top 3 operational or cultural improvements the department needs and began executing on them.
• Senior team confidence and autonomy increased as you created the leadership structure that supports them.

By Month 6

• Department runs at a higher standard – measurable improvements in creative quality, team satisfaction, and delivery consistency.
• Developed at least 2 senior team members into demonstrably stronger leaders.
• Trusted voice at senior management – contributing to business strategy, not just department updates.
• CCO time shifts to less firefighting and more innovation – reflecting ownership of the department's operational performance.

Benefits

• 28 days paid holiday including birthday leave, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve.
• Long-service holiday scheme – after 2 years, an extra day of annual leave for each additional year of service.
• Flexible and hybrid working (2 days in office).
• Regular team socials.
• Company Private Health and life insurance scheme.
• Company pension scheme.
• Work abroad for 1 month a year.

EEO Statement: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, color, disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.