Creative Director - Marine

We pride ourselves on being travel experts. Leading the way when it comes to providing unique travel experiences, our brands offer the world’s best polar expeditions, wildlife safaris, cultural tours, yachting adventures and more. Our ambition is to build the world’s leading experiential travel company. With over 2500 colleagues across 30 countries worldwide, we are working together to achieve this by sharing our knowledge, expertise and best practices to stay at the forefront of the travel industry.

Within this global family, our Marine portfolio brings together three exceptional brands:

• Le Boat: Europe and Canada’s leading self-drive boating holiday company, with 950+ boats across 37 bases.
• The Moorings: Premium crewed, power yacht and bareboat charters in iconic sailing destinations.
• Sunsail: A global sailing and flotilla leader with 50+ years of experience, world‑class fleets and expert instructors.

We are looking to hire a Creative Director to shape and elevate the creative vision of our Marine Division, while also contributing to Travelopia’s wider creative community. Reporting to the VP of Marketing for Yachts and the Marketing Director of Le Boat, this role will act as the creative compass for our brands – defining and originating the work that will help Le Boat, The Moorings and Sunsail inspire, delight and emotionally connect with customers in unforgettable ways across global markets. We’re looking for a senior creative practitioner who can originate, shape and direct ideas from the first blank page through to finished work, with accountability for the quality and originality of the ideas themselves, as well as brand guardianship, storytelling, craft standards and final execution.

The ideal candidate brings a proven track record of conceiving, developing and directing original, memorable creative work, with clear creative ownership demonstrated across campaigns, content and brand systems. As Creative Director, you’ll lead and inspire a high-performing internal creative team, setting the vision, driving collaboration and ensuring consistently high standards across all creative output. This is a rare opportunity to shape the creative direction of a distinctive portfolio of global travel brands in an industry that inspires future boaters, sailors and adventurers around the world.

What we’ll offer:

• £75,000-£90,000 base salary plus 10% on-target performance bonus
• Comprehensive health benefits
• Retirement savings plan with company contributions
• Generous leave plus your birthday off
• Flexible hybrid working schedules (2 days per week in our Surbiton office)
• Parental leave and family-supportive policies
• Charity or volunteering leave
• Group-wide travel discounts

What you’ll do:

Creative & Brand Leadership

• Lead the creative vision for Le Boat, The Moorings and Sunsail, ensuring distinctive, consistent visual, verbal and experiential standards.
• Evolve each brand’s voice, personality and visual identity, bringing its purpose and promise to life through storytelling.
• Create memorable concepts and campaign platforms across markets and channels that communicate reasons to believe, capture attention and build lasting brand impact.
• Contribute to Travelopia’s creative community, sharing standards, innovation and best practice.
• Grow organic YouTube and Meta content through creator partnerships and effective production.

Creative Craft & Hands-on Creative Direction

• Lead creative development from insight and briefs through concept to final execution, refining ideas to realise their full potential.
• Direct photography, video and content shoots worldwide - from canal cruising in France to sailing in the BVIs - ensuring high creative standards, consistent visual identity and a rich, strategically useful asset library.
• Own creative execution from concept through production and post-production, including treatments, scripts, storyboards, casting, art direction, editing, sound, design systems, typography, photography and motion graphics.
• Ensure work connects emotionally and meets brand-building and campaign objectives.
• Drive innovation through AI, automation and emerging technologies, improving creative tools and processes.

Team Leadership & People Development

• Lead, mentor and inspire a multidisciplinary creative team spanning design, copywriting, art direction, content, video and motion, providing hands‑on creative direction and specialist guidance that strengthens ideas and improves craft.
• Build a high-performing, collaborative culture focused on creative excellence, effective processes, feedback, career development and continuous improvement.
• Lead creative reviews and concept sessions to strengthen ideas, simplify complexity and protect the central creative thought.
• Build an external network of freelancers, partners and agencies.

Creative Operations, Governance & Delivery

• Lead integrated creative development and campaign delivery, ensuring clear priorities, efficient workflows and effective resource allocation.
• Oversee timelines, production, reviews and approvals, ensuring high-quality delivery on time and within budget.
• Maintain a global asset library, manage budgets and external spend, and ensure compliance with brand, accessibility and market requirements.

What you’ll bring:

• Substantial senior creative experience developing and directing original ideas, campaigns and brand concepts across digital and traditional channels, supported by a portfolio demonstrating personal ownership from initial creative concept through to final execution.
• Expertise in at least one creative discipline, with the breadth to direct and challenge specialists across disciplines, and the creative judgement to distinguish good work from great, strengthening ideas, craft and execution.
• Experience directing multi-market shoots, including hands‑on filming, with the ability to establish clear frameworks and quality standards for partner content.
• Fluency in modern creative tools, production workflows and emerging technologies, including AI.
• An inspirational, emotionally intelligent leader who galvanises creative and non‑creative teams, sets high creative standards, drives innovation and fosters continuous improvement.
• An exceptional communicator who articulates creative rationale, influences senior stakeholders and champions ideas while remaining open to constructive feedback. Resilient, open‑minded, culturally aware and collaborative, with the ability to balance strategic creative thinking with hands‑on direction and delivery.

We believe people perform best when they can be their true selves and diverse teams drive better results. We’re committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where everyone can succeed.

Travelopia ensures an inclusive workplace for all. If you need accessibility support during the recruitment process, please inform us here: Talent@Travelopia.com

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