Head of Creative (Digital & Performance)

We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Digital & Performance Creative to join the Creative team. Our newly-formed Digital & Performance Creative team is where brand storytelling meets data-driven delivery. We bring together design, copy and motion specialists who live and breathe digital culture to create content that audiences love and that drives measurable results. This is the team rewriting what a broadcaster’s creative studio can be — agile, experimental, and audience-obsessed.

This role is pivotal to delivering our digital-first ambition — combining creative leadership with a deep understanding of martech, performance marketing, automation and AI. You’ll bring a creative mindset rooted in strategic thinking: connecting brand storytelling with measurable performance outcomes, and ensuring “digital” never means “disposable.” Working across planning, activation, innovation and reporting, you’ll identify and unlock new opportunities for UKTV. You will be the bridge between creativity and performance, strategy and execution, data and design.

You’ll set the standard for innovative, insight-led, high-performing content across all platforms — from social and paid video to display and CTV. As part of the senior creative leadership team, you’ll champion a culture of innovation, experimentation and continuous improvement — building a team that produces creative work that not only looks great but performs brilliantly. This role demands a leader who understands how to leverage digital-first thinking to build brand awareness and drive consideration — landing our brand, being audience-first and turning audiences into fans.

Hybrid-Working
At UKTV, we are working in a hybrid environment with a mixture of home and office working. Getting together in the office as a team and a company gives colleagues an opportunity to build and maintain great relationships, encourages our culture of collaboration and creativity while recognising that colleagues need to have a healthy and happy work-life balance. You’ll be expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week.

Diversity & Inclusion Commitment
At UKTV, our inclusion vision is to truly represent society in our workforce and on-screen, and create a culture of fairness and respect where we champion difference so that every person feels included and empowered to do their best work. We are committed to ensuring a level playing field at UKTV where all employees and job applicants are given equal opportunity, and that we have diverse voices at the table in everything we do. We welcome applications from everyone and we want UKTV to be a place where you can be your authentic self, give your best and develop your career free from discrimination of any kind.

What we would like you to bring to the role….key experience, knowledge, skills & personal qualities

• Proven experience of building and leading multi-disciplinary digital creative teams, including setting direction, developing talent, pitching and presentation to senior stakeholders, managing performance and fostering an inclusive, high-energy culture.
• Proven experience leading digital creative teams, with a strong grasp of the nuances of marketing content rather than products — ideally gained in entertainment, media or other fast-paced digital-first brands.
• A track record of producing and directing standout creative that also delivers measurable results.
• Deep understanding of digital content formats, social algorithms, performance platforms (Reddit, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google), and how to build for them.
• Familiarity with martech stacks, personalisation platforms, DCO, and AI tools in a content production context.
• Experience working with media, data, and marketing teams to translate strategy into creative.
• Experience introducing new tools, workflows or technologies to improve creative output.

Knowledge skills & personal qualities

• Inspirational leader who builds trust, clarity and ambition across a team.
• Deep understanding of creative effectiveness — what makes content work, how to test it, and how to evolve ideas without losing emotional punch.
• Bravery in concepting and iteration — a willingness to try, test, learn and try again.
• Commitment to brand consistency — ensuring every piece of work reflects UKTV’s tone of voice and personality while still allowing creative ideas to shine.
• Strong conceptual thinker with commercial and performance acumen.
• Energised by innovation, new technologies, and the evolving media and content landscape.
• Excellent communicator who can confidently present to senior stakeholders, challenge constructively, and foster strong cross-functional collaboration.
• Highly organised with the ability to manage competing priorities while building toward long-term transformation.
• Passionate about entertainment, storytelling, audiences and unlocking the full potential of content.

Leadership
Please see the attached document called How We Lead Capabilities.

What you will get to work on….key outputs and responsibilities

• Lead and grow a high-performing Digital & Performance Creative function at UKTV, setting the vision and standards for content across social, paid video, display and CTV.
• Provide clarity of purpose, measurable goals and day-to-day coaching so the team can continually raise the creative bar.
• Help define a modern content strategy that aligns emotional storytelling with digital platform execution, balancing brand-building with performance delivery to support both long-term audience growth and short-term impact.
• Define and execute a creative vision that reflects the latest in digital trends, platform behaviour, audience insight and entertainment culture.
• Set the standard for performance-driven creative, supporting growth and engagement on UKTV Play and across our channel brands.
• Collaborate across marketing, media, data and tech teams to translate strategic objectives into brilliant creative ideas.
• Embed best practice around AI, automation, martech and new tooling to enhance our creative agility and scale.
• Ensure consistent innovation across always-on and campaign work, introducing test-and-learn frameworks and creative iterations.
• Represent the team with confidence across the business, championing creative that is digital-first, performance-aware and audience-obsessed.
• Stay close to industry innovation and lead the charge in evolving our creative operations and outputs.

This is a new, high-profile team within UKTV’s Creative, Design & Production department. You’ll be part of the senior creative leadership group reporting directly to the Director of Creative, Design and Production, working closely with marketing, media and data to bring our brand to life across every platform. The team is in build mode, so there’s real opportunity to shape its culture, processes and priorities from the ground up. Current projects include performance campaigns, modular creative systems for our channel brands, and piloting AI/automation tools to accelerate production.