Head of Creative Strategy

Head of Creative Strategy

ECD Business Unit 2 | Performance Creative | Strategy & Operations

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're looking for an experienced operator and 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. Our Creative Strategy department is the group's single biggest revenue driver, producing performance creative across High Production video, UGC, and Static for 7–9 figure DTC and e-commerce brands. We manage over £100M in ad spend and operate 13 creative pods.

This is not a role for someone who wants to write scripts or build decks. This is a senior leadership hire focused on how the department runs, scales, and performs.

You will partner with the Head of Creative Strategy (who owns the creative methodology and domain expertise) while you take 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 OwnDepartment 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 the leadership and operational excellence; she brings the 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 - one where the team is 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 that 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, whilst 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: you're here to 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

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) - this is the most important requirement. You've 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 - you've coached managers, 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 experienced in spreadsheets
• Agency or marketing services background - you understand the pace, client dynamics, and operational complexity of agency life. Your experience doesn’t make you slow or too big for ‘scrappiness’ when required
• Excellent communicator - you can present in an empowering and inspiring way, lead team meetings, deliver tough feedback with care, and write clearly
• Cultural leader - you naturally set the tone for the teams around you. People want to work for you because you make them better

Nice-to-Have

• Experience within creative strategy, performance creative, or paid social specifically - valuable but not essential. Our Head of Creative Strategy owns the domain methodology; you bring the leadership lens
• Understanding of DTC / e-commerce business models and the brands we serve
• Familiarity with the Meta and TikTok advertising ecosystems
• Experience with AI-augmented creative workflows or production innovation

What Success Looks Like

In your first 3 months:

• You've built trust with every Creative Lead and Senior Strategist - they see you as someone who makes them better
• You've established a clear operating rhythm: regular 1:1s, performance check-ins, and a visible presence across the department
• You've identified the top 3 operational or cultural improvements the department needs and started executing on them
• Katy and the senior team are operating with more confidence and autonomy because you've created the leadership structure that supports them

By month 6:

• The department is running at a higher standard - measurably. Creative quality, team satisfaction, and delivery consistency have all improved
• You've developed at least 2 senior team members into demonstrably stronger leaders
• You're a trusted voice at the senior management table - contributing to business strategy, not just department updates
• The CCO's time has shifted: less firefighting, more innovation - because you own the department's operational performance

About the Soar Group

The Soar Group is one of the UK’s fastest-growing performance agency groups, home to three specialist agencies. On the inside, we work as one:

• Hambi Media: Performance creative agency for Meta, delivering High Production, UGC, and Static ads. The UK’s largest performance creative division.
• For You Advertising: The UK’s #1 independent TikTok agency, specialising in TikTok paid media, TikTok Shop, and creator-led content at scale.
• Soar With Us: Paid social and paid search, managing media buying and growth strategy across the group’s client portfolio.

Together, the group manages over £100M in ad spend, works with category-leading D2C brands, and operates the UK’s largest Creative Strategy department with design, production, strategy, and UGC all under one roof.

What Sets Us Apart

• Nominated for Meta’s Creative Diversity Award 2025, the only independent agency recognised
• Highest independent agency spend on Meta in 2025
• Official TikTok Agency Partner, Creative Partner, and one of the only TikTok Shop Partners across UK and US
• Two production studios (London and Manchester)
• Creators of D2C Diaries, one of the UK’s leading eCommerce podcasts
• Partnered with Meta, TikTok, Foreplay, and Triple Whale

Benefits

• 28 days paid holiday including birthday leave, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
• Long-service holiday scheme: after 2 years’ service, you’ll receive 1 extra day of annual leave for every 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