Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Build, manage, and inspire a team of ad designers and creative strategists who service multiple health and wellness clients, fostering a high-performance, high-output creative culture.
• Hiring & People Management: Own the full hiring and management process for the creative team — recruiting, onboarding, performance management, and career development for designers and strategists as the team grows.
• Creator Sourcing & Management: Build and manage the sourcing and hiring process for UGC creators, ensuring a strong bench of creators who consistently deliver high-performing content for clients.
• Build out a small production studio: Occasionally coordinate live video shoots in and around our NYC based office, to collect high quality raw video assets for use in paid social or CTV campaigns.
• Operating Model: Design and run the processes and workflows that let the team consistently produce a high volume of high-performing, on-brief, on-brand ad creative across clients without sacrificing quality.
• Creative Strategy: Set the paid social creative strategy for each client in partnership with strategists and media teams, and guide the team on when to iterate on a winning concept versus test something new to hit performance goals.
• Creative Briefing & Execution: Oversee the briefing process and the execution of paid social ad creative – UGC, static, animation, and video – so that assets dramatize each brand's point of difference and drive conversion.
• AI Innovation: Uplevel Lantern's approach to AI in ad design, evaluating new tools and workflows and rolling out best practices so the agency stays at the cutting edge of AI-powered creative for clients.
• Performance Measurement: Own the creative measurement framework, KPIs, and reporting process the team uses to track and communicate the impact of creative on client performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Lantern's CRO, paid media, and other channel teams to keep ad creative aligned with broader account strategy and coordinated creative plans.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in creative strategy for performance or paid social marketing, ideally with a mix of agency and in-house experience.
• 3+ years of experience directly managing and growing a team of designers and/or creative strategists.
• Proven track record leading performance-driven creative (UGC, static, video, animation) that achieves measurable results on Meta, TikTok, and other paid social platforms.
• Experience sourcing, hiring, and managing UGC creators or influencer talent is a strong plus.
• Hands-on knowledge of AI design tools, with a track record of using them to increase creative velocity and quality.
• Strong analytical mindset, comfortable using performance data to inform creative strategy and decisions.
• Exceptional project management skills, with the ability to run multiple clients and workstreams simultaneously.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting creative strategy and performance insights to clients and senior stakeholders.
• Experience in DTC health, wellness, or consumer brands, or agency experience across multiple clients, is a strong plus.
• NYC or greater NYC located, with willingness to come into our NYC office 2-3 times per week.

Preferred

• Experience sourcing, hiring, and managing UGC creators or influencer talent is a strong plus.