Head of Creative Strategy

Soar With Us

Head of Creative Strategy leading a 20+ person creative team. Overseeing operational excellence and people strategy for the UK's largest performance creative department at Soar Group.

Posted 5/21/2026full-timeLondon • 🇬🇧 United KingdomLeadWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Head of Creative Strategy - managing operational backbone of a 20+ person creative team
Line-manage four direct reports: 3-4 Creative Leads
Cascade development through the layered structure: Creative Leads → Senior Creative Strategists → Creative Strategists → CS Executives
Own the people strategy for the department: performance management, progression frameworks, capacity planning, utilisation mapping and succession
Coach Creative Leads into confident, autonomous leaders - through difficult conversations, client escalations, strategic thinking, team management and coaching
Own department structure, org development, operations, hiring, and team retention
Champion process improvement and identify bottlenecks before they become blockers - from briefing workflows to reporting cadences to production handoffs
Drive accountability through clear KPIs and a rhythm of performance conversations that keep the department sharp
Own the department P&L - EBITDA is your number
Support the commercial growth of the department - working with the CCO and wider C-suite

Requirements

What you’ll need

Proven experience leading large teams (20+ people minimum) - you've built, scaled, or led a department or function of this size, ideally within an agency or marketing services environment
Track record building leadership benches - you've coached senior individual contributors into leaders, 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 confident with budget, utilisation, and capacity modelling
Process-led mindset - you know how to design and scale complex operating systems, and protect them from drift
Cultural leader - you naturally set the tone for the teams around you. People want to work for you because you make them better
Excellent communicator - you can present in an empowering and inspiring way, lead team meetings, deliver tough feedback with care, and write clearly
Experience leading through significant change - you've operated in organisations going through transformation (restructure, scaling, M&A, model shift) and brought your team through it with momentum, not friction
AI-literate and tech-enabled - you understand the trajectory of AI in creative and marketing, are comfortable using AI tools yourself, and can lead a team through AI-augmented workflow adoption

Benefits

Comp & perks

Enjoy 28 days of annual leave, giving you the time to recharge and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Benefit from our long-service reward scheme, with 1 additional day of annual leave awarded each year after 2 years of service.
Work in a flexible hybrid model, with 2 days in our Central London office at the Roundhouse in Camden and the remainder from home.
Access private health and life insurance, providing additional peace of mind and support for you and your family.
Participate in our company pension scheme to help you plan and save for the future.
Take advantage of a one-month annual work-abroad allowance, giving you the flexibility to work remotely from another location each year.

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

P&L managementbudget managementcapacity modelingperformance managementprogression frameworksprocess improvementoperational systems designKPI developmentteam managementcoaching

Soft Skills

leadershipcommunicationstrategic thinkingcultural leadershipconflict resolutionteam retentionempowermentinspirationchange managementcollaboration