Associate Director, Creative Strategy (Paid)

Darkroom•New York, NY

12d•$100,000 - $120,000•Remote

About The Position

Darkroom is seeking a visionary creative leader with deep experience in developing ad concepts for digital paid media advertising formats on Meta, TikTok, and other channels. The ideal candidate can provide tactical feedback on design and video while balancing performance frameworks, creative testing, and world-building assets. This role is for a Creative Strategist with a background in Design, Video Editing, or Performance Marketing, who is hyper-focused on paid media performance and developing advertisements that sell products and services. The role involves working on Darkroom's Performance Creative service, an AI-powered creative strategy engagement for paid media clients. This includes assessing ad hooks, ad bodies, and creative direction; delivering creative ads that sell products and services; increasing creative diversity through multiple ad formats (statics, motion, video, UGC, AI); and increasing the volume of performance creative programs by delivering upwards of 50-100 new ads per month. The position reports to the Director of Creative and involves leading Designers and Editors to execute paid media assets across various formats. The work directly impacts client performance by delivering high-volume ad concepts, elevated creative direction, and data-backed testing frameworks. This is a fully remote role operating in the EST Time Zone, with all business conducted in English.

Requirements

3+ years of creative strategy work on performance ad programs, with specific focus working on short form video and statics.
Must have made short-form video or driven creative strategy on Meta.
A digital portfolio showcasing performance ad work that includes short-form video, motion, and statics. Examples of what you did to impact metrics like hold rate or CTR. Evidence of strong creative diversity that includes both highly designed and low-fidelity creative.
Ability to storyboard, cut, and ship ads.
Proficiency in Figma to fix hierarchy and pacing, and in Photoshop or Illustrator to polish assets.
Understanding of hooks, angles, and metrics such as thumb-stop rate, 3-second hold, hook retention, CTR, and CPA, and using them to decide what to test next.
Experience using tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Perplexity, Icon, Runway, or similar to increase speed and volume.
Experience shipping ads with AI-assisted elements.
Excellent communication skills, both in writing and when presenting to clients.
Ability to give crisp, actionable feedback to designers and editors and navigate pushback from clients.
Ability to turn vague goals into testable concepts, track results, and call the next iteration without hand-holding.
Deep knowledge of Figma including Auto Layout, Components, and handoff.
Strong skills in Adobe Creative Suite.
No Meta performance creative ad experience is a hard disqualifier.
No portfolio link or no performance context is a hard disqualifier.
Strategy-only with no hands-on design ability is a hard disqualifier.
Not excellent in client presentation and salesmanship is a hard disqualifier.

Responsibilities

Lead high-tempo creative strategy and direction for full-funnel ad programs, typically Meta and TikTok, but also YouTube, Amazon, and Display Platforms.
Deliver expert advice, concepts, directions, and briefs to sell products and services through short-form video.
Translate client’s marketing strategy and performance data into clear, compelling ad concepts (This includes using metrics like thumb-stop rate, hold rate, and clickthrough rate. You’re super comfortable adapting creatives to impact these metrics.)
Brief Designers and Editors on the creation of assets including static ads, animations, mobile-first videos, and storyboards for short-form content. Capable of jumping into shape up a design in Figma or whip up an ad yourself without concern, if need be.
Present creative work to stakeholders and clients with clarity, confidence, and strategic rationale.
Monitor performance data in collaboration with the marketing team to inform creative iterations and improve results over time.