Lead Creative Strategist

GeistM•New York, NY

4d•$90,000 - $110,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As Lead Creative Strategist, you will lead the day-to-day creative function across assigned clients and verticals, combining creative strategy, hands-on execution, performance analysis, creator management, and team leadership. This is not a strategy-only role. You will be expected to move comfortably between developing creative concepts, reviewing performance, briefing creators, giving feedback to the internal team, presenting recommendations to clients, and producing or editing creative yourself when needed. You will be responsible for ensuring the team is producing a consistent volume of high-quality, performance-led creative while building a clear understanding of what is working, why it is working, and what we should test next. You will also play an important role in growing the creative offering at GeistM: improving processes, developing the team, identifying new opportunities for clients, and helping evolve how we approach paid social creative.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in paid social creative, creative strategy, or performance marketing, ideally within an agency, high-growth brand, or similarly fast-paced environment.
Demonstrable experience developing creative for platforms such as Meta and TikTok.
Strong understanding of what makes paid social creative perform, including hooks, messaging, pacing, formats, UGC, creator content, and iterative testing.
Hands-on creative ability - you should be comfortable creating, editing, or improving assets yourself rather than exclusively briefing others.
Experience working with short-form video, UGC, static creative, and creator-led campaigns.
Experience managing or mentoring creatives, designers, editors, creators, or other creative contributors.
Strong creative judgement and the ability to give specific, actionable feedback.
Experience interpreting creative performance data and translating it into new concepts and testing priorities.
Strong project-management skills and the ability to manage multiple clients, deliverables, and deadlines at once.
Confident client-facing communication and presentation skills.
Commercial awareness and an interest in using creative to drive both client performance and account growth.
Comfortable working with tools such as Canva, CapCut, ClickUp, AI creative tools, project-management platforms, and creative analytics tools.
Curious, proactive, and comfortable operating in an environment where creative trends, platforms, and best practices evolve quickly.

Responsibilities

Own creative strategy across assigned clients and verticals, translating business and performance goals into actionable creative plans.
Develop creative concepts, hooks, angles, messaging, formats, and testing priorities for paid social campaigns.
Analyze creative performance to identify winning themes, formats, audiences, hooks, and opportunities for iteration.
Build and maintain structured creative testing frameworks and learning agendas.
Turn performance data into clear recommendations on what to scale, what to iterate, what to stop, and what to test next.
Document creative learnings across clients so insights can be applied across the wider team.
Present creative performance, learnings, testing plans, and recommendations.
Stay close to platform trends and emerging creative formats across Meta, TikTok, and other relevant paid channels.
Be comfortable getting hands-on with creative production from concept through to final asset.
Create and edit paid social assets including static ads, short-form video, UGC-style creative, creator-led content, advertorial assets, and campaign variations.
Write or refine hooks, scripts, headlines, CTAs, overlays, and creative messaging.
Produce creative iterations based on performance data and client feedback.
Work within tools such as Canva, CapCut, AI creative tools, and other production platforms to develop and refine assets.
Ensure creative is designed for the platform, audience, funnel stage, and campaign objective rather than simply adapting one asset across channels.
Develop UGC and creator-led concepts based on client objectives, audience insights, and creative performance.
Write clear creator briefs, scripts, talking points, hooks, and shot lists.
Source or support the sourcing of creators appropriate to each campaign.
Manage creators throughout the production process, including briefing, communication, timelines, feedback, revisions, and final delivery.
Review creator submissions and provide clear, actionable feedback to ensure assets meet both performance and brand requirements.
Identify opportunities to repurpose, iterate, and scale high-performing creator content.
Help build and maintain a strong network of reliable creators across relevant markets and categories.
Oversee and develop the Content Creator / Creative team day-to-day, helping prioritize workloads and maintain delivery standards.
Own the quality of creative output across assigned clients and verticals.
Review and approve creative before handoff to internal and external stakeholder teams.
Give clear and constructive feedback that improves both individual assets and the team's broader creative judgment.
Support team members through regular coaching, feedback, and career development.
Identify skills gaps and opportunities for training, development, or improved ways of working.
Work closely with the Director of Content & Creative on team priorities, creative standards, resourcing, and development.
Manage creative production pipelines, ensuring briefs, concepts, assets, feedback, and approvals move efficiently from idea to launch.
Own production timelines and delivery schedules across assigned accounts.
Coordinate priorities across creative, content, growth, media, and client teams.
Identify blockers early and ensure the right resources are allocated to priority work.
Improve creative workflows, templates, briefing processes, QA standards, and documentation.
Balance the need for creative quality with the speed and volume required in a performance marketing environment.
Translate client objectives and performance challenges into clear creative opportunities.
Confidently present creative strategies, concepts, results, and recommendations to clients as needed.
Identify opportunities to expand creative support within existing accounts through new formats, creator programs, increased testing, or additional production.
Support pitches and new-business opportunities where creative strategy and execution are important components of the proposed solution.
Contribute creative thinking to wider client growth strategies rather than operating solely as a production function.
Help develop case studies and examples that demonstrate the impact of GeistM's creative work.
Partner with the Director of Content & Creative to evolve GeistM's creative capabilities, services, and approach as the business grows.