Creative Strategy Lead (Remote, US)

Location: United States Workplace: Remote Hiring Partner: OnHires, on behalf of our client Employment: Full-time · Remote · United States Schedule: Monday–Friday, 9-to-5 Compensation: 100,000-120,000 per year About Our Client Our client is a growing US-based direct-to-consumer brand specializing in bags, backpacks, travel accessories, and everyday carry products. As the company expands its product portfolio and builds out its in-house marketing capabilities, it is looking for a Creative Strategy Lead to take ownership of performance creative strategy and establish a structured, insight-driven creative testing process. This is a newly created role reporting directly to the CEO, with the opportunity to shape how the brand develops, tests, and improves its advertising creative. The Role We are looking for a hands-on Creative Strategy Lead who combines strong consumer understanding, original creative thinking, direct-response storytelling, and performance analysis. You will own the creative process from customer research and concept development through scripting, briefing, creative direction, testing, and iteration. Your primary focus will be paid advertising creative, particularly across Meta, TikTok, and other relevant acquisition channels, while collaborating with the teams responsible for organic social and creator partnerships. This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports. You will personally develop creative concepts, hooks, scripts, and briefs while working with creators, editors, and designers who produce the final assets. You will collaborate closely with Paid Media, Social Media, and Creator Partnerships specialists, each of whom retains ownership of their respective functions. Key Responsibilities Creative Research & Concept Development - Research customer motivations, purchasing behavior, pain points, objections, product use cases, and competitor positioning. - Turn consumer insights into original advertising concepts, messaging angles, hooks, scripts, and visual directions. - Develop creative variations tailored to different audiences, platforms, and stages of the customer journey. - Identify opportunities to communicate product benefits through compelling direct-response storytelling. Performance Analysis & Creative Testing - Own and continuously improve the creative testing roadmap, with paid performance as the primary focus. - Develop clear testing hypotheses, prioritize creative experiments, and document results and learnings. - Analyze creative-level performance alongside Paid Media specialists, using metrics such as hook rate, hold rate, CTR, CVR, and CAC where relevant. - Translate performance insights into stronger concepts, messaging, scripts, and creative iterations. - Connect creative decisions to customer acquisition, conversion, and commercial outcomes. Creative Briefing & Production Direction - Personally write creative briefs, advertising scripts, hooks, and production guidelines. - Translate creative concepts and testing hypotheses into clear, actionable instructions for creators, editors, and designers. - Direct the creative development process from initial concept through final asset review. - Review completed assets for messaging accuracy, creative quality, product representation, and alignment with testing objectives. - Provide specific, actionable feedback to improve creative execution. Creative Systems & Collaboration - Establish repeatable workflows connecting consumer research, creative development, production, testing, and iteration. - Maintain clear creative priorities and an organized testing roadmap. - Collaborate with Paid Media, Social Media, and Creator Partnerships teams to align creative strategy with channel objectives. - Improve creative quality, production efficiency, and the consistency of performance-driven decision-making. What We're Looking For Required Experience & Skills - Proven hands-on performance creative strategy experience with DTC brands selling physical consumer products, including ownership of creative concepts, testing, and performance-driven iteration. - Recent experience developing paid advertising creative for e-commerce or direct-to-consumer products. - A portfolio demonstrating personally developed creative concepts, hooks, scripts, and briefs, ideally supported by testing insights and measurable commercial outcomes. - Strong consumer research skills and the ability to translate customer insights into compelling advertising concepts. - Excellent direct-response copywriting, storytelling, and creative judgment. - Demonstrated experience developing and executing structured creative testing programs. - Ability to interpret creative performance data and use findings to guide subsequent creative decisions. - Experience briefing and directing UGC creators, video editors, designers, and other creative production partners. - Ability to take ownership of creative strategy while remaining actively involved in hands-on execution. - Strong collaboration and communication skills, including professional English proficiency. Nice to Have - Experience working in-house with a physical consumer-product DTC brand. - Background in lifestyle, fashion, accessories, travel products, outdoor gear, or related consumer categories. - A track record of sustained ownership, long-term contributions, and measurable creative improvements within a brand or client account. We value demonstrated expertise, the quality of your work, and your ability to drive meaningful creative improvements over job titles alone. What Success Looks Like - A consistent pipeline of original, differentiated advertising concepts grounded in customer research. - A structured and prioritized creative testing roadmap with documented hypotheses, results, and learnings. - High-quality, production-ready scripts and briefs that enable efficient creative execution. - Clear, actionable creative direction and feedback for production partners. - Continuous, evidence-based improvements in creative performance. - Strong collaboration between creative strategy, paid media, and creator teams. - Creative decisions that contribute to customer acquisition efficiency, conversion, and business growth. Why Join - Own the creative strategy function: Take responsibility for building and improving the brand's performance creative process. - Direct access to the CEO: Have a voice in creative priorities and work closely with the person setting the company's direction. - Make a measurable impact: Connect your ideas and creative testing decisions to real commercial results. - Stay hands-on: Focus on creative thinking, research, scripts, testing, and execution rather than people management. - Help shape a growing DTC brand: Work with an expanding portfolio of products designed for travel, work, and everyday life. - Help build the in-house marketing function: Join a growing team and shape how creative strategy operates as the brand scales. Hiring Process 1. Introductory interview with an OnHires recruiter. 2. Interview with the CEO. 3. Practical case assignment. 4. Follow-up discussion of the assignment.