Hiring! Creative Director
- Duration: Initial 6 Months
- Location: Hybrid working in the London office -open to remote
- Rate: £300-£330 per day
- Engagement: Inside IR35
Job Description:
Experienced Creative Director who will be responsible for the E2E delivery of creative campaigns from the in-house Novartis creative team.
This role combines strategic thinking, creative leadership, hands-on creative development, internal stakeholder management and modern production knowledge to deliver stand-out and effective campaigns.
Confident using AI-powered tools to streamline workflows, accelerate delivery, and elevate creative quality, with a strong emphasis on speed, clarity, and effectiveness.
Key Responsibilities
Campaign Development
- Lead the development of creative ideas from initial concepts through to fully formed creative campaigns
- Translate strategy into clear, compelling creative directions – ensuring creative work is insight-led, distinctive, and fit for purpose
- Contribute directly to creative delivery where needed, including:
- Creative concepting and ideation
- Copywriting and/or visualization
- Presentation development
- Ensure creative outputs are polished, coherent, and ready for stakeholder or participant review
- Oversee the preparation of creative stimuli for qualitative and quantitative research, including:
- Concept boards and narratives
- Visual territories and mock-ups
- Early-stage campaign ideas
- Oversee the production of creative assets and campaign materials, ensuring deliverables meet quality standards and brand guidelines
Team & Workflow Management
- Supervise cross-functional teams (art directors, copywriters, designers, copywriters – internal and freelance), assigning tasks and monitoring bandwidth to balance workloads
- Manage creative processes from brief to delivery, working with Creative Operations leads and Project Managers to create timelines, scope documents, and track creative hours
- Prioritize projects based on business needs, facilitate inter-departmental communication, and refine SOPs for smooth project flow
- Collaborate closely with internal stakeholders, cross-functional teams and key markets – taking on and managing feedback to refine creative work according to business challenges and needs
- Track project progress, identify risks, and implement tools or processes to optimize efficiency and continuous improvement
- Ensure projects are delivered on time, in scope, on brief, and to a high creative standard
AI-Enabled Creative Workflow
- Use AI tools to accelerate ideation, iteration, and production
- Apply AI responsibly to enhance creative quality, efficiency, and consistency
- Continuously explore and integrate new tools that improve creative workflows and delivery speed
Creative Leadership
- Contribute to creative thought leadership within Novartis through active development of creative forums and internal creative events
- Initiate and lead creative projects outside of traditional brand campaigns, finding and developing opportunities for award-winning creative work that solve real needs across the business
Skills & Experience
- Proven experience as a Creative Director in pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising
- Strong concept development and storytelling skills
- Hands-on capability in copywriting, design and creative production (not purely conceptual)
- Strong working knowledge of AI tools for creative development and production
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with practical execution
- Comfortable working at pace and managing multiple projects simultaneously
- Experience working with cross-functional teams
- Background in brand, innovation, research, or insight-led creative work
- Familiarity with both qualitative and quantitative research environments
What Success Looks Like
- Creative campaigns and content from the internal creative team are elevated, effective and celebrated
- Creative projects move quickly and smoothly from concept to delivery
- In-house creative team capacity is managed and scaled with agility through high-delivery periods
- Creative leadership is established and the in-house Novartis creative team are known internally for cut-through creative solutions
- AI tools are used to save time without sacrificing creative quality
- Stakeholders trust creative outputs to be both inspiring and practical
- Projects feel well-led, well-paced, and creatively strong from start to finish