Sr. Creative Strategist / Creative Lead (DTC Footwear Brand)

Are you the kind of creative strategist who doesn't just write great ads, but builds the system that produces them? This is your shot to take full ownership of creative strategy at a fast-scaling DTC footwear brand that's already sold half a million pairs to people who spend their whole shift standing, in a category where most competitors are still running plain product shots.

Demand isn't the problem. The problem is that creative strategy still runs through the CEO. We need someone who can take the entire engine, research, angles, concepts, scripts, testing, analysis, iteration, and own it end to end, using AI to run it faster and at a higher volume than a human team could manage alone.

WHO THEY ARE

A fast-scaling DTC footwear brand in the orthopaedic comfort space, built for people who spend their entire working day standing on hard floors. Half a million customers and tens of thousands of five-star reviews in, the product is proven and the range is expanding quickly. What's missing isn't ideas, it's someone to turn creative into a real function with its own engine.

• The team is small and senior, and decisions get made in hours, not sprints.

• Speed is the default, but chaos is never accepted as the price of it.

• There are no layers, no committees, and no slide decks needed to justify a call.

• People are hired to own outcomes, not to manage a function.

• Problems are expected here. Surprises are not.
  

This is a fully remote, full-time role.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU

• Real ownership. You're not brought in to execute a brief, you're brought in to build the operating system that decides what gets tested, why, and where the budget goes next.

• Real budget behind your ideas. Concepts get tested fast, at volume, and you get to see exactly what happens.

• A category that talks. Pain-driven buying, thousands of reviews, and endless research to mine for angles nobody else has found yet.

• A direct line to the CEO, with the goal of needing it less. Feedback is fast now, and the better you build the engine, the less anyone needs to push it for you.

• Room to grow into the function. The brand is expanding into new models and categories, and as the volume grows, so does the case for you building out a team under you and swiftly moving into the Head of Creatives position. 

• A system you can point to as yours. Not just a folder of ads, an actual creative operating system you designed, built, and can take credit for.
  

WHAT YOU'RE GETTING INTO

• Build and own the entire creative operating system: research, insights, concepts, briefs, production, testing, analysis, iteration. Nobody should need to push it forward but you.

• Use AI as core infrastructure, not a shortcut: research, competitive analysis, concept generation, scripting, iteration and briefing should all move faster and go deeper because of how you use it.

• Systematically research competitors, Meta ad libraries, landing pages, advertorials, VSLs, Reddit threads, Amazon reviews and adjacent markets, and know how to pull working principles and new angles out of what you find.

• Read the customer properly across reviews, Reddit, support tickets, post-purchase surveys and competitor comments.

• Decide where creative resources go: which avatars, angles, formats and funnels get budget, and how much goes to new concepts versus iterating winners.

• Build winning concepts across every format that matters: UGC, testimonial, expert, demo, comparison, advertorial, listicle, VSL and static.

• Write scripts and briefs tight enough that a creator or editor can shoot from them without a single clarifying question.

• Sit with performance data daily and know why something worked or failed, hook, angle, avatar, format, offer, landing page, awareness level, and turn that into a feedback loop that shapes the next round.

• Keep a high-volume testing calendar running, a challenger always in market against the control, producing volume, not just the occasional big swing.

• Direct the creators and editors making the work, and eventually the strategists too, setting standards and holding the pipeline accountable.

• Feed what you learn back into landing pages, offers and new product launches as the range expands.
  

WHO YOU ARE

• You have 4+ years in performance creative strategy or direct response, ideally for a scaled DTC brand in footwear, apparel or health and wellness.

• You have worked with at least one 8 or 9-figure DTC brand and can point to your actual contribution.

• Creatives you strategised have carried $1M+ in cumulative spend, with individual concepts past $100K.

• Meta is your home turf and you understand awareness levels, sophistication and unique mechanisms.

• You're genuinely strong with performance data. You can explain why something worked or failed, hook, angle, avatar, format, offer, landing page, awareness level, and translate that into a system, not just a hunch for next time.

• You're AI-native. You use AI to increase the quality and speed of research, competitive analysis, concept generation, scripting, iteration and briefing, not just to punch up a hook when you're stuck.

• You know how to run comparative research properly: competitors, Meta ads, landing pages, advertorials, VSLs, Reddit, Amazon reviews, adjacent markets, and how to turn what you find into working principles rather than a swipe file.

• You iterate winners rather than chasing new ideas, and you drop your own concepts when the data says so.

• You can show the work: real creatives, real numbers, real evidence of your involvement.
  

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• First 30 days: You have pulled apart every current winner and can explain what makes them work. Research is done, with a documented bank of pain points, objections and angles. The first new concepts are already in test, and you've mapped out how the full system, research through iteration, is going to run.

• First 60 days: You have found at least one new angle scaling past the existing control. Briefs are clear enough that production runs without you in the loop, testing has a proper cadence rather than a queue, and AI is doing real work inside your research, scripting and briefing, not sitting on the side.

• First 90 days: Multiple concepts are carrying real spend, each with a full iteration tree behind it. Creative strategy no longer depends on the CEO to drive it, the system runs on its own rhythm, and you have a clear, data-backed view of where creative resources should go next across avatars, angles, formats and funnels.