VP, Group Creative Director
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About the Role
As a Group Creative Director, you’ll be responsible for managing, guiding and creating the communication layer of a brand’s vision. This is a leadership role within the agency, with accountability for the health of both the brands you manage and the agency at large. In this role, you must inspire the creativity and strategic thinking of both your team and those around you. You should strive to bring experimentation where it’s fitting and act as a teacher of curiosity.
This role also requires you to be highly involved with clients, pitching work and presenting the capabilities of the department. You should be proficient in understanding how to align client needs with the agency’s model. Under your purview is the entire creative team, but you will have a smaller subset of direct reports. While you might partner with another GCD, Head of Design, or Head of Strategy at the agency, you’re mainly responsible for the creative direction.
Responsibilities:
- Creative Steward – First and foremost, be the creative steward for the brands in your portfolio.
- This includes working with the internal brand and strategy team to help set the tone and vision for the brand.
- Also includes monitoring and spot-checking all the creative work that will ultimately make its way to the client.
- Storytell - one third of your core duties is to help storytell ideas for clients, internal teams and your own creative teams. Clarity is key. In this role, it’s really about putting the final touches on a presentation to make sure the story makes sense to the layman. You are the last line of defense before the client/brand teams.
- Presenting to clients - as the brand steward, the best way to develop relationships with clients is to present, and if not delivering the core of an idea, providing support, the work going in front of them.
- Develop client relationships – while not everyone’s cup of tea, marketing is still a relationship business. The data can only take us so far; it’s the relationship that builds the trust. As a GCD, you’re expected to foster that relationship on terms that make sense for you. Ideally you should be on a text based comfort within a year of interacting.
- Lead hiring decisions on Art or Copy candidates in the department, taking into consideration the department/agency’s needs and growth potential. Beyond this, overseeing mentoring and growing the agency’s talent, such that their skills, knowledge, potential contributions, and job satisfaction grow over their time with us.
- Foster an environment of creativity and inspire team members to participate in internal creative endeavors.
- Offer a point of view on the team’s composition and structure, including promotions, job openings and overall growth opportunities.
- Influence creative led thinking across the business and groups.
- Lead concept development in relation to design and creative work. Be a maker where it makes sense.
- Partner with the Head of Production, Head of Design and Craft and the CCO, to develop programs to continuously improve the team’s capabilities and hard skill sets.
- Offer a perspective around the agency as a whole and what internal improvements we should invest in to make Monks the best place to work for everyone.
- Ensure that creative projects are delivered on their agreed upon timeline and on budget ensuring commercial success.
- Provide quality control over your team’s output.
About You
The essentials:
- Minimum of 4 years in a Creative Director or equivalent role, including hands-on concept development and direct client interaction.
- Proven experience leading creative teams of 6 or more with empathy and leadership.
- A strong track record of building high-performing teams and pushing ideas to their fullest potential.
- A well-developed creative point of view and the ability to identify strong ideas and executions.
- Patience and attention to detail in all aspects of the creative process.
- Strong knowledge of layout design, graphic fundamentals, and typography.
- Ability to steer campaign writing.
- Be a storyteller—one who compels people to want to hear more.
- Need to be able to take work delivered by teams and turn it into a sellable idea.
Not a must, but a plus:
- Collaborate with strategic, brand, creative and production partners.
- Deep awareness of creative culture, trends, and evolving platforms.
At Monks, we believe in fostering an environment where a diversity of perspectives can thrive. We proactively work to design hiring processes that promote equity and inclusion while mitigating bias. We celebrate diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve. We welcome and encourage qualified applicants, from all backgrounds, who are excited to contribute to our mission.
#MB-3
#LI-Hybrid
What We Offer
Benefits
- Excellent, full coverage medical, dental, and vision insurance with employer-paid HRA
- Generous PTO and 15 company-wide holidays
- 401k with company contribution
- Paid parental leave
- Work-life balance with an emphasis on personal well-being
- Career growth in a disruptor space & entrepreneurial opportunities within the Monks network
- A globally diverse & inclusive culture with employee resource groups such as S4 Melanin, Pride.Monks, Cultura.Monks, and more!
- Authentic commitment to DEI efforts and sustainable growth. (Why Sir Martin Sorrell signed The Climate Pledge here!)
Monks has provided a compensation range that represents its good faith estimate of what Monks may pay for the position at the time of posting. Monks may ultimately pay more or less than the posted compensation range. The salary offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on job-related factors, but not based on a candidate’s sex or any other protected status.
About Monks
Monks is the global, purely digital, unitary operating brand of S4Capital plc. With a legacy of innovation and specialized expertise, Monks combines an extraordinary range of global marketing and technology services to accelerate business possibilities and redefine how brands and businesses interact with the world. Its integration of systems and workflows delivers unfettered content production, scaled experiences, enterprise-grade technology and data science fueled by AI—managed by the industry’s best and most diverse digital talent—to help the world’s trailblazing companies outmaneuver and outpace their competition.
Monks was named a Contender in The Forrester Wave™: Global Marketing Services. It has remained a constant presence on Adweek’s Fastest Growing lists (2019-23), ranks among Cannes Lions' Top 10 Creative Companies (2022-23) and is the only partner to have been placed in AdExchanger’s Programmatic Power Players list every year (2020-24). In addition to being named Adweek’s first AI Agency of the Year (2023), Monks has been recognized by Business Intelligence in its 2024 Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Awards program in three categories: the Individual category, Organizational Winner in AI Strategic Planning and AI Product for its service Monks.Flow. Monks has also garnered the title of Webby Production Company of the Year (2021-24), won a record number of FWAs and has earned a spot on Newsweek’s Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces 2023.
We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to building a respectful and empowering work environment for all people to freely express themselves amongst colleagues who embrace diversity in all respects. Including fresh voices and unique points of view in all aspects of our business not only creates an environment where we can all grow and thrive but also increases our potential to produce work that better represents—and resonates with—the world around us.
