Ladder.io
Creative Strategy Director (Digital Performance Agency) - Contract-to-Hire
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We’re looking for a senior creative storyteller with exceptional taste, strong ideas and the ability to make them work in digital advertising that gets results.
Ladder is entering an exciting new phase. We’ve won a substantial new Q4 engagement with one of the world’s leading technology companies, and we’re investing in senior creative talent to match that opportunity.
You’ll have an immediate creative challenge, a team to bring your ideas to life, and the opportunity to help shape an agency building an ambitious vision for Adaptive Growth.
Employment type
Contract-to-hire — initial Q4 engagement with the intention to convert to full-time
Location
Remote, UK / Europe preferred
Experience level
Senior / Director
About Ladder
Ladder builds outsourced digital growth teams for some of the most ambitious companies in the world.
We bring strategy, performance marketing, creative and technology into one integrated team — combining strategic rigour, strong creative thinking and the speed to turn ideas into live work.
Our next chapter is Adaptive Growth. We believe the companies that win will be those that learn, adapt and execute faster than the market around them. Our ambition is to build the world’s most adaptive growth teams: exceptional people working across the customer journey, continuously turning insight into ideas, experiments and better results.
AI is central to that vision. We’re building systems that give our people superior context: deeper audience understanding, client knowledge, historical learning and performance intelligence, connected and available when they need it.
For a great creative mind, that means more to draw on, more possibilities to explore and more time for judgement, storytelling and ideas. We want to make exceptional humans dramatically more capable — and this hire will help define what that looks like for creative at Ladder.
The Q4 Opportunity
Your initial focus will be a major technology client, leading creative strategy across a substantial programme of digital work.
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It’s an opportunity to turn complex products into compelling stories, present ideas to senior stakeholders and lead a multidisciplinary team through execution. You’ll bring fresh thinking to an important client relationship and help set the standard for what comes next.
The longer-term ambition is a broader creative strategy leadership role across Ladder, with real influence over our work, our methods and how we develop our people.
The Role
You’ll lead concepts, messaging and creative direction, bringing strong ideas, exceptional taste and the ability to articulate a compelling story.
You’ll know what makes a good ad: how the idea, words and visuals work together to earn attention and persuade. You’ll turn complex briefs into compelling creative, sell your thinking to senior clients and guide designers and copywriters through execution.
This is a hands-on, ideas-led leadership role. We need someone who can originate the concept and articulate it clearly in words, with the judgement to make the finished work excellent alongside our designers.
What You'll Do
- Translate growth strategy and audience insights into creative platforms, narratives and messaging.
- Originate strong concepts and show how they come to life across ads, video, landing pages and customer journeys.
- Shape and sell ideas that work creatively and commercially.
- Guide designers, copywriters and growth strategists with clear creative direction.
- Set a high standard for concept quality, storytelling and execution.
- Use performance data as fuel for ideas and meaningful creative experimentation.
- Improve how creative is briefed, developed, presented and evaluated.
- Help shape how AI can strengthen creative research, context, exploration and learning at Ladder.
Who This Role is For
You’re a senior creative thinker who:
- Has exceptional taste and can explain what makes an idea strong.
- Thinks naturally in stories, concepts and human motivations.
- Understands good brands and good ads, with a portfolio demonstrating effective digital advertising.
- Can express an idea clearly in words and judge how it should come to life visually.
- Confidently presents and defends creative thinking with senior clients.
- Enjoys developing the work yourself as well as leading others.
- Uses evidence to sharpen creative judgement and push the next idea further.
- Is curious about how AI can expand what an excellent creative person can do.
- Wants real accountability for creative quality and the opportunity to make an agency better.
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Your background could span creative strategy, copywriting or art direction. What matters is your ability to lead the whole idea. A portfolio centred solely on graphic design, visual identity or copy won’t demonstrate the breadth this role requires.
Contract-To-Hire
We’ll start with a contract engagement covering live Q4 work, giving both sides the opportunity to build a working relationship around a meaningful creative challenge.
This is an investment in future creative leadership at Ladder. If it’s a strong mutual fit and the ongoing business supports it, our intention is to transition into a permanent role with a broader agency remit.
Why Join Ladder
- A significant creative opportunity from day one: lead thinking for a major global technology client.
- Influence over the agency: help define our creative standards, develop the team and shape how we work.
- Ideas connected to outcomes: collaborate with specialists across creative, media, strategy and technology, and learn from what your work does in the world.
- A role in our AI vision: help build an environment where better context and stronger tools amplify your taste, judgement and imagination.
- Room to build something: join as we develop Adaptive Growth into the next chapter of Ladder.
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