Creative Strategy Lead, Influencer

About Collectively:

Collectively - part of the Brandtech Group (formerly You & Mr. Jones) - is the global leader in influencer marketing; combining strategy, creative, and technology to deliver the most innovative influencer work. We partner with forward-thinking brands in technology, fashion, retail, gaming, entertainment, consumer goods, and more to build deeply integrated social activation strategies that drive relevance, awareness, and sales. Our work has been recognized by top publications including The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Digiday, AdAge, and Business INSIDER, among others. We’ve also earned Effie, Webby, Glossy, IMA Fast Company, and OMMA awards for our programs.

Collectively is known across the industry as the partner who delivers the most creative, strategic, and effective programs, with the most sophisticated analysis and paid social offerings. But most importantly, we’re known to be genuinely committed partners to our clients, many of whom have worked with us for multiple years. We aspire to continue to provide an excellent workplace for our teams while delivering the industry’s most ambitious and thoughtful influencer collaborations. In 2020, we were named by Built In Bay Area as one of the Best Small Companies to work for.

About the Client Partnerships Team

The Client Partnership team leads the creator strategy and client servicing relationship through the lifecycle of an account at Collectively–ensuring our partnership with clients is successful, industry-leading and directly in support of our clients’ creator marketing ambitions.

This team is focused on cultivating and growing successful relationships with account stakeholders in our client community through best-in-class work and services–delivering strategic influencer marketing proposals/RFPs, industry-leading thought partnership and ongoing strategic direction throughout the lifecycle of our agency/client partnership to support brands in becoming more effective, innovative creator-centric marketers.

About This Opportunity

We’re looking for a Creative Strategy Lead/ Creative Director to lead the creative output of our Strategic & Creative Development (SCD) function—an inter-team force designed to elevate Collectively’s competitive, high-stakes, and creatively ambitious work.

As the creative lead of SCD, you’ll oversee a team of two Senior Creatives, guiding the thinking and craft behind our biggest opportunities: competitive RFPs, big-bet pitches, multi-platform influencer campaigns, and high-visibility client initiatives. You’ll set the creative bar, resource your team to the right projects, vet incoming briefs, and push the work to be bolder, sharper, and more culturally resonant at every stage. You bring a deep understanding of creator culture, digital trends, and social storytelling—developing and championing ideas built on genuine tension that stop thumbs, spark conversation, and win over audiences on their own terms.

Beyond leading the team, you’ll also represent Collectively as a senior creative voice in-market—showing up in client conversations, industry settings, and pitches as a credible, compelling creative leader who embodies the standard we hold ourselves to.

This role sits within a hybrid Business Development + Client Strategy team, offering a unique vantage point at the intersection of creative leadership, cultural insight, and growth-driving business impact.

About Strategic & Creative Development

The Strategic & Creative Development function was built to sharpen how the agency shows up in moments that define our growth. SCD leads creative development across competitive pitches and marquee programs, partnering closely with Strategy, Business Development, Client Partnerships, and Analytics to bring clarity, craft, and cultural fluency to every opportunity.

This role will play a central part in defining and advancing what “best-in-class” looks like for our creative discipline—setting standards, building processes, and raising the ceiling on what Collectively’s creative can be.

What You’ll Do

Lead and Develop the Creative Team — You’ll manage and mentor a team of two Senior Creatives, overseeing their growth, day-to-day output, and creative development. You resource them strategically across incoming projects and pitches, match the right creative to the right brief, and create the conditions for them to do their best work. You push the thinking—reviewing concepts with a sharp eye, asking the harder questions, and elevating ideas from good to great.

Vet Incoming Briefs and Set Creative Direction — Before a brief hits the team, it comes through you. You’ll assess incoming requests, ask the right questions to sharpen the creative problem, and set a clear direction that gives the team a running start. You know how to identify which briefs have real creative potential and how to reframe the ones that don’t—yet.

Be a Senior Creative in Your Own Right — This isn’t a purely managerial role. You’ll lean in and contribute directly to the work—reviewing and pushing concepts and presenting the work—especially on the highest-stakes pitches where Collectively’s creative reputation is on the line. You lead by example, and your creative instincts are as sharp as ever.

Represent Collectively In-Market — You’ll show up as a senior creative voice for Collectively in client conversations, industry events, and pitch settings—building relationships, establishing credibility, and putting a human face on our creative ambition. You’re comfortable in the room and know how to make the work land.

Turn Insights into Ideas — Great creative doesn’t start from a blank page—it starts from a tension. You’ll work closely with strategists to absorb audience research, digital trend signals, and category context, then guide the team in transforming that raw material into ideas with genuine creative conflict at their core: the friction between what a brand stands for and what culture is demanding, between what Gen Z expects and what surprises them, between the familiar and the unexpected. That tension is what makes ideas magnetic.

Collaborate Closely with Peer Teams — You’ll work in close partnership with your peers across Client Strategy, Business Development, and Strategic Development to build integrated, best-in-class work. This isn’t a handoff culture—you’re in the room together from brief to presentation, bringing creative thinking to bear at every stage and making sure strategy and creative are building toward the same vision. You thrive in this kind of collaborative environment and know that the best work comes from those relationships being tight.

Cross-Functional Partnership — You’ll partner closely with Business Development and Client Partnerships to bring creative thinking to business opportunities across net new pitches and key client programs. You’re comfortable moving between teams and genuinely enjoy the variety—one week cracking a campaign for a big CPG brand, the next in the world of luxury, beauty, or B2B tech. You flex your creative instincts to fit the category without losing your edge. And while social is home base, you’re equally comfortable thinking beyond it: from influencer-led events and experiential activations to influencer-led TV spots and fully integrated campaigns that show up everywhere a brand needs to be.

Tapped into Culture + Trends — You’ll help lead creative trend reporting and POV development, keeping teams wired into what’s shaping digital culture, social platforms, and Gen Z behavior in real time. You know the difference between a trend worth chasing and one that’s already peaked—and you know how to use that intelligence to build creative ideas with longevity, not just virality.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years developing creative for social-first, creator-led, or influencer-driven campaigns, with at least 2 years in a creative leadership or management role
• Proven track record concepting and producing work that earns attention, drives culture, and delivers results—and helping others do the same
• Deep fluency across platforms—you think natively in TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and whatever comes next
• 5+ years of experience working in influencer marketing, social creative agencies, or digital-first brand environments
• A genuine love for working across industries—from big CPG and beauty to luxury, tech, and B2B—and the creative range to shift registers between them without losing what makes each idea feel right for that world
• Bonus: experience using AI tools and moodboarding to generate visual mockups and creative visualizations—bringing ideas to life visually at the speed of a pitch so clients and teams can see the vision, not just read it

Expertise

• Ability to lead a small creative team with clarity and confidence—resourcing effectively, providing sharp feedback, and developing talent
• Skilled at vetting and shaping incoming briefs—identifying the real creative opportunity and setting a direction the team can run with
• Strong digital and cultural radar—you live inside social media trends, understand what drives Gen Z behavior on and off platform, and can translate those signals into campaign concepts before they go mainstream
• Experience developing tension-rooted creative territories and campaign frameworks—ideas built on genuine cultural friction that give programs a clear identity, edge, and north star
• Comfort navigating the controlled chaos of pitch cycles and high-visibility RFP processes

Mindset

• A leader who elevates the people around them—you’re as invested in your team’s growth as you are in the quality of the work
• Natural storyteller who can present creative ideas compellingly—verbally, visually, and on the page—and who knows how to bring a room along
• Collaborative spirit that thrives when working across Creative, Strategy, BD, and Account teams
• Deep, genuine fluency with modern consumers—not just demographic knowledge, but a real understanding of how they think, what they value, what they reject, and how to create work that earns their trust rather than their eye-roll
• Growth orientation—you’re excited to push the work forward and shape how Collectively shows up creatively

Craft

• Exceptional creative instincts and concepting skills—you can articulate a big idea as clearly as you can visualize it, and you can recognize a great idea in someone else’s work
• Presence and polish in client-facing and in-market settings—you represent Collectively with authority and warmth
• Creative ambition balanced with strategic rigor
• Ability to zoom out to big-picture concept thinking and zoom in to executional excellence

Benefits & Team Member Experience

• Medical, Dental & Vision
• Supplemental Insurances (Life Insurance, Commuter Benefits & Pet Insurance)
• 401k Matching
• Monthly Work From Home Stipend
• Remote-First 
• Flex Fridays (after 1PM local time)
• Step Up Recognition Program
• Collectively Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
• Virtual & In-Person Events
• Generous Allotment of Sick Days
• Birthday Floating Holiday

Pay

The pay range for this position is $150 - 165K. Collectively takes into consideration a wide range of factors that are utilized in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, qualifications and education, and other business and organizational needs.