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