Associate Creative Director

Syneos Health Communications; München; Vor Ort; EUR 85.000 - 120.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Syneos Health Communications München seeks an Associate Creative Director to co‑lead the Creative Department with the Creative Director, shaping a bold creative vision across key clients and internal initiatives.

You will guide multidisciplinary teams, mentor talent, oversee campaigns from concept to delivery, and champion innovative approaches, including AI‑enabled tools, while ensuring brand consistency and client satisfaction. Language skills in German and English required.

Qualifikationen

• 8+ years of agency experience with 2+ years in a formal line-management role.
• Proven track record leading multiple brand client teams and delivering multi-channel campaigns.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to present and defend creative work to senior clients and internal stakeholders.
• Innovation mindset with hands-on experience implementing new methods and technologies.
• Strong commercial awareness; budgeting, Profit & Loss responsibilities.
• Deep expertise in design tools (Adobe CC, Figma, AI platforms).
• Fluent in German and English.

Aufgaben

• Co‑lead the Creative Department alongside the Creative Director, guiding strategy and execution for key clients.
• Drive strategic and operational excellence and nurture talent across disciplines.
• Lead and participate in client workshops, presentations and creative reviews to align with business goals.
• Oversee staffing, budgets, and capacity across Art Directors and Designers.
• Mentor and develop team members through performance reviews and career plans.
• Promote a culture of creativity, psychological safety and continuous improvement.

Kenntnisse

Agency leadership

Team leadership

Client presentation

Innovation

Budgeting/P&L

Stakeholder management

Design tools

Languages

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud

Figma

AI platforms

Jobbeschreibung

Overview

As an Associate Creative Director (ACD), you will co‑lead the Creative Department alongside the Creative Director, providing creative leadership for key agency clients. You will nurture talent, steward the creative vision, and ensure smooth collaboration across disciplines and partners. You will also co‑direct internal initiatives, such as training sessions and workshops, to foster a culture of continuous innovation and craftsmanship. Your role includes defining and executing creative strategies for multiple brands and clients and driving strategic and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: co‑own the overall creative strategy for selected key clients and other smaller clients; partner with the Creative Director to evolve our creative offering, methods, tools and AI integration.
• Shape and communicate the long‑term vision for the Creative Department, aligning priorities and investment areas.
• Represent the agency’s vision, values and leadership decisions within the creative team, ensuring alignment and effective implementation of changes.
• Act as deputy to the Creative Director in their absence, ensuring continuity of leadership, decision‑making and client relationships.
• Champion and support the strategic direction of agency leadership, translating it into actionable goals and inspiration for the creative teams.
• Lead and drive strategic and tactical discussions with clients and internal teams, ensuring projects are planned holistically and aligned with creative and business objectives.
• Manage a team of Art Directors and Designers; oversee staffing, resource planning and capacity.
• Conduct performance reviews, set career development plans and provide ongoing coaching and mentorship.
• Run regular calibration sessions and talent‑review meetings to ensure consistent expectations, feedback and career‑path standards across all teams.
• Create and maintain a culture of creativity and psychological safety, encouraging experimentation, treating mistakes as learning opportunities and supporting open idea sharing.
• Promote an environment where creatives are encouraged to present their work directly to clients.
• Client Strategy & Delivery: act as a strategic partner to key clients; lead or co‑lead campaign development, creative waves and client workshops in collaboration with the Creative Director.
• Build and maintain a deep understanding of client strategy, needs and market environment.
• Collaborate with Strategy and Account teams on research, positioning, messaging and POV development.
• Develop integrated creative solutions across all disciplines (Advertising, MedComms and PR).
• Present concepts and campaign proposals to clients, clearly articulating the strategic rationale and creative vision.
• Proactively identify organic growth opportunities through ongoing insights and market analysis.
• Support and creatively lead new business pitches.
• Engage critical stakeholders at the right time and facilitate effective joint decision‑making.
• Identify key decision points and milestones for joint sign‑off with the Creative Director.
• Ensure all creative outputs align with brand guidelines, strategic frameworks and client positioning.
• Operational & Budget Ownership: lead creative planning and project scoping, translating client briefs into clear project plans, timelines and deliverables.
• Own project resourcing, budgets and deliverables across your teams, ensuring work is delivered on time, within budget and to the highest quality standards.
• Track and report resource utilization during monthly reviews and partner with Project Management, Finance and PMO to streamline workflows.
• Quality Assurance & Innovation: own the overall quality of the creative product throughout the lifecycle, champion best practices, promote cross‑team knowledge sharing, roll out processes and AI‑enabled tools to boost creative productivity.
• Lead creative reviews focused on idea quality, strategic alignment and storytelling impact.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, emerging technologies and competitive activity, translating insights into actionable improvements for client projects.
• Internal Creative Leadership: take joint ownership with the Creative Director for defining, evolving and safeguarding the culture of the Creative Department.
• Work closely with the Creative Director to ensure internal initiatives are co‑created, communicated and embraced across the department.
• Lead initiatives that strengthen team cohesion, creative confidence and cross‑disciplinary collaboration.
• Design and facilitate internal creative programs, including workshops on emerging trends and tools, skill‑sharing sessions, cross‑team pairing and recognition of outstanding creative contributions.

Reporting Lines & Governance

• Report directly to the Creative Director Germany, maintaining close alignment on all strategic, creative and operational priorities.
• Serve as deputy to the Creative Director, assuming leadership responsibilities in their absence to ensure continuity in decision‑making, client relationships and team direction.
• Provide structured updates at key campaign stages (brief, concept, final) and actively contribute to creative leadership meetings.
• Hold delegated authority to commit team resources and budgets up to agreed thresholds, with all major strategic and financial decisions taken jointly with the Creative Director.
• Collaborate closely with the Head of Copy to align art and copy workstreams, share best practices and ensure fully integrated, non‑siloed delivery.

Essential Requirements

• 8+ years of agency experience, with at least 2 years in a formal line‑management role.
• Proven track record leading multiple brand client teams and delivering multi‑channel campaigns.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Exceptional ability to present and defend creative work to senior clients and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated innovation mindset, with hands‑on experience implementing new methods and technologies.
• Strong commercial awareness – setting and managing project budgets, interpreting Profit & Loss statements and optimizing resources to ensure both creative excellence and profitability.
• Deep expertise in design tools (Adobe CC, Figma, AI platforms), presentation graphics and digital production.
• Fluent in German and English.

Syneos Health companies are affirmative action/equal opportunity employers (Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled).