Creative Director (Maternity Cover)

Eat Real Snacks; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

PROPER SNACKS in London and Nuneaton seeks an interim Creative Director to lead the in-house Creative Studio during a maternity leave. You will shape the creative direction for PROPER and Eat Real, balancing ambitious design with commercial realities and guiding a talented eight-person team.

You’ll partner with the CMO and Marketing Leadership to elevate brand storytelling across packaging, campaigns, content and digital, while knowing when to bring in partners for specialist input.

Qualifications

• Senior creative leadership experience in consumer brands.
• Strong design background with visual craft and brand-building.
• Experience leading and developing teams.
• Commercially minded with pace and decision-making.
• Excellent stakeholder influencing skills.
• Hands-on capable of executing when needed.

Responsibilities

• Own the creative direction and standard across PROPER and Eat Real.
• Lead the in-house Creative Studio and manage delivery.
• Turn briefs into strong creative solutions and direct the team.
• Champion design and brand excellence across packaging, campaigns and digital.
• Partner with the CMO and Marketing Leadership Team to shape the agenda.
• Keep the brands culturally relevant and commercially effective.
• Direct external partners when needed while maintaining standards.
• Improve ways of working and explore emergent technologies.

Skills

Senior leadership

Brand building

Art direction

Stakeholder management

Hands-on leadership

Job description

Creative Director (Maternity Cover)

We’re looking for an interim Creative Director to lead our in-house Creative Studio during a period of parental leave. Working closely with the CMO and Marketing Leadership Team, and as part of the cross-functional leadership team, you’ll own the creative agenda across both of our brands, PROPER and Eat Real. You’ll set the creative bar, lead our team and ensure brilliant thinking translates into executional excellence.

The Person:

The right person will be a highly creative, passionate and hands-on leader with a strong design sensibility. You’ll thrive in a fast-paced environment and be as comfortable directing creative work as you are rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in, whether that’s coming up with ideas, building pitch decks, copywriting or designing.

You’ll be comfortable balancing creative ambition with commercial reality. You’ll have a strong point of view and the confidence to champion it but be collaborative and ego-light enough to know that the best idea doesn’t always have to be yours.

You’ll be tapped into culture and passionate about all things design. With a particular leaning towards food, fashion and lifestyle, you’ll understand how to bring the outside in and bring the nuances of our challenger brands to life.

The Role:

This is a Creative Director role with a strong design and brand-building bias. You’ll be responsible for shaping the creative direction and quality of our work across a broad range of brand touchpoints, with a particular focus on how PROPER and Eat Real look, feel and show up in the world.

Reporting to the CMO, you’ll lead our eight-person in-house Creative Studio, working across creative operations, design, content, community, artwork and project delivery.

Most of our creative output is produced in-house, from packaging and brand campaigns to content, retail, social and digital. You’ll help the team deliver brilliant work at pace, while knowing when to bring in the right external partners to add fresh thinking, specialist expertise or extra capacity.

Creativity has always been a huge part of how we build our brands. This role is about protecting that creative edge, raising the standard of our work and making sure our brands stay distinctive, relevant and commercially effective.

Responsibilities:

• Own the creative direction and standard across PROPER and Eat Real. Set the bar for what great looks like and ensure our brands feel distinctive, relevant and consistently well executed across all touchpoints.
• Lead a highly creative, happy and energised team. Set clear direction, give brilliant feedback, develop talent and create an environment where people can do their best work.
• Be the creative lead from brief through to execution. Turn business and marketing objectives into strong creative solutions, directing the team through the work and getting handson where it adds value — whether that’s shaping a concept, art directing a shoot, refining a design or solving a creative problem.
• Champion design and brand excellence across every touchpoint. From packaging and retail through to campaigns, content, social and digital, ensure our work is beautifully crafted, commercially effective and true to each brand.
• Partner closely with the CMO and Marketing Leadership Team. Bring a strong creative point of view, challenge briefs when needed and help shape the wider marketing agenda not simply respond to it.
• Be on the pulse of culture. Bring the outside in to keep our brands fresh and push the team to think bigger.
• Commission, direct and manage creative partners. Know when the inhouse team is best placed to deliver and when to bring in specialist freelancers, photographers, directors or agencies. Brief and direct them brilliantly while maintaining our creative standards.

• Champion smarter ways of working. Partner with the Creative Ops Lead to improve efficiencies and unlock capacity within the studio, continually evolving how we work, think and create by embracing emerging technologies such as AI.
• Be an advocate for creativity across the business. Communicate and sell creative thinking clearly and confidently, from presenting work to the CMO and leadership team to helping noncreative stakeholders understand what makes great creative great.

Requirements:

• Senior creative leadership experience, ideally within an in-house brand, studio or fast-paced consumer environment.
• A strong design background, exceptional visual eye and portfolio showing craft, art direction and brand-building across multiple touchpoints.
• Experience leading and developing creative teams, with the ability to set direction, raise standards and give constructive feedback.
• Commercially minded, with a clear understanding of how great creative drives brand growth and business performance.
• Confident working at pace, balancing multiple priorities and making clear creative decisions under pressure.
• Strong stakeholder and influencing skills, with the confidence to present creative thinking clearly and challenge constructively.
• Hands‑on and adaptable, able to move between big‑picture creative direction and the detail of the work when needed.
• A genuine passion for creativity, culture and design, with the curiosity to keep pushing the work forward.

About PS:

PROPER SNACKS is the home of PROPER and Eat Real, the UK’s fastest-growing major snacks company.

Whether you’re joining us in London — where the brands are built and big ideas take flight — or in Nuneaton, where magic happens in our factory and every bag gets made, you’ll be part of a team shaking up the snacking world. Get a flavour of what life is like at PROPER SNACKS here.

LDN – Drummond Street – London – NW1 3HP
NUN – Townsend Dr – Nuneaton – CV11 6TJ

Our Approach:

PROPER SNACKS is an equal opportunities employer and we do not discriminate on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability, or age.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to accommodate you to participate fully in the recruitment or interview process.