Creative Strategy Director, AI-Driven Ad Studio

Lanterngrowth; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Lantern, a full-stack growth agency, seeks a Director of Creative Strategy in NYC to lead the Ad Creative Studio. You will own strategy, people, and process, guiding designers and strategists across multiple health brands. The role includes hiring, creator sourcing, occasional NYC shoots, and driving AI-driven creative innovation.

You will partner with CRO, paid media, and CRO to align with full-funnel strategies, reporting to Senior Partner & COO. Hybrid work with 2–3 days in the NYC office.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in creative strategy for performance or paid social.
• 3+ years directly managing designers/strategists.
• Proven track record leading performance-driven creative on Meta, TikTok, and other paid social platforms.
• Experience sourcing, hiring, and managing UGC creators or influencer talent is a strong plus.
• Hands-on knowledge of AI design tools, with a track record of using them to increase creative velocity and quality.
• Strong analytical mindset, comfortable using performance data to inform creative strategy and decisions.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting creative strategy and performance insights to clients and senior stakeholders.
• Experience in DTC health, wellness, or consumer brands, or agency experience across multiple clients, is a strong plus.
• NYC or greater NYC located, with willingness to come into our NYC office 2-3 times per week.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership: Build, manage, and inspire a team of ad designers and creative strategists who service multiple health and wellness clients, fostering a high-performance, high-output creative culture.
• Hiring & People Management: Own the full hiring and management process for the creative team — recruiting, onboarding, performance management, and career development for designers and strategists as the team grows.
• Creator Sourcing & Management: Build and manage the sourcing and hiring process for UGC creators, ensuring a strong bench of creators who consistently deliver high-performing content for clients.
• Build out a small production studio: Occasionally coordinate live video shoots in and around our NYC based office, to collect high quality raw video assets for use in paid social or CTV campaigns.
• Operating Model: Design and run the processes and workflows that let the team consistently produce a high volume of high-performing, on-brief, on-brand ad creative across clients without sacrificing quality.
• Creative Strategy: Set the paid social creative strategy for each client in partnership with strategists and media teams, and guide the team on when to iterate on a winning concept versus test something new to hit performance goals.
• Creative Briefing & Execution: Oversee the briefing process and the execution of paid social ad creative – UGC, static, animation, and video – so that assets dramatize each brand's point of difference and drive conversion.
• AI Innovation: Uplevel Lantern's approach to AI in ad design, evaluating new tools and workflows and rolling out best practices so the agency stays at the cutting edge of AI-powered creative for clients.
• Performance Measurement: Own the creative measurement framework, KPIs, and reporting process the team uses to track and communicate the impact of creative on client performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Lantern's CRO, paid media, and other channel teams to keep ad creative aligned with broader account strategy and coordinated creative plans.
• Client & Stakeholder Management: Serve as a senior creative point of contact for high value clients, presenting creative strategy, performance insights, and recommendations with confidence.

Skills

Creative leadership

People management

Creative strategy

AI design tools

Performance analytics

Project management

Client communication

Cross-functional collaboration

DTC health brands

Hypothesis thinking

Tools

AI design software

Job description

Lantern, a full-stack growth agency, seeks a Director of Creative Strategy in NYC to lead the Ad Creative Studio. You will own strategy, people, and process, guiding designers and strategists across multiple health brands. The role includes hiring, creator sourcing, occasional NYC shoots, and driving AI-driven creative innovation.

You will partner with CRO, paid media, and CRO to align with full-funnel strategies, reporting to Senior Partner & COO. Hybrid work with 2–3 days in the NYC office.