Director Creative Strategy

As Director Creative Strategy of Vital Protein’s creative studio, Kolla, you’ll play a critical role in shaping the work and the people. You’ll be an account, strategic, and operational guide leading world-class creative that grows Vital Proteins (and, potentially, other Nestle brands) in a competitive and growing market. You’ll leverage campaign data as well as your knowledge of media, brand and cultural insights to fuel innovative ideas that support brand and business growth. As an empathetic leader, you’ll put people first, motivate and inspire your team to do their best work and advocate for their professional growth and personal wellbeing. You’ll create an environment that promotes healthy communication, team bonding and support. You’ll build and cultivate inclusive and collaborative partnerships across the internal organization and with external partners to incorporate cross-functional inputs and perspectives. You’ll constantly assess the systems and operations and identify areas of improvement that will reduce friction in the process.

Responsibilities

- Partner with the consumer engagement team to translate marketing strategies into creative briefs and execution.

- Lead the Project Management function to guide team/resource allocation and tracking.

- Scope potential workstreams and assess creative opportunities to partner with other Nestle brands.

- Leverage performance data from previous campaigns to inform strategic and creative optimizations for ongoing and future campaign efforts.

- Play a strategic role throughout the lifecycle of a campaign from pre-planning to execution, partnering closely with creatives, ensuring the work is aligned with business objectives and meets brand standards.

- Assess operations, identify opportunities for improvements and optimizations, and plans for implementation.

- Build positive and collaborative relationships with key stakeholders including internal teams and external partners (e.g., media)

- Gain and maintain a deep understanding of the Vital Proteins business, mission and vision as well as consumer insights and motivations.

- Navigate input and feedback during strategy and creative concept phases ensuring clarity and alignment throughout the process.

- Stay abreast of trends and news in both the wellness and advertising/media categories.

- Set a positive tone and contribute to a culture that supports, motivates and inspires team members.

- Hold the team accountable for hitting project milestones within budget.

Experience + Skills

- Possess and deep knowledge of the end-to-end campaign process including planning, concepting, tactical execution/production, and reporting.

- Experience leading multi-channel campaigns that include paid, earned and owned media.

- Passionate about building strong brands and making effective and engaging creative work.

- A strategic thinker who is endlessly curious about people, business strategy and marketing trends.

- A natural collaborator who knows when and who to involve at every stage of the process.

- You have a point of view and can make effective and timely decisions while ensuring consensus is met across key team members/groups.

- You’ve managed large budgets (fee and out of pocket) and have a thorough understanding of the financial process.

- Strong written and verbal communicator who can distill and convey complex ideas clearly and concisely.

- A solution-oriented problem solver who applies creative thinking to everything from the work to systems and process.

- You know great work when you see it, can articulate why it’s good and know how to gracefully defend ideas that will eventually be great work.

- Experience managing and mentoring teams including direct reports and broader team members.

- You’re a helper who knows that roles and responsibility lists are useful tools, but they don’t stop you from stretching beyond your role to help support your teammates and the project at hand.

- An entrepreneurial spirit who is comfortable and experienced navigating ambiguity and creating structure and process where needed and helpful.

- Ability to define priorities and provide clarity to help the team focus on the right things and the right time.