Creative Director
Leadership Creative role at co:collective. New York · full-time · $150,000–$180,000 base.
Growth Roles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Help clients define the business problem, not just answer a brief, working next to strategists
- Present to CEOs and CMOs, steering high-stakes conversations and earning lasting client trust
- Write and concept at the top level: manifestos, vision papers, purpose frameworks, scripts, narrative platforms
- Translate strategic insight into work that lands emotionally and intellectually
- Manage and grow writers, art directors and creative thinkers, coaching them toward bigger ideas
What you bring
- Roughly eight to ten years in creative roles, weighted toward brand, purpose or transformation rather than ad production
- A portfolio showing thinking at the business-problem level: brand stories, manifestos, platform ideas, vision frameworks
- Hands-on client-facing experience presenting and building trust with senior leaders
- A history of true partnership with strategists, not just taking handoffs from them
Who this fits
This suits a writer or conceptual creative who wants influence over business strategy, not campaign cycles, and is comfortable leading rooms with C-suite clients. You will both make the work and lead a team. The role is New York hybrid with in-office anchor days Tuesday and Wednesday; those outside NYC come in one week each quarter and travel for client meetings. Pay is stated at 150,000 to 180,000 USD per year.
From the employer
co: is a creative and strategic transformation partner for purpose-led organizations.
We believe today's most successful organizations are driven by an underlying purpose, one that is so central to their identity it influences everything they do, from capital investment to social media.
Ultimately, these brands are defined by what they do, not by what they say. For them, purpose becomes business strategy and storytelling becomes StoryDoing.
At co:collective we design brands, experiences, and content that transform businesses: who they are, how they act, and how they show up in the world, so that more businesses can be driven by their purpose from the inside out.
The role
This isn't a traditional Creative Director role. There are no campaign briefs. No handing off to a media buyer.
What there is: a direct line between the creative work you lead and the future of a business. You'll sit across the table from CEOs and CMOs who are trying to figure out what their company stands for and where it's going, and you'll use creativity to help them get there.
At co:, creative direction means holding the standard for how an idea feels, how a strategy is expressed, and whether the work we make is genuinely moving people.
Who you are
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You crave impact: You came up as a writer or conceptual creative. But somewhere along the way, you realized you were less interested in making ads and more interested in making change. You want your work to matter at the level of business strategy, not just brand expression.
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You craft worlds: You view creativity as a tool for delivering large, systemic ideas. You are ready to step out of the execution lane and into the conceptual driver's seat, generating big, actionable solutions that transform a business.
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You think differently: You don't just think big, you think interestingly. You are driven to find unique, unexpected, and culturally relevant solutions that unlock new growth and impact for our purpose-led clients.
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You want impact: You are eager to apply your creativity to changing the world through business and brand transformation, rather than traditional campaign cycles.
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You’re strategy fluent: You are comfortable, articulate, and impactful in strategic conversations, capable of challenging assumptions and bringing a creative perspective that informs and elevates the overall business approach.
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You’re in it: You are an interesting person with broad cultural fluency, constantly absorbing trends and identifying the white space where culture, humanity, and brand purpose intersect.
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You're a doer and a leader. You can draft a compelling story that brings strategy to life and inspire teams to take their work to the next level. You’re comfortable overseeing work that’s both verbal and visual.
What you’ll do
You will be a creative engine focused on shaping brands from the inside out. From crafting a brand’s story to finding the right ways to bring it to life, your work will touch every part of the process.
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Solve business problems with creative thinking. You're not here to execute a brief, you're here to help define it. You'll work alongside strategists and clients to figure out what a business actually needs, then lead the creative thinking that gets them there.
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Be in the room. You'll present ideas to C-suite leaders, shape high-stakes conversations, and build the kind of client trust that turns a single engagement into a long-term relationship. Your creative perspective will influence decisions that go well beyond a brand's visual identity or tagline.
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Write and concept at the highest level. Manifestos, vision papers, purpose frameworks, scripts, narrative platforms — you'll produce the work that sets the creative standard, and you'll know the difference between copy that sounds good and copy that actually does something.
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Make strategy feel like something. You'll partner with our strategists to ensure insights aren't just smart — they're expressed in a way that creates a genuine emotional and intellectual response. The brief doesn't end at the strategy deck. It ends when someone feels it.
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Lead and develop creative talent. You'll manage and form a team of writers, art directors, and creative thinkers, coaching them to think bigger. You model the standard as much as you set it.
What you’ve done
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8–10 years in creative roles, with meaningful time in brand, purpose, or transformation work — not primarily in advertising campaign production
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A portfolio that proves you think at the level of business problems, not just executions — brand stories, manifestos, platform ideas, vision frameworks
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Direct client-facing experience: presenting, shaping conversations, building trust at the leadership level
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A track record of genuine collaboration with strategists, not just receiving briefs from them
Caring for our community
The co: community is deeply committed to continuing to build a diverse and inclusive workplace for all to thrive. We value and honor those with different backgrounds, unique perspectives, and believe that inclusive organizations build better teams and produce better work. We are a people-centered business that seeks to create safe spaces, lead by example, and make a positive impact on the world.
co: is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer and we value a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, socioeconomic status, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Our working model
We support different modes of working – be it hybrid, remote first or otherwise, and we are constantly experimenting with new approaches to ensure that the model we are working within is fulfilling to our teams and clients.
For those based in New York, we have two anchor days per week. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we ask that everyone comes to the office. For those that do not live in NYC, we ask that they come to New York for one week per quarter and travel for client meetings.
Salary range: $150,000-$180,000