Creative Director

About the company

Ancient + Brave is a women-founded wellness brand focused on collagen, supplements, and functional blends. Its approach combines traditional wisdom with evidence-based thinking to support everyday rituals that promote whole-body wellbeing.

The business has been included in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies for three years in a row, most recently ranking 7th, and placed 4th in the Oresa Retail Growth Index in 2025. It is a certified B Corp, a member of 1% for the Planet, and through the Made By Brave Foundation it contributes 1%+ of total revenue to environmental and social initiatives.

Ancient + Brave promotes an inclusive workplace built on bravery, connection, intention, and integrity. The company operates from its riverside headquarters in Lewes, East Sussex, overlooking the River Ouse.

Role overview

The company is seeking an accomplished Creative Director to work alongside the founder and Chief Brand and Creative Officer in shaping the next stage of the brand. This position requires both imaginative leadership and strong operational discipline, with the ability to define direction, improve ways of working, manage teams, and maintain an exceptional level of craft.

You will report to the Interim Chief Brand and Creative Officer and collaborate closely with the founder while leading the Creative team across design, art direction, copy, social, content, and performance.

What you will do

• Define and protect the creative direction across all brand activity and all markets, with most work delivered in-house and support from external partners when needed.
• Develop, lead, and grow a high-performing Creative team capable of delivering excellent work across many customer touchpoints.
• Work with leaders across the business to ensure creative output supports long-term brand strength as well as short-term commercial goals.
• Partner with marketing teams in the UK, US, Germany, and Spain to create standout campaign ideas, go-to-market plans, and market-specific creative.
• Work with the Chief Brand and Creative Officer and the founder to refine the brand position and turn it into distinctive, effective creative execution.
• Collaborate early with Nutrition, Science, and Innovation teams so their expertise shapes the brand narrative and all creative output remains compliant.
• Lead strategic brainstorming for bold, attention-grabbing campaign ideas and bring ambitious thinking to the table.
• Own the brand guidelines, strengthen the creative asset system, and use that clarity to lift overall creative quality.
• Oversee production, including sign-off on shoots and creative output, while managing the day-to-day logistics handled by the Creative Ops and Production team.
• Guide the content and social team in building always-on content that grows organic engagement and keeps the brand culturally relevant.
• Supervise a fast-moving performance creative function to maintain a steady flow of high-quality assets and work closely with media teams to optimise quickly.
• Coach and develop team members to build a creative culture that is excellent, brave, and enjoyable to work in.
• Stay closely connected to cultural shifts, brand trends, and platform changes to inform fresh and ambitious creative decisions.

What the company is looking for

The ideal candidate will bring a strong visual portfolio, proven leadership experience, and the ability to connect creative thinking with business outcomes.

• A standout portfolio showing strong visual judgment, award-winning brand work, conceptual thinking, storytelling, and attention to craft.
• More than 10 years of experience in creative roles across both agency and in-house environments, with DTC scale-up experience preferred.
• Experience working across a wide range of touchpoints, with organic social, newsletters, and website content being an advantage.
• At least 5 years of experience building and leading creative teams, ideally in fast-paced environments where both performance and team morale matter.
• A history of collaborating successfully with internal stakeholders, external partners, and production teams to deliver work that drives results.
• The ability to turn understanding of a category into a clear point of view and then into work that can define the category itself.
• Senior in-house experience and a clear understanding of how in-house creative delivery differs from agency work.
• The ability to deliver highly ambitious creative with limited budgets and help teams exceed expectations.
• A broad view of creativity that spans content, partnerships, talent, social, and cultural presence, not only traditional campaigns.
• Strong cross-functional instincts, with the ability to raise the quality of thinking across marketing, ecommerce, product, and other teams.
• An understanding of how creative work affects commercial results, and the ability to use data and insight to improve performance.
• A strategic approach to the brand’s long-term creative direction while staying close to current market activity.
• Confident communication skills and the ability to present a creative perspective clearly to a founder, board, or junior team member.

Culture and values

To succeed here, you should align with the company’s values and working style:

• Bravery: courageous, bold, and experimental.
• Integrity: honest, accountable, and ethical.
• Connection: collaborative, inclusive, and open.
• Intention: purposeful, proactive, and focused.

Working style

This is a fast-moving scale-up environment, and the company believes in working together in person to collaborate effectively and keep momentum high. The riverside office has been designed to be a welcoming and enjoyable place to work, and this role requires full-time commuting to the Lewes, East Sussex HQ.

The company is open to discussing part-time arrangements where suitable, although most roles are offered on a full-time basis. Reasonable adjustments can be provided during the application or interview process if needed. Recruitment agencies are not being used for this vacancy.

Why join Ancient + Brave

• Annual salary review and a discretionary bonus linked to company performance and individual contribution.
• Private Medical Insurance for faster access to high-quality healthcare.
• Medicash benefits, including specialist consultations, 24/7 virtual GP access, health screenings, dental and optical support, complementary therapies, and EAP support.
• 25 days of holiday plus bank holidays, along with one additional wellbeing day.
• ESG-focused pension contributions.
• Access to the Mintago financial wellbeing platform, retail discounts, and salary sacrifice options including childcare, cycle to work, gym membership, groceries, electric vehicle, and mobile/tech purchases.
• Ongoing training and professional development, plus complimentary nutrition and meditation sessions at the office.
• Access to stocked kitchen supplies, unlimited Ancient + Brave products, and 50% off product purchases.
• Two social events each year to help the team connect.
• A provided laptop and headphones, plus office facilities including monitors, ergonomic chairs, and sit-stand desks.