Director of Creative Strategy

Title: Director of Creative Strategy Location: San Francisco

About the Role

Kikoff is looking for a Director of Creative Strategy to lead the strategic direction of our performance creative and develop the team behind it. Reporting to the Senior Director of Brand & Creative, you’ll connect consumer needs, business priorities, and performance insights to a clear creative strategy that drives acquisition and conversion.

With a primary focus on paid social, you’ll establish a structured learning agenda, broaden the messages and formats we explore, and ensure individual tests contribute to a deeper understanding of what motivates our customers. You’ll also guide strategy across TV and creator content, partnering closely with Growth, our Creative Director, and production leads.

You’ll manage and coach our creative strategy and copy team, setting direction and strengthening their thinking while they lead individual concept development, and writing. You’re a structured thinker, thoughtful creative partner, and strong people leader who can translate the big picture into clear priorities and better creative decisions.

What you’ll do

Creative strategy and messaging

• Own performance creative strategy across our product portfolio, with a primary focus on paid social, translating business priorities and brand positioning into clear audiences, consumer needs, value propositions, and messaging priorities.
• Build a deliberate mix of creative approaches across messages, formats, and channels, balancing iteration on proven work with exploration of new opportunities.
• Ground strategic direction in consumer research, customer feedback, competitive insights, and performance learnings, ensuring creative addresses meaningful motivations and barriers to conversion.
• Establish messaging frameworks and briefing standards that give the team clear direction and room to develop compelling concepts.
• Guide concept selection and provide critical feedback on ideas, scripts, and copy, strengthening the connection between consumer insight, product benefit, and action.
• Partner with the Creative Director to connect strategy with effective execution, and guide TV messaging and strategic priorities through the team members leading concept development and writing.

Learning agenda and continuous improvement

• Set and maintain accountability for the creative learning agenda in partnership with Growth, defining the questions and hypotheses that will most improve our understanding of what drives conversion.
• Guide the team in translating that agenda into testing roadmaps, briefs, and concepts, ensuring individual tests contribute to broader learning.
• Oversee the team’s synthesis of results and preparation of learning reviews and quarterly reporting, challenging conclusions and ensuring recommendations are supported by the evidence.
• Partner with Growth to interpret broader performance patterns and determine their implications for creative priorities, messaging, and investment.
• Improve briefing, concept review, and knowledge-sharing processes so insights accumulate and consistently inform creative development.

Team leadership and creator programs

• Manage and develop the creative strategy and copy team, strengthening strategic thinking, messaging judgment, concept development, and writing through regular coaching and specific feedback.
• Set clear responsibilities and development goals that support growth across both creative strategy and copy leadership.
• Oversee UGC sourcing and creator selection, ensuring the team identifies talent suited to the audience, concept, script, and intended execution.
• Improve the efficiency and quality of creator sourcing, briefing, feedback, and delivery in partnership with the team.
• Align creative priorities with Growth’s acquisition goals and testing capacity, and partner with the Creative Director and Creative Operations to make effective use of internal and external resources.

What we’re looking for

• 8+ years of experience in creative strategy, content strategy, or performance marketing creative for consumer businesses.
• Substantial experience setting strategy across an ongoing acquisition program, with deep paid social expertise.
• Demonstrated ability to establish learning agendas and testing priorities and guide teams in applying results to improve creative.
• Strong grounding in consumer insights, positioning, messaging, and direct-response principles.
• Excellent judgment in evaluating concepts and copy, with the ability to explain why an approach should resonate and how to strengthen it.
• Analytical fluency and experience partnering with Growth or media teams to evaluate findings and make strategic decisions.
• 4+ years of people management experience, with concrete examples of developing junior talent and improving their thinking and work.
• Experience overseeing creator or UGC programs, including sourcing, selection, briefing, and execution.
• Ability to establish clear priorities, delegate effectively, and maintain accountability across multiple workstreams.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to build alignment around creative direction and recommendations.

Nice to have

• Background in fintech, financial services, or another regulated consumer category.
• Experience shaping creative strategy across multiple products or audiences.
• TV advertising experience, including collaboration with copywriters, creative directors, and production teams.
• Familiarity with quantitative research, consumer insights, or message testing.
• Experience improving creator workflows and systems for sharing creative learnings.

Benefits

• 🏥 Medical, dental, vision — Kikoff covers the full cost for employees, 50% for dependents
• 📈 Meaningful equity in the form of RSU's
• 🏝️ 20 days of paid time off per year — we encourage taking real time away to recharge and do your best work
• 💵 401(k) plan with an employer match to help you invest in your future
• 💰 Competitive pay based on experience consisting of base + equity + benefits