Creative Services Lead

Stroke Association

Hours
35 hours per week

Length of contract
12 months

About the Organisation

Stroke Association is the UK’s leading charity providing lifelong support for all stroke survivors and their families. We provide tailored support to tens of thousands of stroke survivors each year. This support includes one-to-one and group support, funding vital scientific research into stroke prevention, acute treatment, recovery, and long-term care, and campaigning to secure the best care for everyone affected by stroke. 

We’re here for stroke survivors and their loved ones, from the moment they enter the new and frightening post-stroke world, supporting them every step of the way as they find their strength and their way back to life. It’s only thanks to the generosity of our supporters and donors that we can provide vital support.

Stroke Association is driven by our ambition to improve the lives of everyone affected by stroke. This means we’re determined to create an equitable and inclusive workplace that benefits from the differences and thrives on the diversity of our people. Guided by our approach to solving inequity in stroke, we are prioritising listening to and learning from lived experience across our charity.

About the role

We're looking for an exceptional Creative Services Lead to shape and drive our in-house creative function during an exciting period of growth for the organisation. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced creative leader who combines strategic thinking with hands-on creative excellence. You'll lead a multidisciplinary team of designers, content specialists and multimedia producers, ensuring our brand is consistently brought to life through compelling, audience-focused communications that inspire engagement, support fundraising and advance our organisational goals.

Working closely with the Head of Brand and Content, you'll champion a digital-first approach to creativity, safeguard and evolve our visual identity, and create the conditions for outstanding creative work across every channel and touchpoint. The role combines creative leadership with operational excellence.

This role will be responsible for developing and protecting the brand, interpreting brand and product strategies into distinctive visual identities and communications, driving high-quality creative, especially across the digital environment, and ensuring the efficient management of resources, budgets, workflows, systems, suppliers, and production processes.

Leading a multidisciplinary team of designers, film and photography producers, writers, and operational staff, this role will foster a high-performing, collaborative culture that delivers exceptional creative work while balancing organisational priorities and stakeholder needs. The impact of this role is a stronger, more recognisable brand, with communications and content that inspire engagement, support fundraising, and advance organisational objectives.

Why join us

You'll have the opportunity to lead a talented creative team, develop digital creative capability, influence how our brand shows up across every audience touchpoint and play a vital role in helping us achieve our mission to support stroke survivors. In return, you'll find a collaborative environment, meaningful work and the chance to make a lasting impact through creativity.

Responsibilities

Creative Leadership and Direction:

• Provide strategic leadership for the Creative Services function, establishing a clear creative vision aligned with organisational and brand objectives.
• Support the Head of Brand and Content in managing the brand strategy, including stewarding and evolving the charity’s visual identity and brand guidelines to ensure relevance, impact and consistency.
• Lead the development of innovative and effective creative concepts for brand and product visual identities and propositions.
• Act as lead art director across major projects (for example, campaign asset implementation, fundraising activations, service communications, digital experiences, and publications), providing creative guidance and direction to the team, internal client teams, and external agencies and freelancers.
• Ensure all creative output is audience-led, insight-driven, accessible, inclusive and aligned with best practice in communication and design.
• Promote creativity, innovation and continuous improvement across the team.
• Drive excellence in storytelling, content creation and creative execution across all channels and formats.
• Champion and promote the role of the team and their work across the charity.
• Maintain industry knowledge, in and outside of the sector, including doing market analysis where needed.

Lead a Digital-First Approach:

• Ensure creative solutions have digital application and accessibility at their core.
• Work closely with the digital marketing, digital development, website, email, and social media teams in the design of their applications (digital ads across social and HTML5 display, website, YouTube, email, social posts, apps) and the development of digital guidelines.
• Build and enhance the digital capabilities of the Creative Services Team, including looking at how AI may assist.

Content and Communications Excellence:

• Provide expert guidance on what constitutes effective content and communications.
• Ensure creative output supports distinct objectives across:
  • Brand communications.
  • Beneficiary and service-user communications.
  • Fundraising communications.
  • Advocacy and policy communications.
  • Research communications.
  • Internal and corporate communications.
• Champion audience-centred communications that meet varying emotional, informational and behavioural needs.
• Collaborate with communications, marketing, fundraising, policy and influencing, research, and service teams to ensure creative solutions deliver desired outcomes.

Team Leadership and Development:

• Lead and inspire a multidisciplinary team.
• Create an inclusive, supportive and high-performing team culture.
• Provide coaching, mentoring and professional development opportunities.
• Set clear objectives, manage performance and support career progression.
• Enhance capabilities across design, digital, content creation, and production disciplines, ensuring the team is up to date with industry knowledge, standards, and trends.

Stakeholder Management:

• Build strong relationships with cross-functional teams and colleagues (internal clients, product owners, channel owners) of all levels of seniority.
• Act as a trusted adviser on creative, brand, and communications matters.
• Translate complex stakeholder needs into clear creative briefs and deliverables.
• Influence decision-making through expert creative and strategic counsel.

Creative Operations, Processes and Systems:

• Oversee the day-to-day operation of the Creative Services function, including:
  • Effective resource planning and project trafficking processes to ensure workloads are balanced and priorities are managed effectively.
  • Optimise briefing and production workflows to maximise quality, speed and efficiency.
  • Monitor service standards and performance metrics.
  • Ensure creative projects are delivered on time, within budget and to agreed quality standards.
  • Manage and optimise the digital asset management system.
  • Ensure appropriate governance, storage, accessibility and licensing of creative assets.
  • Ensure compliance of consent processes for the protection of contributors/storytellers in content.

Agency and Supplier Management:

• Manage and optimise the external creative roster, covering agencies, freelancers and system suppliers, including negotiating contracts where needed.
• Build strong partnerships that deliver value, creativity and quality.
• Provide strategic creative oversight and quality control for externally produced work.

Financial and Budget Management:

• Manage the content budget, including forecasting, monitoring spend and ensuring efficient use of organisational resources.
• Identify opportunities for efficiencies and cost savings without compromising quality.
• Support business case development and investment planning for creative initiatives, technology and resources.

Skills, Competencies, Experience & Attributes

Requirements:

• Significant experience leading creative, brand or studio teams and multidisciplinary creative professionals.
• Proven creative leadership and art direction in brand/visual identity systems, storytelling, content and communications, across online and offline channels.
• Experience managing budgets, creative operations, resource planning, workflow, trafficking and digital asset management and associated governance requirements such as copyright, licensing, consent and the responsible use of creative assets.
• Experience managing creative rosters, external agencies, freelancers and suppliers.
• Excellent people leadership, coaching and team development capabilities.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to collaborate with and motivate a wide range of stakeholders at all levels of seniority.
• Ability to translate strategic and client objectives into compelling, audience-focused creative briefs and solutions.
• Evidence of applying curiosity, innovation and forward thinking to anticipate trends and develop effective creative solutions.
• Knowledge of accessibility across online and offline channels, inclusion, and user-centred design.
• Awareness of emerging creative technologies, including AI, and the ability to assess and apply them responsibly to improve creative quality and efficiency.
• Knowledge and experience of using relevant programmes.
• Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) and Figma.
• Ability to balance competing priorities in a complex organisation, from major initiatives to business-as-usual briefs.
• Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, with the ability to apply these principles in day-to-day work.
• To have an understanding of stroke.

Required Qualifications

• Relevant qualification (undergraduate degree minimum) in a related creative discipline, graphic design, media, art, digital.

Compensation & Benefits

• Home working allowance
• Pension
• Critical illness cover
• Life Assurance
• Flexible working

Conditions of employment

• You must be a UK resident and have the right to work in the UK.

Working locations

• Home-based
• Occasional travel will be required as part of this role (may include team meetings or other work-related meetings)

How to apply

• Please view the role profile.
• Please click to apply. Please submit your CV (including details of your current address), and a supporting statement of no more than one page, demonstrating how you meet the person specification and what you bring to the role in terms of your skills and experience. Please include a link to your portfolio of relevant creative work either in your supporting statement or on your CV. Please state any preferences for flexible working options in your supporting statement.
• We're interested in your experience, the judgement you've exercised and what you've learned, rather than perfect success stories. If you decide to use AI to prepare your application, we’ll also ask you to explain how you’ve used it to support you.
• If you are applying under the Disability Confident scheme, please indicate this in your supporting statement when applying for the role
• If you have  any questions, please drop us an email at [email protected]
• Please note all roles close at midnight
• Please let us know if this will present any challenges when you email your application.
• The application closing date is midnight, Sunday 22nd November 2026.

Interviews

• The interview date is w/c 7th December 2026
• Interviews will be held via video conferencing or in person.

Policies

We are working to improve the representation of this lived experience at all levels within the Stroke Association, and we are eager to recruit applicants from a variety of communities and backgrounds. We are keen to receive applications from people affected by stroke, people of colour, members of LGBT+ communities, and disabled people because these identities and experiences are underrepresented and would add enormous value to how we work.

We are a Disability Confident employer, and we are making great progress focusing on flexible working, reasonable adjustments and access to work. Our charity has a variety of staff network groups, and we're committed to continuously improving our diversity and inclusion efforts. If you have questions or access needs, we’re happy to discuss any support and adjustments we can make throughout the recruitment process so that you’re able to contribute your best in a way that meets your needs.

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