layiq

/la·yiq/adjective

worthy; deserving; fitting; suitable.

A role, opportunity, or path that merits attention, time, and pursuit.

LAYIQ - Senior Director, Creative Strategy at Darkroom, New York, NY

Brand & Creative Positioning: Own creative positioning for the brand and its new product launch. Turn brand strategy, audience insight, and competitive context into a clear point of view on what a brand says and how it looks and sounds.
Copy & Messaging: Lead copy and messaging end to end, from messaging frameworks, taglines, and campaign lines to ad copy, email, and SMS. Flex tone by channel and funnel stage, and be the person who delivers when a client asks you to "punch up the copy."
Full-Funnel Creative Strategy: Lead creative strategy across paid (Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon), organic social (Instagram, TikTok), and retention (email, SMS, lifecycle), so every channel ladders up to one brand story.
Campaigns: Concept and lead the launch campaign and the large, integrated campaigns that follow, from the big idea through briefs, production, launch, and measuring what they actually did.
Testing & Learning: Own the testing roadmap: what gets tested, in what order, against what hypothesis, and what a real win looks like before spend goes live. Balance brand-building work with performance.
Hands-On Creative Direction: Work directly with Designers and Editors, briefing statics, motion, short-form video, UGC, and storyboards. Give sharp, tactical feedback on design, pacing, and edit structure, and jump into Figma or an edit yourself when it's faster. This isn't the role for strategy-only folks.
Data Analysis: Read performance data across paid, social, and retention, from ad metrics to open rate, click rate, and repeat purchase, and turn it into the next concept.
Executive Presentation & Client Leadership: Present creative strategy and campaigns to the client's leadership with clarity, confidence, and strategic rationale. Own the creative relationship on the account and navigate pushback with ease.
Cross-Team Partnership: Work daily with Paid Media, Analytics, and the client's own program leads so creative and media run as one program.
Team Leadership: Lead the creative team on the account, raise the bar on craft, and build the processes, frameworks, and AI-enabled workflows that keep quality high as volume grows.
You should apply if this sounds like you
6+ years in creative strategy, brand marketing, or creative leadership, including 3+ years at Director level or above.
Brand marketing experience. You've shaped positioning, messaging, and brand voice for consumer brands, in-house or agency side.
Creative experience across paid, social, and retention. You've led work on Meta and TikTok ads, organic social, and email/SMS, and you understand how each channel works and where they connect.
You've directed large-scale, integrated campaigns, including OOH, from the big idea through launch and results.
You're a strong writer and lead copy and messaging yourself.
A portfolio of proven brand-scale and go-to-market case studies, showing brand, performance, and campaign work across statics, short-form video, motion, OOH, and lifecycle, with context on the results it drove.
You've owned production end to end, from brief and pre-production through shoot, post, and delivery, on time and on budget.
You speak in hooks, angles, and metrics. You know thumb-stop rate, 3-second hold, hook retention, CTR, and CPA, and you use them to decide what to test next.
You're comfortable working directly with designers and editors. You can storyboard, give frame-by-frame feedback, and jump into Figma or Adobe Creative Suite to polish assets.
You already use tools like Claude, Midjourney, Perplexity, Runway, or similar to increase speed and volume. You have shipped work with AI-assisted elements, not just experiments.
Soft skills
Team management: You've managed and grown creative teams. You lead with clarity, direct feedback, and a high bar, and people want to work for you.
Stakeholder management: You have enterprise client experience and keep everyone, from the client's C-suite to their program leads, aligned without slowing the work down.
Communication: You're an excellent communicator, both in writing and when presenting to senior clients.
Ownership: You take a program from brief to delivery and are accountable for the outcome, not just the idea.
High EQ, low ego: You give and take direct feedback, stay calm under pressure, and know where every person on your team truly sits.
Hard disqualifiers
No brand marketing or positioning experience. Performance-only with no brand point of view is not a fit.
No paid social creative experience on Meta or TikTok.
Can't lead copy and messaging.
No portfolio link or no results context.
Strategy-only, with no hands-on work alongside designers and editors.
Not excellent in client presentation and salesmanship.

Senior Director, Creative Strategy

Employer job description

About Darkroom

Our track record speaks for itself:

What began as a boutique design studio has evolved into one of the

About the Role

What you'll do

Responsibilities:

What It's Like to Work at Darkroom

Unlimited PTO + US holidays:

Remote-First Culture:

Health & Wellness:

Finances, growth, and retirement:

Parental Leave:

Growth:

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