Creative Lead (Remote) – Client-facing role

At Ruby Digital, we’re always on the lookout for curious, digitally minded people. If you’re passionate about digital marketing and want a fast-paced, innovative agency career, join us. With our ever-evolving tech and your talent, we’ll deliver work that makes a real impact. Join the brightest, most curious minds across disciplines. Fifteen years in, and the journey’s just begun.

When you apply, please include the words, “I want to work for Ruby Group because …” in your cover letter and explain the exact reasons that you have. ANY APPLICANTS THAT DO NOT INCLUDE THIS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Correspondence will only be conducted with shortlisted candidates.

Should you not hear from us within 2 weeks, please consider your application unsuccessful.

About us

Ruby Digital is a multi-award-winning, 5-star rated digital marketing agency with one of South Africa’s strongest online profiles. We help ambitious brands grow revenue and market share through AI-enabled SEO – human expertise with AI to plan, create and optimise content for both classic search and generative engines (GEO) – alongside paid media and content.

With 15+ years’ experience across 15 countries and four continents, especially the UK, North America, EMEA and Australia, we’ve delivered results in competitive sectors including iGaming, e-commerce, online tourism and education.

As featured on: BusinessDayTV – NEWS24 – SABC – IOL – BIZ COMMUNITY

We focus on long-term value and ROI, supported by continuous R&D to keep clients ahead. Our specialists deliver clear communication, transparent reporting and measurable outcomes online.

Our Values

Solutions are us and,
- We are better together,
- We are lifelong learners,
- We are practical optimists,
- We are high achievers,
- We are revolutionists.

About the role

As Creative Lead – you will be the a leadership appointment for Ruby Digital’s fast scaling Creative Division. You will report to the Head of Social and Creative and will be responsible for translating business and marketing objectives into high-quality creative concepts and multimedia executions, while leading the people, systems and operating capacity required to deliver them.

This is deliberately broader than a Senior Designer or Lead Designer position. The role operates across four dimensions simultaneously: creative leader, senior practitioner, people and operations manager, and AI and innovation leader. You will provide creative direction to senior and junior team members while remaining capable of developing key creative yourself when the work requires senior-level conceptual or executional input. You will own creative quality, resource and capacity planning, delivery coordination, client expectation management, team performance and the continuous development of the Creative function.

The role is intended to develop into Head of Creative once you have demonstrated stability in the organization and proven that you can lead the work, lead the team and build the function. That progression would coincide with the formalization of the Creative Division’s broader mandate for divisional strategy, organizational structure, capability planning, recruitment, innovation, standards, cross-functional integration and long-term growth.

Success in this role therefore means more than producing excellent creative work. It means increasing the creative capability of the organization: improving quality, developing people, creating scalable operating systems, using AI responsibly to expand production capacity and ensuring Creative can support Ruby Digital as the company grows globally.

Ruby Digital is a great place to work, with flexi-hours and the ability to do interesting work with varied clients.

Responsibilities

Creative Strategy & Concept Development

Develop a clear understanding of each client’s business model, brand, audience, market, objectives, campaign goals and constraints before defining the creative response.
Interpret business, brand and marketing objectives into creative strategies, campaign concepts, visual territories, key creative, mood boards, storyboards and channel-specific executions.
Move from business objective to audience insight, proposition, concept, creative idea and channel execution rather than treating the brief as a purely visual design request.
Interrogate, challenge and refine briefs where the proposed execution does not adequately solve the underlying business, brand or audience objective.
Originate integrated creative ideas that can translate coherently across multiple platforms, formats and stages of the customer journey.
Articulate and champion the strategic rationale behind creative decisions internally and to clients, linking creative choices to intended business and marketing outcomes.

Creative Direction & Multidisciplinary Execution

Lead creative direction from concept through final execution, ensuring work is strategically sound, visually distinctive, technically appropriate and consistently high quality.
Personally develop or contribute to key creative and high-priority concepts where senior-level creative craft or judgment is required.
Direct and critically review work across brand identity and visual systems, digital advertising, paid and organic social, display, web and landing-page design, UX/UI fundamentals, presentation design, illustration, typography, print, motion graphics, animation, photography, video concept development, storyboarding, production, editing and post-production.
Demonstrate mastery in several creative disciplines and strong creative literacy across the broader multimedia ecosystem; know what excellent work looks like even when a specialist executes the final craft.
Ensure creative is designed appropriately for the channel and format rather than simply resized or repurposed without consideration of platform behavior and audience context.

AI-Enabled Creative Production & Workflow Design

Use generative AI throughout appropriate stages of the creative process, including ideation, concept exploration, mood boarding, visual reference development, storyboarding, rapid prototyping, image generation, video generation, generative editing and production support.
Use AI intelligently for versioning, resizing, localization, format adaptation and scaled creative production while maintaining professional review and quality control.
Direct AI output through clear creative intent, structured prompting or instruction, critical evaluation and iterative refinement rather than accepting first-pass generated output.
Identify repeatable creative processes that can become AI-assisted workflows and translate successful experimentation into documented operating procedures.
Continuously improve the balance between speed, scalability, originality, craft, brand integrity and human judgment within AI-enabled production.
Maintain practical fluency in current-generation AI creative tools and adapt as the technology landscape evolves rather than being dependent on a single platform.

Creative Quality, Brand & AI Governance

Act as the quality gate for major creative work and define what constitutes client-ready output at Ruby Digital.
Establish and maintain creative standards, review procedures, QA checkpoints and approval stages across the team.
Conduct structured creative reviews and critiques, identify why work is not yet meeting the brief or quality standard, and direct the improvements required.
Protect client brand identity and consistency across campaigns, platforms and deliverables, including the development and use of reusable brand and design systems where appropriate.
Reduce recurring quality failures and unnecessary revision cycles by improving briefing, review, handover and approval processes.
Maintain appropriate human oversight over AI-generated or AI-assisted work and ensure creative use of AI respects applicable brand rules, usage rights, intellectual-property considerations and company governance requirements.
Prevent generic, low-quality or visibly unrefined AI output from lowering Ruby Digital’s creative standard.

People Leadership & Team Management

Lead the day-to-day Creative team, with senior and junior team members reporting into the Creative Lead.
Own line-management and people-management responsibilities for the Creative team, including goal setting, regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, coaching, feedback, development plans, onboarding, probation management and leave/capacity coordination.
Participate in recruitment, interviewing and selection of creative talent and identify when additional permanent, freelance or specialist capacity is required.
Manage performance concerns and corrective processes in partnership with company leadership and/or HR, maintaining clear expectations, documentation and accountability.
Build a high-performance creative culture based on trust, ownership, constructive critique, accountability, curiosity and Ruby Digital’s values.
Identify individual strengths, capability gaps, potential specializations and future leadership talent within the team, supporting succession and progression planning.

Training & Creative Capability Development

Raise the creative capability of the entire team rather than relying on the Creative Lead as the strongest individual contributor.
Coach designers in conceptual thinking, art direction, visual hierarchy, typography, composition, storytelling and channel-appropriate creative execution.
Train team members in responsible and effective AI-assisted creative workflows and help them distinguish useful automation from work that still requires human craft and judgment.
Create structured creative workshops, critiques, reference libraries, playbooks, examples and internal learning sessions that support continuous development.
Translate successful new techniques, tools and workflows into SOPs, training and repeatable team practices.
Support clear development pathways from junior to mid-level to senior creative roles and assess progress against defined capability expectations.

Creative Operations & Capacity Management

Own Creative team capacity planning, resource allocation and workload balancing according to skill, priority, project complexity, urgency and availability.
Maintain forward-looking visibility of utilization, upcoming demand and delivery risk, identifying capacity constraints before they become missed deadlines or quality problems.
Coordinate production schedules, internal deadlines, handovers and dependencies so that creative commitments are planned, diarized and delivered predictably.
Ensure briefs contain sufficient strategic, brand, technical and delivery information before creative production begins.
Forecast hiring, freelance and specialist-resource requirements and escalate capacity or capability shortages with sufficient lead time.
Develop and continuously improve creative workflows, templates, asset libraries, design systems and reusable production components that increase efficiency and consistency.
Build creative operating systems capable of supporting increasing client volume and company expansion without compromising quality or team sustainability.

Client & Cross-Functional Leadership

Participate in client discovery and interpret client objectives, expectations and feedback into clear creative direction for the team.
Present creative concepts, key creative and recommended approaches to local and international clients with confidence and a clear strategic rationale.
Manage subjective or conflicting feedback constructively, challenge inappropriate direction professionally and guide stakeholders toward solutions that protect both the objective and creative quality.
Manage client expectations regarding creative output, feasibility, timing, deadlines, dependencies, revision cycles and scope, escalating material risks early.
Work closely with the Head of Social and Creative, Success, Strategy, Performance, Growth, Web and company leadership to align creative work with wider client and business requirements.
Translate stakeholder feedback into actionable instructions for the Creative team and ensure clear handover between strategy, concept, production, review and delivery.

Commercial & Performance Awareness

Understand that creative operates within a commercial and performance environment and ensure creative decisions support measurable client and company outcomes.
Maintain working knowledge of campaign objectives, audiences, conversion, engagement, click-through rate, CPA/CPL, creative fatigue, hooks, A/B testing, landing-page experience and the distinction between brand and performance creative.
Partner with Performance and Social teams to understand how creative is performing, identify patterns and translate performance data into creative hypotheses and new tests.
Balance ambitious creative thinking with budget, timing, production feasibility, scope and expected return.
Use performance evidence to improve future creative without reducing the function to short-term optimization or aesthetics alone.

Innovation, R&D & Continuous Capability Development

Continuously evaluate emerging creative technologies, techniques, production methods, platforms and AI capabilities and determine where they can strengthen Ruby Digital’s creative offering.
Run practical experiments with new tools and methods, distinguish meaningful capability from novelty, and document what should be adopted, standardized or rejected.
Monitor emerging developments in generative image, video, motion, synthetic production, 3D, interactive content, social formats, creative automation and related design trends.
Convert useful innovation into organizational capability through experimentation, SOP development, training, adoption and measurement.
Contribute to Ruby Digital’s broader culture of R&D, continuous improvement and responsible adoption of emerging technology.

Division Building & Head of Creative Progression

Build the operating foundations required for Creative to mature into a formally structured division, including standards, workflows, capacity models, role clarity, capability planning and performance expectations.
Demonstrate readiness for progression by proving the ability to lead the work, lead the team and build the function – not simply through tenure in the role.
Develop toward broader Head of Creative accountability for divisional strategy, organizational structure, capability and recruitment planning, commercial performance, innovation, creative standards, cross-functional integration and long-term growth.
Help create a Creative function that can scale with Ruby Digital while preserving creative quality, team development, client trust and responsible AI adoption.

Attributes & Requirements

Exceptional conceptual thinking and the ability to originate creative ideas rather than only execute established direction.
Strong art direction and visual judgment, with excellent design fundamentals including typography, layout, composition, hierarchy and brand consistency.
Demonstrated capability across integrated campaigns, brand and identity systems, digital and performance creative, social content and multimedia execution.
Strong practical command of professional creative software and workflows, including Adobe Creative Cloud and relevant collaborative design, motion, video and prototyping tools.
Strong professional fluency in AI-assisted creative workflows for ideation, image and video generation, generative editing, adaptation, versioning and scaled production.
Ability to critically evaluate AI-generated output and combine AI efficiency with human originality, creative judgment, craft and brand integrity.
People leadership and coaching ability, including constructive critique, skills development, performance management and the ability to raise the creative standard of others.
Strong capacity, resource, project and priority-management capability; comfortable coordinating multiple concurrent clients, deadlines and dependencies.
Systems and process orientation, with the ability to design repeatable workflows, quality controls, templates, SOPs and scalable operating practices.
Strong client-facing presence, presentation ability and confidence explaining, defending and adapting creative recommendations with senior stakeholders.
Commercial and performance awareness, with an understanding of how creative contributes to campaign effectiveness, client outcomes and sustainable agency delivery.
Comfort operating as both a strategic leader and a hands-on senior creative when key work requires direct contribution.
High attention to detail and an uncompromising but practical standard for client-ready creative quality.
Strong ownership mentality, integrity, accountability and follow-through.
Adaptable, solutions-driven and comfortable operating independently while working collaboratively across functions.
Curious, experimental and committed to lifelong learning in a rapidly changing creative and AI landscape.
Ability to give and receive direct, constructive feedback without losing sight of the brief, the team or the client relationship.
Ability to build creative capability at an organizational level rather than defining success only through personal output.

Minimum Requirements

5-8+ years of professional creative, design, art direction and/or multimedia experience, with a portfolio demonstrating work at a consistently high professional standard.
Minimum 2-3 years operating at Senior Designer, Art Director, Creative Lead or comparable senior creative level.
Demonstrable experience mentoring, directing or managing other creatives.
Formal people-management experience is strongly preferred given the direct-reporting and team-leadership mandate.
Agency experience strongly preferred, particularly experience working across multiple client brands, concurrent deadlines and integrated digital campaigns.
Demonstrated ownership of creative work from brief and concept through execution, review, client presentation and final delivery.
Significant client-facing experience, including presenting concepts, explaining creative rationale and managing feedback, expectations, timing and scope.
Demonstrable experience incorporating AI meaningfully into professional creative work or production workflows, not merely occasional experimentation with AI tools.
Experience planning creative resources, coordinating production schedules and/or managing team capacity, workflow and delivery.
Strong command of Adobe Creative Cloud and appropriate contemporary design, collaboration, motion, video and AI-enabled creative tools.

Portfolio Requirements

A portfolio is mandatory and will be assessed as a primary part of the application. It should demonstrate the candidate’s thinking and role in the work, not only a gallery of finished visuals.

At least one integrated campaign showing concept development and execution across multiple formats or channels.
Brand and/or visual-identity work demonstrating systems thinking and consistency.
Digital, performance and/or social creative demonstrating channel-aware execution.
Multimedia evidence such as video, motion, animation, production or related content formats.
Examples that show the progression from brief or problem to concept, rationale, development and final execution.
Clear explanation of the candidate’s specific contribution where work was completed as part of a wider team.
At least one example demonstrating AI used meaningfully to improve a professional creative workflow, creative exploration, production quality, speed, scalability or range.
Evidence that the candidate can originate ideas: candidates should be able to identify work where the original concept was substantially their own and explain how it was developed.

Education

Relevant tertiary qualification in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Multimedia Design, Digital Design, Communication Design, Fine Art, Animation, Motion Design, Film/Video, UX/UI or a related creative discipline is preferred.
Equivalent professional experience supported by an exceptional portfolio may be considered in place of a formal tertiary qualification.
Formal AI qualifications are not required; however, evidence of ongoing professional learning and practical competence in AI-enabled creative workflows is required.
Additional certifications or structured training in Adobe tools, UX/UI, motion/video, creative leadership, project/resource management, AI or related disciplines will be advantageous.