Creative Director, Head of Creative Powerhouse

• Own the creative vision, quality standards, and output across all ACD workstreams
• Translate Mastercard’s business strategy into clear creative direction, structures, and operating principles
• Act as the final decision-maker on creative feasibility, prioritization, and standards
• Champion innovation and push creative boundaries while ensuring alignment with brand, strategy, and client goals
• Represent the Creative Desk at senior stakeholder forums, ensuring strong creative positioning and credibility
• Managing a team of Creative Leads located in Creative hubs (Lisbon and Warsaw)
• Oversee development of creative strategy and ensure strong conceptual grounding across all client deliverables
• Review, challenge, and elevate creative work at key milestones without micromanaging
• coach teams to reach excellence
• Ensure all creative meets strategic intent, brand guidelines, industry best practices, and innovation benchmarks
• Guarantee smooth handovers between concepting, art direction, copy, production, and post‑production teams
• Lead through a team of Creative Leads (4 direct reports), Senior Art Directors, Copy Leads, and Heads of Craft (approx. 30-40 ppl total)
• Define roles, responsibilities, performance expectations, and growth paths across creative disciplines
• Conduct senior‑level performance management
• ensure high morale, clear direction, and a culture of accountability
• Hire, develop, and retain top creative talent
• identify skill gaps and future capability needs
• Foster a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and creative bravery – paying attention to team’s needs and personal performance, being a present leader and partner (incl. Creative hubs presence – across Lisbon and Warsaw)
• Partner closely with global Leadership Team, Creative Project Managers and Creative Operations to align creative ambition with delivery realities
• Own capacity planning, resourcing decisions, and workload allocation across the full studio
• Identify roadblocks, especially capacity and capability concerns, early and drive solutions
• Improve processes, workflows, and creative systems that enable excellence without bureaucracy
• Ensure efficient management of multiple briefs across categories, markets, and channels
• Support pitch development with creative framing, storytelling, and concept direction
• Provide feasibility assessments for new opportunities and ensure scope aligns with effort and creative integrity
• Act as a creative authority in senior client conversations as needed
• Ensure ideas sold by the business can be delivered sustainably and with quality
• Maintain high‑level understanding of creative cost structures, utilization, and commercial impacts
• Partner with Operations and Leadership to define pricing, budgeting, and resourcing models that protect creative quality
• Balance creative ambition with commercial viability and operational sustainability
• Serve as the connective tissue between Creative, Project Management, Business Development, Product, and Leadership
• Drive unified operating rhythms, clear communication flows, and friction‑minimizing processes
• Ensure creative teams are aligned with business objectives, timelines, and client expectations

• Extensive experience as a Creative Director, Executive Creative Director, or Senior Art/Design Lead in a creative agency, in‑house studio, or brand consultancy
• Proven track record leading large (20–40+) multidisciplinary creative teams
• Demonstrated ability to operate at executive or near‑executive level with senior stakeholders
• Strong experience in client management, creative strategy, and delivering multi‑market, multi‑format work
• Deep mastery in at least one core creative discipline (art direction, design, writing, strategy)
• Exceptional leadership, decision-making, and people management skills
• Strong conceptual skills with ability to generate, evaluate, and articulate creative ideas
• Expert at defining briefs and presenting concepts to clients and senior internal teams
• Highly resilient, comfortable working under pressure, and capable of navigating ambiguity
• High emotional intelligence—trusted by creatives, project managers, and executives
• Operational fluency: ability to balance craft, process, and commercial constraints
• Bachelor’s degree required
• postgraduate qualifications in creative disciplines or digital marketing preferred
• Languages: English (full business proficiency), Polish/Portuguese. Any additional C1 language is a big plus.

Any additional C1 language is a big plus