Head of Creative

About Allica Bank

Allica is the UK’s fastest growing company - and the fastest-growing financial technology (Fintech) firm ever. Our purpose is to help established SMEs, one of the last major underserved opportunities in Fintech.

Established SMEs are the backbone of local communities - representing over a third of our economy - yet have been largely neglected both by traditional high street banks and modern fintech providers.

Role Description

Own creative direction for Allica Bank across brand, design, motion, video, copy and web, leading a multi-disciplinary studio team that serves both brand & marketing work and the high-volume production needs of Growth & Digital Acquisition. Balance hands-on craft leadership with production efficiency at scale, and drive AI adoption across the studio to meet growth's velocity requirements without compromising brand or compliance standards.

Principal Accountabilities

Creative direction & craft

• Set and maintain creative direction across all brand & growth touchpoints including digital, video, motion, print/OOH, email, sales collateral and internal comms.

• Provide hands-on creative direction and craft feedback across brand, copy, design, motion and video.

• Direct and prioritise in-house studio output; own the AI tooling roadmap for extending capacity and make the resourcing case if/when AI-assisted tools no longer cover demand.

Team & production management

• Lead, develop and manage a team of 7 across copy, design, motion/video and web.

• Own production process end-to-end: briefing, resourcing, review cycles, delivery timelines, quality control.

• Manage external agency/freelance relationships where in-house capacity is stretched.

Production capacity & growth support

• Own the studio's operating model for serving two distinct demand types: considered brand/campaign work, and high-volume, fast-turnaround performance/growth creative (landing pages, ad variants, paid social, CRO test assets).

• Build a production process (templating, design systems, copy/creative frameworks, AI-assisted variant generation) that can meet Growth & Digital Acquisition's volume and speed requirements without pulling the whole studio into reactive, always-on production.

• Partner directly with Growth/Digital Acquisition leadership to support in-housing of all Allica’s creative assets, agree SLAs, prioritisation rules, and what can be templated/self-served vs. what needs bespoke creative input.

• Decide what volume of production can be safely delegated to AI-assisted workflows versus what requires human craft and compliance review.

• Track studio capacity against demand from both brand and growth, and use that data to make resourcing/tooling cases.

AI adoption

• Own the studio's broader AI adoption roadmap across design, copy, motion and web production, balancing speed against brand quality and IP/copyright risk.

• Periodically reassess whether AI tooling is sufficient to cover demand or whether the team has outgrown that setup, and make a resourcing case if so.

Brand

• Champion brand consistency and evolution as Allica scale.

Personal Attributes & Experience

• Proven creative leadership role (Creative Lead/Director level) in a high-growth in-house or prestigious agency environment, managing a multi-discipline team of similar size.

• Genuine hands on craft experience across brand, copy, design and motion/video, not delegated oversight.

• Practical, current experience embedding AI tools into creative production workflows (design, copy, motion, and ideally web/no-code tooling).

• Experience running a creative studio that serves both brand and performance/growth marketing demand, understands the difference in process, pace and quality bar between the two.

• Experience building templated/systemised creative production (design systems, modular copy frameworks, creative testing pipelines) to support high-volume output.

• • Comfortable partnering with Growth, Digital Acquisition and Product stakeholders, not just Brand and Marketing.

• Strong commercial acumen and able to work with senior commercial, product and growth leads and advocate for the importance of quality creative execution.

• Financial promotions or regulated marketing experience: a plus, not a requirement. Comfortable learning and operating within a regulated approval process even without prior direct experience.

Working at Allica Bank

At Allica Bank we want to ensure our employees have the right tools and environment in which to succeed in their role and in support of our customers.

Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, so our benefits are designed with you in mind:

• Full onboarding support and continued development opportunities

• Options for flexible working

• Regular social activities

• Pension contributions

• Discretionary bonus scheme

• Private health cover

• Life assurance

• Family friendly policies including enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave

Don’t tick every box?

Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills or requirements listed on the job description. If you think you’ll be a good fit, we’d still love to hear from you!

Flexible working

We know the ‘9-to-5’ isn’t right for everyone. That’s why Allica Bank is fully committed to flexible and hybrid working. Please let us know what is best for you and, if we can, we will do our best to accommodate.

Diversity

We’re a diverse bunch here at Allica, with all kinds of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. Our openness and differences make us stronger, and we want everybody to feel comfortable bringing as much of themselves to work with them as they like.