Head of Creative Studio

Are you a creative leader who can take a 2-line verbal brief and turn it into an idea that works on YouTube, TikTok, paid, CRM and at a card show? Someone who sets the bar through their own output, and can build a studio that goes from a handful of pieces a day to a high volume of weekly briefs without losing quality? If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.

At Ace Grading, we’re building one of the world’s leading trading card grading brands. Everything collectors see from Ace comes out of our in-house Brand and Content Studio, and this role leads it.

Purpose of the role

The Head of Studio owns Ace’s content and creative strategy and leads the in-house Brand and Content Studio, the multidisciplinary team of designers, editors, videographers, writers and channel producers that creates everything collectors see from ACE. The postholder will be a key creative idea originator within the business: taking strategic priorities and briefs, often verbal, from the Head of Marketing and the Directors and turning them into campaignable creative ideas that work across YouTube, social, paid, CRM, web, events and brand.

This is a hands-on creative leadership role in a high-volume, fast-moving environment, not a traditional creative director role. The postholder sets the standards for quality, storytelling, production, prioritisation and output, builds the workflow that lets the Studio scale from a handful of pieces a day to a high volume of weekly briefs without duplicating resource, and remains a working practitioner in their craft, whether that is copy, design or video. The role builds the Studio into the scalable creative engine that supports ACE’s growth across channels, markets and categories.

What you’ll be doing

Creative strategy and idea generation

• Own ACE’s content and creative strategy, making sure output supports brand, project briefs, audience and commercial growth priorities.
• Translate verbal and written briefs from the Head of Marketing and Directors into clear, campaignable creative ideas, and generate a continuous flow of ideas alongside day-to-day management.
• Challenge briefs constructively where this would improve the creative outcome.
• Act as brand guardian: set and uphold ACE’s visual identity, tone of voice and quality standards across every channel.
• Develop repeatable content formats, series and creative platforms that can scale across YouTube, social and other channels.

Studio leadership and output

• Lead, develop and performance-manage the Studio across Creative, Production and Channels, setting clear objectives and a strong culture of quality and pace.
• Build and run the Studio workflow: intake, prioritisation, scheduling, review and sign-off, so that volume scales without loss of quality or duplicated effort.
• Agree Studio priorities with the Head of Marketing and Head of Growth.
• Plan capacity and resource against the brief pipeline; hire and onboard in line with the agreed phasing.

Hands-on production

• Have the ability to be a hands-on creative as well as a leader.
• Originate and execute first-class marketing communications, creative ideas & art direction.
• Direct shoots, edits and design work where needed; set the bar through your own output.

Channel and commercial partnership

• Partner with the Head of Growth and Digital Acquisition Manager to build a continuous pipeline of performance creative, using results data to improve Studio output.
• Support CRM, Events, B2B, PR and the creator programme with the content, creative assets and marketing collateral they need.
• Develop ACE’s YouTube and social content capability as a growth channel with the Channels team.

Who we’re looking for

Senior content or creative leader from a strong creative background (creative direction, agency management, content production, design, copy or social). Experience within a fast-moving, digital-first consumer brand, creator/media business, ecommerce or client-side high-output content environment preferred. Heavy social content production is a must.

Essential

• Senior content creator who has built and run a high-output in-house content team, with evidence of scaling volume while protecting quality.
• Strong specialist background in copywriting, graphic design, marketing creative or video content, and still hands-on in that craft.
• Strong social media expertise, with a clear understanding of how content needs to work differently across platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, and experience developing social-first creative.
• Proven ability to take loose or verbal briefs from senior stakeholders and turn them into campaign ideas that work in market.
• Understands performance creative: how content works on YouTube, TikTok, Meta and in paid media, and how to learn from the data.
• Experience designing studio workflows, prioritisation and capacity planning.
• Strong people leader who can develop a multidisciplinary team.

Desirable

• YouTube channel growth experience.
• Experience building or scaling an in-house studio from a small base.
• Knowledge of trading cards, TCG, gaming or collector culture.
• Experience producing content for international audiences.

Why Ace?

You’ll build the Studio into the scalable creative engine behind one of the fastest-growing brands in the trading card hobby, setting the standard for everything collectors see from Ace across channels, markets and categories.

Our process

We review applications as they come in rather than waiting for a closing date, so early applications are encouraged.

1. CV review by our HR team.
2. Two short introductory conversations (around 20 minutes each) with our Head of Marketing and one of our Directors.
3. An in-depth interview for shortlisted candidates.

Banbury, Oxfordshire (office based/hybrid) | Reports to Head of Marketing

No agencies please.