Associate Creative Director

Location: London (Hybrid- 3 days in the Office)

We’re looking for an Associate Creative Director (ACD) to help shape bold, impactful, and award-winning work that drives measurable impact for clients and inspires our teams.

We’ve worked hard to cultivate a friendly and open culture, and we’re looking for a candidate who can drive us forward- influencing our process, culture, and reputation within the agency and across our networked offices around the world. We’re looking for candidates with passion and ambition. 

With state-of-the-art offices that overlook the Thames (you’ll find us next to Tate Modern), flexible working policies, and a host of benefits including an annual wellbeing allowance and regular lunches.

The Role:

The ACD will support the Executive Creative Director (ECD) in delivering a world-leading creative product that is recognised through client satisfaction and awards. In addition, they will balance hands-on creative projects with leadership tasks, mentoring and driving innovation, and ensuring every piece of work is not only compliant and patient-first, but also unexpected, ambitious, and industry-leading. The Associate Creative Director is a creative mind with strong conceptual and design skills as well as a leader and mentor.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead concepting, art direction, and creative oversight on a range of client brands.

• Champion creative excellence across campaigns, pitches, and projects- owning key accounts with autonomy while collaborating closely with the ECD.

• Inspire and mentor junior and mid-level creatives, setting clear standards and fostering growth.

• Present and sell creative concepts with authority to clients and in new business pitches.

• Spot opportunities for award-winning work and proactively support award submissions.

• Drive creative processes that boost efficiency, innovation, and cross-team collaboration.

• Partner with strategy, medical writing, and client services teams to deliver integrated, standout campaigns.

Skills required:

• 8+ years of art direction experience in healthcare agencies.

• Strong conceptual ability with a proven track record in marketing/advertising campaigns.

• Experience delivering integrated content across digital, social, paid media, mobile, print, and offline.

• A solid grounding in design practices including brand development, user-centred design, and digital design.

• Up-to-date knowledge of AI and other emerging industry trends and ability to articulate their impact.

• Demonstrated ability to guide, mentor, and inspire junior creatives.

• Outstanding creative presentation skills, with the confidence to represent the agency internally and externally.

What success looks like:

• Delivering creative campaigns that not only meet but exceed client expectations.

• Elevating the creative product across the agency-raising the bar for what “great” looks like.

• Building a motivated, inspired team that thrives on innovation and collaboration.

• Helping secure new business through bold creative ideas and compelling presentations.

• Driving a culture of inclusivity, respect, and creative ambition.

About Cherry:   

Cherry is an award-winning healthcare creative communication agency. We work with a number of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies delivering creative and digital work for our clients. We take an integrated, multi-channel and consultative approach to client engagements and we work on numerous exciting brands across a wide variety of therapy areas.   

We have been recognised as a Great Place to Work for five consecutive years (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 & 2025).  

What we offer:   

At Cherry, employee development is key. We have bespoke internal and external training programs that are run year-round across all departments, and group mentoring program employees can get involved in!   

As well as the competitive basic salary, great social events and a culture of continual learning we also offer our employees:   

• 25 days holiday per year (which increases with tenure)   
• Flexible/hybrid working 
• Work From Anywhere Policy (for 20 days per year you can work from anywhere abroad)   
• Annual Wellbeing Allowance, to spend on whatever that makes you happy 
• 2 x volunteer days per year - to support a cause close to you!   
• Employee Assistance Programme   
• Private health/free travel insurance for you and your family   
• Enhanced family friendly & women's health policies   
• Enhanced employer pension contribution 
• Summer Fridays - finish early from June - August   
• Mobility program - being part of a wider group enables employees the opportunity to work from one of our global offices (US, Canada, Europe, UAE) for short/mid/long term secondments   

You can view our data privacy policy here.