Vice President, Creative Director, Copy

Job description

We are seeking a Vice President, Creative Director, Copy to lead our copy discipline and play a key role on our creative leadership team. You will set the direction for copy across the agency, ensuring our work demonstrates creative excellence, strategic clarity, regulatory fluency and flawless execution. You will lead and develop a growing team of copywriters and editors, build the practices needed for the department to scale, and collaborate closely with Art, Strategy, Client Services, Project Management and Medical/Legal/Regulatory partners. You will remain actively involved in priority clients, new business and high-impact creative while building a department that does not depend on your involvement in every project. You will report to the Managing Partner, Creative or other executive leader. ### Responsibilities ### **Department Leadership and Direction** - Set and communicate the vision, priorities and standards for Princeton10’s copy discipline. - Translate agency goals into clear departmental objectives, capability plans and measures of success. - Represent Copy on the agency leadership team and contribute to company planning, growth and organizational decisions. - Partner with the VP, Art and other department leaders to strengthen integration across copy, design, strategy, medical and client service. - Champion creative ambition, accountability and responsible innovation within a highly regulated industry. ### **Creative Excellence and Delivery** - Set the standard for concept development, messaging, storytelling and copy execution across digital, print, video, motion and experiential work. - Ensure copy is strategically sound, creatively compelling, factually accurate and appropriate for client and regulatory requirements. - Establish effective review and approval practices, with clear quality ownership across senior copy leaders. - Provide senior oversight on the agency’s highest-impact, most complex or sensitive work without becoming the default reviewer for every deliverable. - Identify recurring quality or delivery issues and address them through coaching, clearer standards, stronger processes or capability development. - Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI, that can improve creative quality, efficiency or the services P10 provides. ### **People, Capacity and Department Performance** - Lead, coach and develop the agency’s copywriters, editors and copy leaders. - Set clear role and performance expectations, provide timely feedback and address performance concerns consistently. - Identify emerging leaders and build succession depth for critical creative and management responsibilities. - Partner with Project Management and Operations to forecast copy demand, allocate talent and identify upcoming capacity or capability gaps. - Make thoughtful recommendations about hiring, employee development, contractors, tools and other departmental investments. - Manage the Copy department budget and understand how staffing, utilization, scope and rework affect account and agency profitability. - Foster a collaborative, inclusive and accountable team culture that supports creativity, growth and sustainable performance. ### **Client and Business Leadership** - Represent Copy in senior client presentations, articulating creative strategy, messaging and rationale with confidence. - Build trusted client relationships through strong creative judgment, pharmaceutical expertise and practical business understanding. - Serve as a senior creative advisor on priority accounts and help resolve significant creative or client challenges. - Lead or support creative development for new business pitches, proposals and account expansion opportunities. - Partner with Client Services, Strategy and Project Management to ensure creative ambition is aligned with business objectives, scope, timing and budget. - Help translate P10’s copy capabilities into differentiated offerings, thought leadership and new opportunities for growth. ### Responsibilities - 15+ years of copy/creative experience in pharmaceutical, healthcare, or highly regulated advertising, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role. - Experience leading brand planning with clients with budgets in the $3M-$10M range - Strong portfolio that showcases cutting edge pharmaceutical or life sciences work and exceptional DTC and HCP concepts. - Proven experience leading and developing creative teams, with a track record of inspiring high performance. - Experience with resource planning, staffing decisions, budgets and the commercial factors affecting agency delivery. - In-depth knowledge of pharmaceutical regulations and industry trends. - Ability to balance creative ambition with strategy, compliance, scope, timelines and financial realities. - Strong communication, presentation, and client-facing skills. - Ability to balance visionary thinking with hands-on oversight of copy execution.