Creative Director, Copywriting

About Paradowski

Paradowski Creative is an independent, full-service creative agency based in St. Louis. We bring strategy, creativity, technology, and craft together to create experiences that spark curiosity, invite participation, and help brands build meaningful connections with people.

Our teams work collaboratively across disciplines to solve complex business challenges and produce work that is thoughtful, effective, and made with care. We value creative play, clear thinking, accountability, strong relationships, and people who care about both the quality of the work and how it gets made.

The Role

Paradowski Creative is looking for an experienced

Creative Director, Copywriting

who brings big ideas, strong conceptual thinking, a strategic point of view, and exceptional writing skills. Someone who can inspire teams, elevate the work, and bring ambitious ideas to life.

You're a big-picture thinker with a distinct creative perspective and strong instincts. You can turn a brief into a compelling idea, develop integrated campaigns, shape brand narratives, and bring clarity and conviction to creative presentations. You're equally comfortable leading the thinking, writing the work, and helping others make their ideas stronger.

You're a hands-on leader who inspires fresh thinking, develops talent, and moves work forward. You're comfortable presenting major client work, leading new business pitches, and collaborating across disciplines. You're curious about emerging technologies, including AI, and encourage teams to challenge conventional thinking and do their best work.

What You'll Do

Concept Development \& Creative Thinking

• Lead the development of original, strategically grounded creative concepts and integrated campaigns across digital, social, video, print, experiential, and other channels.
• Translate creative briefs, business challenges, and audience insights into compelling ideas that connect with people and support client objectives.
• Bring a distinct creative perspective to the work, challenging conventional approaches, finding unexpected angles, and inspiring teams to push beyond the obvious.
• Partner with art directors, technologists, strategists, account leads, and production teams to develop ideas and guide them from concept through execution.
• Champion platform-native thinking informed by audience behaviors, cultural trends, and emerging technologies.
• Balance creative ambition with business needs, timelines, and budgets, bringing the same level of thought and craft to projects of varying sizes and scopes.

Writing \& Storytelling

• Lead copywriting and storytelling across campaign concepts, brand messaging, video scripts, digital experiences, social content, and presentations.
• Develop clear, compelling narratives that connect strategy, creative thinking, and execution into a cohesive and persuasive story.
• Play a hands-on role in writing and shaping important creative work, including integrated campaigns, new business pitches, and client presentations.
• Establish and evolve distinct brand voices, adapting tone and messaging across different audiences and platforms.
• Review and refine creative work, helping writers strengthen concepts, sharpen their writing, and communicate ideas while maintaining high standards of craft.

Creative Leadership \& People Management

• Lead, manage, and mentor direct reports, providing ongoing coaching, performance feedback, and professional development.
• Set clear expectations, provide thoughtful creative direction, and hold teams accountable for delivering high-quality work.
• Guide multidisciplinary creative teams across accounts and projects, balancing hands-on creative contributions with the ability to direct, empower, and develop others.
• Guide teams through creative challenges, knowing when to push an idea further, refine the approach, or change direction to achieve a stronger outcome.
• Partner with creative leadership on team development, performance, staffing, and growth.
• Foster a creative environment that encourages curiosity, bold thinking, experimentation, and diverse perspectives.

Client Engagement \& New Business

• Serve as a strategic and creative partner to clients, understanding their challenges and audiences to shape meaningful creative solutions.
• Partner closely with account leads to build strong client relationships, champion great creative work, and proactively identify opportunities to push the business and creative forward.
• Bring an understanding of project scope, timelines, and budgets, working collaboratively to balance creative ambition with what's realistic and achievable.
• Lead the development and presentation of creative work for major client initiatives, connecting strategy, storytelling, and creative concepts into clear, compelling presentations.
• Play a key creative leadership role in new business pitches, from developing concepts and shaping narratives to building presentations and pitching ideas to prospective clients.
• Present and defend creative ideas with confidence, articulating the strategic thinking and rationale behind the work to stakeholders at all levels.
• Navigate client feedback, advocate for strong ideas, and maintain productive relationships while moving work forward.

Collaboration \& Emerging Technology

• Work cross-functionally with Art Direction, Strategy, Account, WebTech, Video, 3D, and the Emerging Technology team to develop and execute integrated creative work.
• Incorporate AI and emerging technologies into research, ideation, writing, and execution while maintaining originality and creative judgment.
• Partner with technology and production teams to explore new creative approaches and bring technology-driven ideas and experiences to life.
• Help creative teams thoughtfully adopt new tools and technologies to strengthen creative thinking, improve workflows, and expand what's possible for clients.
• Stay curious about culture, audience behaviors, and emerging creative opportunities while remaining flexible across projects and priorities.

What You Bring

Required Qualifications

• 8\+ years of experience

in advertising, branding, or a related creative field, including demonstrated experience managing and developing creative talent.

• A strong portfolio showcasing exceptional conceptual thinking, writing craft, and integrated creative work across multiple channels.
• Proven ability to originate big creative ideas and develop them into compelling, strategically grounded campaigns and executions.
• A distinct creative point of view, strong instincts, and the confidence to challenge conventional thinking and inspire original ideas.
• Exceptional writing and storytelling skills, including campaign messaging, scripts, creative rationales, presentations, and brand communications.
• Proven people-management experience, including direct reports, performance feedback, coaching, and professional development.
• Ability to balance hands-on creative development with leading teams, managing priorities, and maintaining high creative standards.
• Strong presentation and communication skills, with experience leading new business pitches and major client presentations.
• Experience leading integrated creative work across digital platforms, with an understanding of cultural trends and audience engagement.
• Practical experience using generative AI tools in creative development and a willingness to continually explore and apply emerging technologies.
• Strong collaboration, organizational, and problem-solving skills across creative, strategy, account, and technology disciplines.

Additional or Bonus Experience

• Experience working on experiential, interactive, or immersive creative projects.
• Experience across a variety of industries, brands, and business challenges.
• Familiarity with emerging creative platforms and technology-driven experiences.

Why Paradowski

At Paradowski, craft and curiosity drive the work. You'll collaborate with people who care as much about how the work gets made as the final result, developing big ideas and creating meaningful work across a wide range of clients and projects. We're a team that takes the work seriously without taking ourselves too seriously, and we believe great ideas get better when curious people work together.

Paradowski is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We do not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, pregnancy-related conditions, and lactation), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, military service or veteran status, physical or mental disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Benefits

Paradowski offers a comprehensive benefits package for eligible full-time employees, including multiple medical plan options, dental and vision coverage, a 401(k) with company match, paid time off, paid holidays and floating holidays, paid parental and birth recovery leave, employer-paid basic life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and employee wellbeing and professional-development resources. Eligibility and coverage are subject to the applicable plan terms.

Work Authorization

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. As a condition of employment, all new employees are required to complete the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) and provide documentation establishing identity and work authorization.

Work Arrangement: Remote or Hybrid

This role is open to remote candidates who can work core business hours and travel occasionally for team meetings, client needs, shoots, or events. St. Louis-based employees work in-office Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with Tuesday and Friday designated as remote, no-meeting days. In-person attendance may vary based on business or client needs.

To Apply

To apply, email your resume and portfolio or relevant work samples to jobs@paradowski.com using the subject line: Creative Director – [First Name] [Last Name]. A cover letter is optional.