VML

Group Director, Creator & Influencer

VML$100K — $230K *
Media
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in social, influencer, creator marketing or related digital marketing fields.
  • Proven experience managing intricate creator and influencer initiatives for large enterprise clients.
  • Comprehensive knowledge of the creator marketing lifecycle and the ability to guide all phases from strategy to execution.
  • Expert in aligning creator strategies with broader brand and customer experience objectives.
  • Experience crafting creator playbooks, strategic frameworks, and RFP responses.

Responsibilities

  • Lead development of comprehensive creator and influencer strategies for major clients, including diverse program types.
  • Translate business goals into actionable creator roles, audience strategies, and measurable KPIs.
  • Oversee the entire creator program delivery process to ensure strategic and operational excellence.
  • Direct teams in sourcing, vetting, negotiating, and executing influencer campaigns.
  • Collaborate with various internal teams to ensure influencer initiatives are executed effectively and efficiently.
  • Serve as a key advisor to clients on creator marketing strategies across multiple domains.
  • Identify growth opportunities within existing relationships and support proposal development.

Benefits

  • Hybrid working model with teams in the office four days a week.
  • Comprehensive benefits package available.
  • Opportunity for professional development and talent growth.
  • Collaboration with a diverse team within a fast-growing agency environment.
Full Job Description


Who We Are Looking For

Reporting to the Managing Director, Social & Influencer, the Group Director, Creator & Influencer will be a senior leader within VML's growing creator and influencer marketing capability.

This person will help translate VML's creator vision into repeatable client strategy, operational excellence, and high-quality delivery across North American accounts, with connectivity to global and WPP partner teams as needed. They will be both a strategic advisor and hands-on operator - someone who can shape a client's creator approach, guide cross-functional teams, strengthen ways of working, and ensure creator programs are built to drive measurable business outcomes.

The ideal candidate understands that creator marketing is no longer a campaign add-on. It is an integrated system of influence that connects brand strategy, social platforms, content production, paid media, commerce, community, governance, and measurement. They have experience leading complex influencer and creator programs for enterprise clients and can confidently move between strategy development, creator network design, execution oversight, client counsel, team leadership, and new business growth.
Responsibilities
  • Lead the development of creator and influencer strategies for major North American clients, including campaign-based, always-on, ambassador, UGC, subject matter expert, social commerce, and performance-led creator programs.
  • Translate client business objectives into clear creator roles, audience strategies, platform approaches, content pillars, KPIs, creator network designs, and activation plans.
  • Oversee end-to-end creator and influencer program delivery, ensuring work is strategically grounded, operationally consistent, and delivered to VML standards.
  • Guide teams through creator sourcing, vetting, outreach, negotiation, contracting, briefing, content development, approvals, publishing, paid amplification, reporting, and optimization.
  • Partner closely with Business Affairs, Legal, Finance, Data, Media, Creative, Strategy, Client Engagement, and Delivery teams to ensure influencer work is properly scoped, staffed, governed, and executed.
  • Serve as a trusted senior advisor to clients on creator and influencer marketing, helping them understand the strategic role of creators across brand, social, content, media, commerce, and community.
  • Identify growth opportunities within existing client relationships and help shape proposals, scopes, staffing plans, RFP responses, pitch narratives, and strategic recommendations.
  • Partner with the Managing Director to strengthen VML's creator and influencer capability, with a focus on quality, consistency, talent development, and scalable delivery.
  • Manage, coach, and develop team members, helping them build deeper fluency in creator strategy, platform behavior, creator evaluation, campaign operations, negotiation, measurement, and client leadership.
  • Collaborate with VML, WPP, and specialist partner agencies where needed to deliver the right solution for each client, while ensuring partners are integrated into VML-led strategy, process, governance, and quality standards.
Skills & Experience
  • 10+ years of experience in social, influencer, creator marketing, content, digital, or integrated marketing, with deep specialization in creator and influencer strategy.
  • Proven experience leading complex creator and influencer programs for enterprise clients, ideally across multiple brands, categories, markets, or business units.
  • Strong understanding of the full creator marketing lifecycle, including strategy, creator network design, sourcing, vetting, negotiation, contracting, briefing, content development, approvals, publishing, paid amplification, reporting, and optimization.
  • Ability to connect creator strategy to broader brand, social, media, commerce, content, and customer experience objectives.
  • Experience developing creator playbooks, operating models, strategic frameworks, POVs, RFP responses, client presentations, and measurement narratives.
  • Strong fluency in social platforms, creator behaviors, audience signals, cultural trends, UGC, ambassador models, paid creator amplification, social commerce, and performance-led creator programs.
  • Practical understanding of creator negotiations, usage rights, exclusivity, compensation models, contracting workflows, FTC disclosure requirements, brand safety, and compliance considerations.
  • Proven ability to coach, manage, and develop direct reports and cross-functional teams.
  • Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex creator marketing topics for senior clients and internal stakeholders.
  • Commercial mindset with experience identifying growth opportunities, shaping scopes, supporting pitches, and contributing to agency revenue growth.
  • Builder mentality: comfortable creating structure in ambiguity, improving processes, and helping scale a fast-growing agency capability.


The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details.

$100,000-$230,000 USD

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we've adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

About VML

VML is a global marketing and advertising agency. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. VML provides a wide range of services including brand strategy, creative design, social media, and e-commerce. The company has worked with several high-profile clients including Ford, PepsiCo, and Wendy's. VML has won numerous awards for its innovative marketing campaigns and has been recognized as one of the top advertising agencies in the world.
Learn more about VML
Size
3,000 employees
Industry

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