Creative Recruiting Director

Job Description
Company description

Creative Recruiting Director

Position Overview

We are looking for a highly experienced Creative Recruiting Director with deep knowledge of the creative advertising agency industry and an exceptional network across the creative talent marketplace.

Based in New York, this role will lead creative recruiting across Publicis creative advertising agencies, including BBH, Le Pub, Saatchi, Fallon, The Community, Leo, and other agencies across the network.

This individual will be a true talent magnet: someone who is well known and respected within the creative community, has an established network of high-caliber talent, and knows how to identify and engage exceptional people before a hiring need arises.

The Creative Recruiting Director will recruit Copywriters, Art Directors, Designers, and other creative talent at all levels, from emerging talent through senior creative leadership. The role will partner closely with Creative, Talent, HR, and business leadership to understand current and future capability needs, proactively build talent pipelines, and bring market intelligence that informs hiring decisions. This role requires someone who can move beyond traditional, requisition-based recruiting and operate as a strategic talent advisor, hands-on recruiter, and trusted connector to the creative community.

Key Responsibilities:

Creative Talent Acquisition

Lead end-to-end recruitment for Copywriters, Art Directors, Designers, and other creative disciplines at all levels across Publicis creative agencies.
Identify, engage, assess, and attract exceptional creative talent across disciplines, capabilities, and levels.
Develop a deep understanding of each agency's creative capabilities, culture, clients, and talent needs.
Partner with Chief Creative Officers, Executive Creative Directors, Creative Directors, and other leaders to define the skills, experiences, portfolios, and profiles required for critical hires.
Evaluate creative talent through portfolio and book reviews, relevant category and client experience, creative reputation, awards and recognition, and career trajectory.
Deliver an exceptional candidate experience from initial outreach through offer and close.
Talent Magnet & Creative Network
Serve as a recognized and trusted connector within the advertising and creative industries.
Bring an extensive, established network of Copywriters, Art Directors, Designers, creative teams, and creative leaders.
Continuously build relationships with high-caliber creative professionals, even when there is no immediate opening.
Develop proactive talent communities and pipelines for critical and emerging creative capabilities.
Maintain strong relationships with candidates, creative leaders, industry influencers, portfolio communities, and other relevant talent sources.
Act as an ambassador for Publicis agencies and strengthen their reputation as destinations for exceptional creative talent.
Attend leading advertising, design, and creative industry events on behalf of Publicis creative agencies, representing the network, strengthening its visibility in the creative community, and building relationships with exceptional talent and industry influencers.

Strategic Talent Mapping

Proactively map the external creative talent landscape across priority disciplines, capabilities, levels, and markets.
Identify rising talent, established leaders, creative teams, and individuals whose capabilities could strengthen the agencies.
Develop external talent pipelines for roles that are difficult to fill, recurring, or strategically important.
Understand competitor and agency talent ecosystems and provide insights into where strong creative talent sits in the marketplace.
Anticipate future talent needs instead of waiting for open requisitions.

Strategic Partnership

Serve as a trusted talent advisor to Creative, HR, Talent, and business leaders across the agencies.
Balance network-wide collaboration with the distinct creative identity, culture, and hiring needs of each agency.
Challenge hiring assumptions when appropriate and help leaders think more broadly about skills, backgrounds, portfolios, and potential.
Bring external market intelligence into talent and workforce discussions.
Advise leaders on talent availability, competitive dynamics, candidate expectations, and closing strategies.
Partner with recruiters and HR teams across Publicis to share talent intelligence and improve hiring outcomes across agencies.
Support new business opportunities and rapid staffing needs by maintaining ready access to strong creative talent pipelines.

Data & Recruiting Excellence

Use recruiting data and market insights to inform sourcing strategies and hiring decisions.
Track talent pipelines and provide visibility into market availability and recruiting progress.
Leverage AI, technology, portfolio platforms, industry networks, and modern sourcing approaches to identify talent and increase recruiting effectiveness.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of creative recruiting practices, tools, and processes.

Qualifications:

Significant talent acquisition experience, with strong experience recruiting within creative advertising agencies, design, production, digital, social, or closely related creative industries.
Deep understanding of the creative agency ecosystem and the disciplines, capabilities, portfolios, and profiles required to build outstanding creative teams.
Demonstrated success recruiting Copywriters, Art Directors, and Designers across levels, including senior and leadership talent.
Extensive and established network across the creative advertising industry, particularly within the New York talent market.
Strong reputation in the marketplace with the ability to attract and engage high-caliber creative talent.
Demonstrated success proactively sourcing and building relationships with passive talent.
Strong executive presence and ability to advise senior creative and business leaders.
Excellent portfolio assessment, relationship-building, influencing, negotiation, and closing skills.
Ability to operate strategically while remaining hands-on throughout the recruiting process.
Strong understanding of talent-market trends and emerging creative capabilities, including integrated, digital, social, design, experiential, and AI-enabled creativity.
Comfortable using data, technology, and AI-enabled recruiting tools to improve sourcing and hiring decisions.
Based in New York, with the ability to build strong relationships across the local creative community and Publicis agency network.