As the Head of Social Creative and Production within the Government Media Unit, you will be one of the most senior creative voices in the team, responsible for setting and maintaining the standard of social video content produced directly for citizens. You will bring together strategic vision and hands-on craft, leading the GMU's creative and production output from initial concept through to final delivery across owned social channels.

You will lead a diverse team of creative and production professionals, overseeing complex, fast-moving production workflows while maintaining an unrelenting focus on quality, relevance and impact. Your work will directly shape how the public experiences and understands government, redefining what it means for government to communicate authentically and compellingly in a social-first world.

Working closely with colleagues across strategy, campaign and wider creative disciplines, you will ensure that everything the GMU social team produces is grounded in audience insight, responsive to the cultural moment and ambitious in its execution. This is a rare opportunity to lead creative change at the heart of government communications, at a time when the GMU is expanding its reach and testing bold new approaches to direct-to-citizen storytelling.

We are looking for a leader who combines creative ambition with production rigour and expert editorial judgement, who can inspire a team while staying close enough to the work to shape it, and who is genuinely excited about the opportunity to make government communications more human, more engaging and more effective.

Responsibilities & Duties

• Creative Excellence in Social Content: Drive a step-change in the quality and ambition of the GMU's social output, setting high creative standards across the team and getting hands-on when needed to produce engaging visual stories that inform, educate and fundamentally shift how citizens see and relate to government.
• End-to-End Production and Project Management: Lead complex, fast-moving production workflows across the full production lifecycle, from pre-production planning and shoot logistics through to post-production and final asset delivery, ensuring projects are delivered to the highest standard, on time and within budget.
• Creative Horizon-Scanning: Continuously monitor and interpret government delivery, emerging cultural and media trends, identifying risks and opportunities that will keep the GMU's direct-to-citizen storytelling innovative, authentic and relevant to the audiences it is trying to reach.
• Editorial Judgement: Experience setting the editorial tone, with a strong understanding of what makes a story stand out on socials and how to translate it into compelling digital content.
• Cross-Discipline Leadership: Provide clear, confident leadership across all owned social content production, effectively managing diverse creative disciplines and keeping projects on track while creating the conditions for the team to do their best and most ambitious work.
• Embrace AI as a collaborative and creative tool, utilising it within your workflows; experimenting, testing and implementing new tools to increase productivity and deliver at pace.

Person Specification - Essential Criteria

Experience / Ability

• Significant experience in a senior creative leadership role, ideally within an agency, in-house creative team or government communications environment.
• A proven track record of leading and developing multidisciplinary creative teams to deliver high-quality, engaging content on social media.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex briefs or objectives into clear, compelling and culturally resonant creative ideas that connect with diverse citizen audiences.
• Experience championing a social-first, audience-led approach to creative development, with a strong understanding of how content performs across different platforms and formats.
• Ability to use performance data, audience insight and always-on measurement to continuously improve creative approaches and drive smarter, more effective work.
• Experience introducing innovation and new technology into creative workflows, modernising how a team works and raising the standard of output.
• Strong track record of partnering with strategy, insight and creative functions to deliver social content that balances creative ambition with operational delivery.
• Experience operating at a senior level within a large or complex organisation, contributing to broader organisational strategy and ways of working.
• Familiarity with government communications, public sector or regulated communications environments is desirable but not essential.
• Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Journalism, Business, Design, Creative Industries, or a related field (or equivalent practical industry experience).

Technical

• Deep understanding of creative production and the craft skills required across video, design and production disciplines.
• Expert knowledge of digital content production across channels, including paid and organic social media.
• Strong understanding of social-first content strategy and how creative ideas must be built to perform natively across platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Meta.
• Ability to interpret and apply performance data, audience research and behavioural insight to inform and iterate creative approaches.
• Familiarity with AI and emerging creative technologies, with the ability to assess and introduce tools that improve team capability and output quality.
• Working knowledge of brand and visual identity principles, and the ability to uphold and evolve creative standards across a broad portfolio of work.
• Understanding of accessibility requirements and inclusive design principles as they apply to government-facing communications.
• Comfortable using project management and collaboration tools to oversee a busy creative department and maintain visibility of workload and output.
• Understanding of on-set legal and safety standards and requirements and legal responsibilities related to usage/licence agreements and contributor and location consent.