Studio Creative Manager (Maternity Cover - 12 months Fixed Term contract)

Job Introduction

Studio Creative Manager (Maternity Cover)

Location: Twinkl HQ, Sheffield (on-site) or Remote (UK-based)
Contract Type: Full time, Fixed-term (12 months mat cover)
Annual Salary: £41,500 to £55,000
Hours: 37.5h per week -  Monday to Friday
Line Manager / Points of Contact: Head of Creative, Head of Creative Production, Creative Technologist.
Recruiter: James Cook

The Role

Help shape the creative direction of one of the UK’s most loved education brands. 

We're looking for a highly collaborative and strategically minded Studio Creative Manager to join us during a pivotal phase of growth. This isn't just about managing projects; it's about leading and inspiring a talented in-house team to deliver consistent, high-quality, and impactful creative across all brand, campaign, and marketing materials, ensuring our brand identity consistently resonates with our audience.

In this unique role, you'll be the crucial link between strategy and execution. You'll draw on your extensive experience with integrated campaigns to take a first look at strategies, identifying key questions and ensuring clarity before our creative pods are even briefed. Your keen visual eye, firm grasp of copy and messaging, and storytelling expertise will be vital as you provide art direction, constructive feedback, and unwavering support, ensuring our creative bar remains exceptionally high and bold thinking flourishes across the team, driving innovation in how we connect with our users.

Beyond the creative output, you'll ensure our team is harnessing the power of the latest technology and making the most of software and tooling, specifically Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, and Canva, to build robust workflows and efficient templates. This is a unique opportunity to step into a key leadership position, empowering our creatives and significantly contributing to Twinkl’s brand and marketing evolution.

How You’ll Spend Your Day

• Reviewing new campaign strategies to identify core creative challenges and opportunities.
  
  

• Working with our Creative Technologist to champion adoption of tools like Figma and automation-based processes, embedding them into the creative workflow to improve speed, scalability, and collaboration.
  
  

• Offering hands-on art direction and visual guidance where needed — from layouts and visuals to campaign storytelling — drawing on your own creative background.
  
  

• Guiding the in-house creative team through projects, ensuring high quality, brand consistency, and timely delivery.
  
  

• Collaborating closely with marketing, production, and other teams to align creative output with broader objectives and improve workflow efficiency.
  
  

• Supporting and managing a multidisciplinary creative team, including designers, copywriters, and motion specialists — setting clear priorities, timelines, and expectations.
  
  

• Identifying and implementing new tools and technologies (including AI) to boost creative efficiency and scalability.
  
  

• Developing and refining creative templates, scalable processes, and studio systems to streamline production.
  
  

• Mentoring and supporting individual creatives to foster growth, skill development, and a creative-first culture where experimentation and originality are encouraged.
  
  

• Staying on top of creative trends to inspire innovative thinking within the team.
  
  

• Acting as a creative quality gatekeeper, providing constructive feedback across brand and marketing projects to ensure visual consistency and impact.
  
  

To Succeed in the Role, You Will:

• Have proven experience managing creative projects and people in a busy studio environment, ideally in-house or within a fast-moving brand or agency.
  
  

• Possess strong creative instincts and a sharp eye for design, layout, branding and visual storytelling.
  
  

• Be confident offering hands-on creative direction and strategic input, even when not executing directly.
  
  

• Be a skilled traffic and resource manager – able to prioritise, balance multiple workstreams, and adapt quickly when things shift.
  
  

• Understand brand marketing, campaign rollouts and creative for digital platforms.
  
  

• Be a positive, proactive team leader who brings out the best in others – with strong mentoring and communication skills.
  
  

• Have a collaborative, ego-free approach and a passion for solving problems creatively and strategically.
  
  

KPIs 

• Work closely with team leads across design, copy, motion, and production to ensure projects are well-shaped from the start, enabling the Head of Creative to review work at a more polished stage and with fewer reworks.
  
  

• Champion and embed the use of tools like Figma and automation-based processes (in collaboration with the Creative Technologist) to improve speed, consistency, and cross-team collaboration.
  
  

• Support the creative studio in running efficiently and effectively, with projects delivered on time, to brief, and supported by streamlined, scalable workflows.
  
  

• Maintain consistent creative quality across all outputs, with strong feedback from stakeholders.
  
  

• Support creative team members in their development – measured by team feedback, output improvement, and adoption of new tools and processes.
  
  

• Help evolve and embed best practice in creative workflows, tooling, and studio operations.
  
  

Who This Is Perfect For

This is ideal for a senior-level creative manager with art direction / creative experience, ready to step into a leadership role during an exciting chapter at Twinkl. You’ll balance creative direction and project oversight with people-focused leadership – helping a team thrive while shaping how our brand looks, feels and performs across channels.

We’re looking for someone who can keep the whole creative operation running smoothly -  part creative lead, part process champion.

This person will sit between the creative and production teams, helping to shape briefs, spot gaps early, and make sure the creative team has everything they need to do their best work. They’ll work closely with project managers and production to streamline workflows, build smart systems, and make the most of AI-powered automation tools to keep delivery efficient without ever compromising quality.

They won’t be doing hands-on creative every day, but they do need to understand what great work looks like, and know how to help others get there. Someone who can balance creative direction with people management, process, and production.

Ultimately, we need someone who’s organised, collaborative, and confident - a calm, creative eye who can keep projects moving, raise the bar on quality, and make sure the studio runs like clockwork.

Why Twinkl is a Great Place to Be

• A friendly, people-first culture
  
  

• Flexible, remote-first working
  
  

• An inclusive environment supported by Employee Networks (LGBTQ+, People of Colour, Women in Tech, Working Parents, and more)
  
  

• CPD, mentoring, and development opportunities
  
  

• A global mission that makes a difference to millions of educators, parents and children

*If you require a reasonable adjustment to the application/selection process to enable you to demonstrate your ability to perform the job requirements, please include this at the foot of your covering letter.