AI Creative Lead

Headquartered in India, its flagship product, the PhonePe digital payments app, was launched in Aug 2016. As of April 2025, PhonePe has over 60 Crore (600 Million) registered users and a digital payments acceptance network spread across over 4 Crore (40+ million) merchants. PhonePe also processes over 33 Crore (330+ Million) transactions daily with an Annualized Total Payment Value (TPV) of over INR 150 lakh crore.

PhonePe's portfolio of businesses includes the distribution of financial products (Insurance, Lending, and Wealth) as well as new consumer tech businesses (Pincode - hyperlocal e-commerce and Indus AppStore Localized App Store for the Android ecosystem) in India, which are aligned with the company's vision to offer every Indian an equal opportunity to accelerate their progress by unlocking the flow of money and access to services.

Job Description

What You Will Own

Creative Vision & Brand Strategy

• Define and maintain the overarching visual and narrative standards across all marketing charters.
• Establish clear guidelines for human editorial oversight, brand safety, and visual quality, ensuring that technology enhances craft rather than dilutes it.
• Translate complex financial and consumer tech products into clear, emotionally compelling brand campaigns.
• Present creative strategies, campaign concepts, and brand performance updates to executive leadership.
  
  

Creative Enablement & Tooling Workflow

• Evaluate modern creative software and generative tools to build efficient workflows that eliminate grunt work for writers, editors, and designers.
• Establish human-in-the-loop review systems so all tech-assisted or AI-generated outputs pass strict human quality, brand, and legal checks.
• Build central design systems, brand guidelines, and creative asset libraries to streamline collaboration across 100+ marketers.
  
  

Team Leadership & Craft Mentorship

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of visual designers, copywriters, and creative strategists.
• Foster a culture of craft excellence, encouraging the team to push creative boundaries while maintaining strategic discipline.
• Design career frameworks and skill-building programs to help traditional creatives adapt to modern digital tools without losing their core artistic instincts.
  
  

Campaign Execution & Performance Balance

• Oversee key brand launches, high-stakes campaigns, and performance marketing assets to ensure speed does not compromise quality.
• Partner with performance marketing leads to test visual variations intelligently, applying human analysis to performance data to refine creative concepts.
• Collaborate seamlessly with Product, Engineering, Legal, and Brand teams to protect brand integrity while meeting aggressive timeline demands.
  
  

Why This Role Matters

In an era where digital noise and automated content are everywhere, genuine creative craft and human strategy stand out more than ever. PhonePe believes that blending human creative vision with modern tool enablement provides a true competitive advantage. The Creative Lead will ensure our brand remains distinct, emotionally resonant, and visually exceptional while empowering our marketing team to work with unmatched speed and focus.

Qualifications

Core Competencies

• Craft & Taste Supremacy: You possess an uncompromising eye for design, copy, storytelling, and brand nuance. You know the difference between a high-converting, humanly crafted campaign and generic visual noise.
• Thoughtful Tool Integration: You embrace modern creative technology and AI, but you evaluate tools through the lens of human enablement. You focus on freeing up designers and writers to do high-value, strategic work rather than automating away creative soul.
• Human-Centered Governance: You establish rigorous editorial standards, visual guardrails, and human-in-the-loop review processes to ensure every piece of work meets the highest standards of brand safety and quality.
• Executive Influence: You confidently articulate creative strategy to senior leadership. You frame creative choices around business impact, brand equity, and emotional connection rather than vanity metrics or technological trends.
• Culture & Mentorship: You mentor designers, writers, and animators to elevate their craft. You build a collaborative culture where human curiosity and creative experimentation thrive alongside operational speed.
• Macro & Cultural Understanding: You have a deep connection to Indian consumer behavior. You spot subtle cultural shifts and turn them into brand campaigns that genuinely connect with our diverse user base.
  
  

Skills Required

Creative Mastery & Craft

• Deep experience in brand storytelling, visual design, art direction, and copy execution across multi-channel environments (digital, visual, social, video).
• A strong, proven portfolio that reflects deep attention to detail, typography, color theory, emotional narrative, and visual hierarchy.
• Clear editorial judgment with a track record of upholding brand integrity against low-quality, generic asset production.
  
  

Technology & Workflow Integration

• Practical, hands-on experience using modern creative suites and generative AI tools (e.g., Photoshop AI tools, Midjourney, Figma, language models) as co-pilots in the creative process.
• Understanding of how to build human-assisted creative pipelines, asset templates, and production workflows.
• Ability to critique technology-driven outputs constructively and refine them into polished, production-grade assets.
  
  

Marketing Domain & Leadership Depth

• 8 to 12 or more years of experience in creative leadership, brand strategy, or advertising agencies / high-growth consumer brands.
• Proven track record of managing and mentoring teams of designers, writers, or creative strategists.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to articulate creative decisions clearly to business leaders and technical teams.
• Experience in fintech, e-commerce, or high-growth consumer tech is highly preferred.
  
  

Mindset to Succeed

• Craft Ownership: You take personal pride in the visual and narrative quality of everything PhonePe puts into the market. You reject mediocrity and generic content.
• Human-First Technology Approach: You view new tools and automation as a way to elevate human talent, save time on repetitive tasks, and unlock deeper creative potential.
• Systems Thinking: You build repeatable frameworks, review mechanisms, and design systems that help large teams scale quality output consistently.
• Adaptability & Judgment: You make sound creative choices in fast-moving environments, knowing when to move fast and when to pause for craft refinement.
  
  

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 8 to 12 or more years in creative direction, brand marketing, or digital advertising, with at least 2 to 3 years leading creative teams of 5 or more.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual/copy craft alongside modern, tool-assisted workflows.
• Demonstrated experience establishing brand guardrails and quality review systems across large teams (50+ to 100+ marketers).
• A strong builder's mindset with experience in high-growth consumer technology or fintech.
  
  

Additional Information

PhonePe Full Time Employee Benefits (Not applicable for Intern or Contract Roles)

• Insurance Benefits - Medical Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Accidental Insurance, Life Insurance
• Wellness Program - Employee Assistance Program, Onsite Medical Center, Emergency Support System
• Parental Support - Maternity Benefit, Paternity Benefit Program, Adoption Assistance Program, Day-care Support Program
• Mobility Benefits - Relocation benefits, Transfer Support Policy, Travel Policy
• Retirement Benefits - Employee PF Contribution, Flexible PF Contribution, Gratuity, NPS, Leave Encashment
• Other Benefits - Higher Education Assistance, Car Lease, Salary Advance Policy