Associate Creative Director / Copywriter

Bakery is an independent creative agency built to make people obsessed with great products. We work with ambitious brands to give them cultural value and help them make things people want. We've made work for Nike, Pepsi, Dairy Queen, Shiner, and Buchanan's, among others. We've been named an AdAge Small Agency of the Year four times. We're hiring an Associate Creative Director to join us in Austin.

The job

You partner with an ACD on the art side and report into a Creative Director. Together you run the work day to day, from the brief to the final deliverable. You're not just managing, you're in it. Writing lines, shaping scripts, sitting in the edit, pushing a piece until it's right.

You lead by doing. Senior, mid-weight, and junior creatives on your team learn what good looks like by watching how you work, not just by getting your notes on their work. You set the standard in the room, on set, on the page, in the edit bay, wherever the work actually gets made.

Here's what you'll own:

• Hands-on development of the work alongside your team, not just oversight of it
• Day-to-day leadership of writers across every level, senior to junior
• Partnership with your art-side ACD to keep ideas and execution moving together
• The gap between a CD's vision and what actually gets made
• Client presentations, alongside your CD and on your own when it's called for

Core responsibilities

• Write and lead the copy on your work, not just direct someone else's

• Set the voice and standard for writers below you, by doing the work in front of them
• Present your own thinking directly to clients and hold the room when it's challenged
• Push back on feedback that would flatten the idea, and know the difference between that and feedback that makes it better
• Partner tightly with an art-side ACD so copy and concept move as one thing, not two

This role is on-site 3-4 days a week.

Requirements

You've spent at least 8 years in top agencies making work that has shipped and had impact. If the work has made the rounds at award circuits, even better. We're only considering candidates from agencies making work we recognize and respect. We are not hiring brand-side. You know what it means to run multiple clients at once, work a pitch cadence that doesn't stop, and move at a pace other industries don't operate at.

Beyond that:

• A portfolio with real, produced work across film, OOH, experiences, social, and digital.
• Direct, hands-on writing chops. You're still doing the work, not just reviewing it.
• Experience leading and teaching creatives across seniority levels, by example.
• Comfort presenting to clients and holding your own in the room.
• Experience on set. Our ACDs are a key presence at shoots; not to eat crafty and be on their phones, but to ensure the creative plan is followed.
• An obsession with craft. You notice the detail everyone else missed, and you fix it before anyone has to ask.

Benefits

• Competitive insurance coverage, inclusive of medical, dental, and vision
• 401k Retirement with 3% employer matching
• Open PTO Policy
• 2 weeks Work From Anywhere (WFA)
• 13 weeks paid Maternity and Paternity leave
• Pet-Friendly Office
• Yearly Creative Stipend
• Snacks, Meals and Drinks
• No Time Tracking!