Creative Strategy Manager – Creator Content (all genders)

THE ROLE & THE TEAM

Zalando is evolving into a lifestyle destination, where inspiration and entertainment (I&E) meet commerce. Creators are at the heart of that evolution: through the Zalando Creator Network (ZCN), we build a high-performing community of creators whose content drives engagement, brand affinity, and commercial results across our own platforms and beyond.

As Creative Strategist - Creator & Entertainment Content, you set the strategy for creator content, creatively and directionally, across offsite and onsite. You act as the expert counterpart for our in-house creators and external agencies, shaping the strategic vision behind large-scale campaigns, O&O events, partnerships, and brand activations, and translating it into a clear creative direction that leaves room for creators' authentic voice. Your work goes beyond individual campaigns: it builds recognisable creator profiles, establishes repeatable entertainment formats, and turns offsite attention into onsite results — guiding users along the full journey from discovery on social platforms through to inspiration, engagement, and conversion on Zalando

This is an individual contributor role for a strategist who thinks like a creative and a creative who thinks in funnels: someone who knows what makes content perform natively on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and can connect that instinct to audience needs, data, and business outcomes. Above all, it's a role for someone who sees creator content as seamless storytelling, one narrative that travels with the user across offsite and onsite, from the social feed to Zalando's onsite experiences, rather than separate content for separate channels. While you live and breathe social platforms, this isn't a channel or community management role. Your job is direction: the strategy behind everything our creators make, from the first idea to the impact it has on Zalando's brand and business.

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

1. Strategic Direction for Creator Content

Set the strategic and creative direction for creator content across offsite and onsite: define what our creators make, why, and how it ladders up to brand and commercial goals across large-scale campaigns, O&O events, partnerships, and brand activations

Shape Zalando's onsite creator formats hand in hand with our Product teams - designing the content vision in step with our evolving platform products and strategies, and adapting it in real time as new creator surfaces launch

Develop recurring content concepts that build creator fame, not just campaign output: series, franchises, and formats where our best creators return as hosts, storytellers, and characters - so audiences come back for the creator, not just the campaign.

Align cross-functional stakeholders: Creator Management, Social Media Teams, Go-To-Market Marketing, and local market teams and external agencies behind one briefing approach, ensuring business objectives, creative direction, and creator execution stay connected from kickoff to delivery.

Translate direction into execution through a scalable briefing system: own the standards, templates, and workflows that turn strategy into creator-ready briefs across teams, agencies, and local markets.

Act as creative sparring partner for internal stakeholders and creators alike, elevating ideas from “post about the campaign” to distinctive, culturally relevant content concepts.

2. Content Format Strategy & Development

Codify our winning content formats ( offsite and onsite ) into structural creative guidance: moving from case-by-case judgement to repeatable format playbooks that creators can produce at scale, balancing creative distinctiveness, production efficiency, and commercial performance.

Define how we measure impact across that journey - connecting offsite engagement signals to onsite consideration and conversion and use it to steer where creator content investment goes

Assess new format opportunities against audience needs, platform trends, and strategic fit, and build clear recommendations on where to invest, test, or stop - fewer, bigger, better applied to our format portfolio.

Partner with content, live, and social teams to ensure creator content strengthens our overall content portfolio rather than duplicating it.

3. Offsite-to-Onsite User Journey Design

Treat offsite-to-onsite as the operating spine of creator content: map and continuously refine how formats play across the customer journey, from discovery and engagement on social platforms to inspiration, consideration, and conversion on Zalando, with a focus on driving local consideration in our priority markets.

Identify gaps and hand-off moments in the journey where the right content format can move audiences from watching to shopping, and design content strategies to close them.

Collaborate with Product, Data & Analytics, and CRM teams to ensure creator content is placed, formatted, and sequenced to perform in each environment.

4. Insight, Testing & Learning

Ground briefs and format decisions in data: audience insights, platform analytics, content performance, and cultural trend signals.

Design and run structured content tests with our strategy and analytics colleagues to validate which creative approaches, formats, and journey mechanics resonate and turn learnings into sharper briefs and playbooks.

Codify what works: build and maintain creative guidelines, format playbooks, and best-practice examples that raise the quality bar across the wider creator organisation.

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF

You bring 5+ years of relevant experience in creative strategy, content strategy, social/creator marketing, or a creative agency environment - ideally with hands-on exposure to creator or influencer content.

You have set creative or content direction at brand, platform, or agency level and can show how your strategy changed what actually got made, not just what got written in a deck

You have written briefs that creative people love working from: clear on the problem, inspiring on the idea, and honest about the constraints.

You are a social-first native with a sharp instinct for what performs on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and you track how platforms and their products evolve, social and commerce alike, adapting your strategy in real time rather than once a year

You think in journeys and funnels: you understand how content works differently in discovery, consideration, and conversion contexts, and how offsite content connects to onsite outcomes in an e-commerce environment.

You are comfortable with data, reading content and audience analytics, framing hypotheses, and turning test results into creative decisions.

You have a proven track record of leading complex, cross-functional projects independently, aligning stakeholders across marketing, creative, and product teams, and steering external creative or influencer agencies.

You are an articulate communicator and confident presenter who can sell a creative strategy to senior stakeholders and make it practical for creators (fluency in English is required; additional languages are a plus).

You possess a growth mindset, stay endlessly curious about culture and the creator economy, and have a genuine passion for fashion and lifestyle content.

OUR OFFER

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days)

40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners

Family support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers

Company pension scheme

Employee shares programme

Health and wellbeing options, including Wellhub

Mental health support and coaching

Development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review

2 paid volunteering days a year

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

If you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles!

At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading European technology platform for fashion and lifestyle – one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds.

We actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential.

We are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know – we are here to assist you.

Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion