Creative Lead

About UrbanGabru

UrbanGabru is a fast-growing consumer brand house building products across grooming, skincare, beauty, hair styling and wellness. Our in-house portfolio includes UrbanGabru (men's grooming), SeoulSkin (Korean-inspired skincare), UrbanYog (beauty and personal care), MakeMeBold (women's hair styling) and Trimfinity (men's grooming).

With 450+ Cr in revenue and an ambitious goal of scaling to 1,000 Cr, we are looking for a Creative Director who can build a strong, consistent and commercially effective creative ecosystem across our portfolio.

Role Overview

This is a senior, founder-facing leadership role responsible for shaping the creative vision and visual identity of our brands. You will lead a team of 10+ professionals across graphic design and creative functions, while partnering closely with the Founder and cross-functional teams on brand positioning, campaign strategy, packaging, and new product development (NPD). The ideal candidate blends strong creative judgment with consumer understanding, brand-building expertise and the ability to translate ideas into market-ready work.

Key Responsibilities

• Creative Leadership & Team Management: Lead, mentor and develop a team of 10+ designers and creative professionals; set clear briefs, quality standards, priorities and review rhythms.

• Creative Strategy: Define creative direction across brand campaigns, digital assets, e-commerce marketplaces, social media, performance marketing and other consumer touchpoints.

• Brand Positioning & Identity: Build differentiated brand identities and positioning for each brand in the portfolio, ensuring consistency while respecting each brand's audience, category and personality.

• Graphic Design & Visual Excellence: Guide visual concepts, art direction, typography, layouts, imagery and design systems; ensure all creative output is distinctive, high-quality and on-brand.

• New Product Development (NPD): Partner with product, marketing, category and business teams from concept to launch; contribute to product storytelling, naming inputs, visual differentiation and go-to-market creative.

• Packaging Planning & Development: Lead packaging strategy and design, including pack architecture, visual hierarchy, claims presentation, shelf and marketplace visibility, and coordination with product, regulatory, procurement and printing vendors.

• Founder & Leadership Collaboration: Work directly with the Founder to translate business priorities into creative roadmaps, brand narratives and high-impact initiatives; present concepts, rationale and recommendations confidently.

• Cross-functional Partnership: Collaborate with brand marketing, performance marketing, e-commerce, product, sales and operations teams to deliver integrated and commercially relevant creative solutions.

• Creative Operations: Build efficient workflows for briefs, ideation, feedback, approvals, asset management and delivery; balance speed, quality, consistency and resource allocation.

• Trend & Consumer Insight: Track design, category, culture and consumer trends; use customer insights, competitor analysis and performance data to inform creative decisions.

• Quality & Performance: Establish creative review standards and evaluate assets against brand fit, clarity, engagement, conversion potential and business objectives.

• Agency & Vendor Management: Manage external agencies, freelancers, photographers, production partners and packaging vendors as required.

Requirements & Experience

• Typically 8–12+ years of experience in creative, design, art direction or brand-building roles, with meaningful experience leading teams. Equivalent demonstrated capability will also be considered.

• Experience managing a team of 10+ or leading multiple creative workstreams is strongly preferred.

• A strong portfolio demonstrating brand identity, integrated campaigns, packaging design, digital/e-commerce creatives and creative systems.

• Experience in D2C, FMCG, beauty, personal care, grooming, skincare, lifestyle or other consumer-facing brands is preferred.

• Demonstrated understanding of brand positioning, consumer insights, visual storytelling and creative strategy—not just design execution.

• Exposure to NPD workflows, packaging development, product launches and cross-functional stakeholder management.

• Strong leadership, presentation, communication and decision-making skills, including the ability to work directly with founders and senior leadership.

• Ability to connect creative decisions to business goals and work effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

What Success Looks Like

• A clear and differentiated creative direction for each brand, aligned with the overall brand-house strategy.

• A high-performing, accountable creative team with strong craft, collaboration and delivery standards.

• Consistent improvement in the quality, relevance and effectiveness of campaign and e-commerce creatives.

• Distinctive, commercially effective packaging and cohesive visual systems across new and existing products.

• Strong creative partnership with the Founder and cross-functional teams, enabling faster and better-informed decisions.

• Scalable creative processes that support the company's ambition to grow from 400+ Cr to 1,000 Cr.

Role Details

Location: Pune, Maharashtra

Reporting / Stakeholders: Founder and senior leadership

Team Scope: 10+ creative and design professionals

• Work Arrangement: 5 days in office