Director, Creative & Content Studio

Job Description

Job Description

About AmaWaterways

AmaWaterways is one of the world's most celebrated river cruise lines, offering extraordinary journeys through Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and beyond. Renowned for award-winning service, world-class cuisine, and a deep commitment to authentic travel experiences, AmaWaterways continues to set the benchmark for luxury river cruising. As we grow our brand and reach new audiences, we are investing in the creative talent and infrastructure to match the ambition and beauty of the experiences we offer.

Position Summary

The Director, Creative & Content Studio is a pivotal leadership role within the AmaWaterways Marketing team, responsible for the creative vision, output, and operational effectiveness of an in-house creative and content studio. Reporting directly to the Chief Creative & Marketing Officer, this individual is both a hands-on creative contributor and a dynamic team leader — someone who can concept at the highest level and also roll up their sleeves to shape and produce exceptional work.

This role is the creative conscience of the brand. The Director, Creative & Content Studio ensures that every consumer touchpoint - from a digital ad to a brochure, a social post to a brand campaign - reflects a consistent, compelling, and differentiated expression of the AmaWaterways story. Equally important, this leader is a catalyst for creative innovation, continuously challenging the organization to raise the bar, break from category conventions, and pursue ideas that earn genuine attention and loyalty.

The ideal candidate brings an uncommon combination of creative excellence, editorial instinct, studio leadership experience, and a collaborative spirit that enables them to work effectively across marketing, product, sales, and operations.

Key Responsibilities

Creative Leadership & Brand Expression

• Own and champion the AmaWaterways creative vision across all consumer-facing channels and touchpoints, ensuring a cohesive, high-quality, and emotionally resonant brand expression.
• Translate brand strategy and marketing objectives into compelling creative concepts, campaigns, and content that connect with target audiences and drive business results.
• Serve as the creative authority on all marketing output, providing clear, constructive, and inspiring creative direction and feedback across the studio.
• Develop and maintain a creative vision that reflects the full richness of the AmaWaterways experience: the destinations, the culture, the cuisine, the people, and the transformative power of river travel.
• Partner with the Chief Creative & Marketing Officer, the Executive Leadership and the full creative content studio team to evolve the brand's visual identity, tone of voice, and storytelling approach in response to market opportunities and audience insights.

In-House Creative & Content Studio Management

• Lead, manage, and develop a talented in-house team of designers, writers, photographers, videographers, and content creators - building a culture of craft, collaboration, and creative ambition.
• Establish and oversee the creative studio's workflows, processes, project management systems, and quality standards to ensure efficient and excellent delivery across a high volume of work.
• Manage the creative pipeline in partnership with marketing leadership, balancing strategic priorities, campaign deadlines, and resource capacity.
• Identify capability gaps and make recommendations for team growth, freelance augmentation, or external agency partnerships where needed.
• Foster a studio environment that attracts and retains top creative talent, one that is inspiring, inclusive, feedback-rich, and oriented toward continuous improvement.
• Conduct regular creative reviews and one-on-ones that develop individual team members' skills and elevate the overall output of the studio.

Content Strategy & Storytelling

• Oversee the development of a comprehensive content strategy that serves all channels — including digital, social, email, print, video, and experiential — aligned to the overall marketing and brand strategy.
• Champion storytelling as the connective tissue of all content: ensuring that narratives are rooted in authentic guest experiences, destination richness, and the unique emotional value of river cruising with AmaWaterways.
• Define and maintain a content framework that governs voice, visual language, format, cadence, and channel-specific adaptation across the full content ecosystem.
• Lead the development of hero content that sets the creative standard and defines the brand's cultural presence, including brand films, campaign creative, editorial features, and flagship visual assets.
• Guide the creation of content that serves multiple objectives simultaneously: awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, and advocacy.
• Ensure content is developed with a global sensibility, reflecting the diverse destinations, cultures, and guest audiences that AmaWaterways serves.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Influence

• Act as a creative partner and advisor to teams across the organization — including Guest Experience, Product, Sales, PR, and Partnerships — influencing how the brand shows up beyond the marketing department.
• Collaborate with channel owners (digital, social, CRM, paid media) to ensure creative execution is optimized for each environment while maintaining brand integrity and consistency.
• Provide creative input and oversight for external-facing initiatives including trade marketing, co-branded partnerships, sponsorships, and event presence.
• Engage with agency and vendor partners, providing clear briefs, direction, and feedback to ensure external creative output meets AmaWaterways' standards.
• Participate in campaign briefing, planning, and review processes as a key creative voice, connecting strategic intent to creative expression.

Creative Innovation & Standards

• Actively push the creative boundaries of the brand — identifying opportunities to do work that is unexpected, category-defining, and culturally resonant.
• Establish and maintain a culture of creative bravery within the studio and across the broader marketing team, making it safe and expected to challenge the familiar.
• Monitor trends in luxury travel, design, editorial content, digital storytelling, and visual culture to continuously identify new creative approaches and references relevant to the brand.
• Develop and maintain a robust set of creative and brand standards (guidelines, templates, asset libraries, and production specifications) that enable consistent execution at scale across all teams and touchpoints.
• Conduct regular audits of brand creative output to assess consistency, quality, and effectiveness, using findings to inform studio improvement and stakeholder education.
• Champion accessibility and inclusivity in creative output, ensuring the brand speaks to and authentically represents the diversity of AmaWaterways' guest community.

Production & Asset Oversight

• Oversee the creative production process end-to-end, from concept and brief through execution, delivery, and archiving.
• Lead and participate in content production trips including onboard sailings and destination shoots, ensuring that photography, video, and editorial assets captured in the field meet the highest standards of quality and brand alignment.
• Manage the creative asset library, ensuring a well-organized, accessible, and comprehensive repository of photography, video, copy, and design assets for use across the organization.
• Work with marketing operations and project management functions to ensure creative timelines, budgets, and delivery milestones are met consistently.

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• 10+ years of progressive experience in creative roles, with a minimum of 3–5 years in a creative leadership position overseeing a team and a body of multi-channel brand work.
• A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional creative range, craft, and strategic thinking — spanning brand campaigns, content creation, digital, and print across a range of formats and audiences.
• Proven experience building and leading in-house creative teams or studios, with a track record of developing talent and elevating output.
• Deep fluency across the full creative discipline — including art direction, design, copywriting, photography direction, and video — with the ability to provide informed direction across all.
• Strong understanding of content strategy and the ability to develop storytelling frameworks that work across multiple channels and formats.
• Experience working in or closely with marketing organizations in consumer-facing industries, with a clear grasp of how creative work connects to business objectives.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and creative brief-writing skills — able to articulate and defend creative decisions clearly and compellingly to senior stakeholders.
• Highly collaborative, with the interpersonal skills to build trust and influence across teams without direct authority.
• Experience managing external creative agencies, freelancers, and production vendors.

Preferred

• Background in the travel, luxury lifestyle, hospitality, or tourism sectors — with a genuine passion for the craft of travel storytelling.
• Experience with content production in the field — overseeing photography and video shoots on location, including international travel.
• Familiarity with digital-first content creation and the nuances of creative execution for social, digital, CRM, and paid media environments.
• Exposure to brand identity development or evolution — contributing to the visual and verbal expression of a brand at a strategic level.
• Experience working in a dual-reporting or matrixed structure, with strong stakeholder management skills.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate will bring the following qualities:

• Hands-On Visionary — Equally at home concepting a campaign and giving line-level art direction; not a manager who delegates everything, but a creative leader who contributes directly to the work.
• Standard-Setter — Possesses an innate, uncompromising commitment to craft and quality — and the ability to bring others along to that same standard without alienating them.
• Collaborative Influencer — Builds creative bridges across the organization; understands that great creative work requires trust, shared vocabulary, and patience as much as talent.
• Storyteller at Heart — Has a genuine love of narrative, culture, and the power of a well-told story — and brings that instinct to every brief, big or small.
• Innovative & Restless — Never satisfied with "good enough"; always scanning for what's next, what's unexpected, and what will make the brand stand apart.
• Clear Communicator — Able to translate creative instinct into language that resonates with non-creative stakeholders — making the case for bold work with clarity and confidence.
• Grounded Leader — Manages with empathy, clarity, and accountability; creates a studio culture where people feel challenged, valued, and proud of their work.