The posting
SENIOR CREATIVE LEAD, GROWTH
Location: Dallas (preferred) or Remote-US with Central/Eastern overlap Compensation: $115,000-$145,000 base, plus meaningful equity Department: Growth Reports to: Director of Growth
ABOUT RARE CANDY
We’re a leading marketplace dedicated to trading card games - Pokémon, MTG, Lorcana, and more - used by millions of collectors to buy, sell, and showcase their collections. Our operations team powers the logistics that ensure trading cards and collectibles move quickly and safely between sellers and collectors. We grew almost 30x last year, and we aren't slowing down.
THE ROLE
We're hiring a Senior Creative Lead to own what Rare Candy makes and why. That covers organic social, paid ads, creator and UGC content, and every major launch.
We already have talented people making content, including our in-house creators and our co-founder Leonhart. What we need is the person who decides what gets made, writes the brief, gives the notes that make it better, and knows from the numbers what to do more of. You'll direct our social team, freelancers, and creator partners. You'll also run creative testing on paid, and turn what works into a system instead of a lucky week.
You'll work directly with our Director of Growth and CEO on brand and messaging.
You already live in TCG internet. You know why a pull video took off, which creators the community trusts, and what makes Pokémon fans roll their eyes at a brand.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
First 30 days: You've audited what we've published across organic and paid over the last six months and told us what's working and why. You've set a weekly creative rhythm with the team. Your first briefs are out.
By day 90:
- A dependable weekly creative pipeline is running on schedule.
- A structured paid-creative testing program is live, with a roadmap for hooks, formats, and creators.
- Creator and UGC content feeds into the same system as everything else, and the best of it gets adapted for paid.
- There's a backlog of concepts covering launches and the weeks after them.
- There's a creative performance report the team actually reads every week.
By the end of year one:
- Rare Candy has a voice and look people recognize without seeing the logo.
- Every launch has a creative plan that runs for weeks, not days.
- Creative testing is a measurable reason our acquisition costs are going down.
- You've grown into leading creative across Growth.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own creative strategy across organic social, paid acquisition, UGC, creators, and launches.
- Develop concepts and write briefs for Instapacks, drops, partnerships, and seasonal moments.
- Write hooks, scripts, and copy direction that the team and creators build from.
- Direct the output and priorities of our social team, freelancers, and production partners.
- Partner with Leonhart and our in-house creators on content and distribution.
- Review creative before it goes out, and give notes that make it better.
- Build a repeatable process for producing, reviewing, publishing, and testing creative.
- Run the paid-social testing roadmap, and find winning UGC to adapt for paid.
- Turn collector behavior, reviews, customer insights, and cultural moments into content.
- Keep a rolling content and launch calendar, and keep launches alive after week one.
- Use performance data to decide which concepts, hooks, formats, and creators to scale.
- Send a weekly creative performance recap.
- Set and protect Rare Candy's voice and visual approach.
- Work with our Director of Growth and CEO on brand positioning and messaging.
A DAY IN YOUR LIFE AT RARE CANDY
You start the morning in the paid dashboard. Two hooks from yesterday's Instapacks test are pulling ahead, so you brief three new variations and get them to the team before lunch.
Midday, you review the week's calendar with the social team and give notes on a creator's draft that's close but buries the pull.
In the afternoon, you're in a planning session with our Director of Growth on next month's launch. You leave with a concept and two creators you want on it.
You end the day writing the brief.
YOU MIGHT BE A FIT IF
- You have 7+ years in creative strategy, social, content, or brand marketing, ideally at a consumer, marketplace, gaming, collectibles, sports, or culture-driven brand.
- You've directed creative that performed, and you can tell us what you changed and why it worked.
- You write sharp briefs. People who work from them make better stuff.
- You're fluent in TikTok, Reels, Shorts, YouTube, creator content, and paid-social formats. You know what the first two seconds of a video need to do.
- You've briefed and managed creators, and you know how to give notes without killing what made their content good.
- You've changed creative because of what the data said, and you can walk us through an example.
- You're a strong writer and editor of copy, hooks, and scripts.
- You have strong communication skills and can manage projects, timelines, and expectations across creators, freelancers, and internal teams. People know where things stand without having to ask.
- You know Pokémon and the TCG world: the products, the drama, the creators, the language.
BONUS POINTS
- Experience scaling paid-social creative on Meta and TikTok.
- Experience with drops, livestreams, or launch-driven brands.
- Experience growing a small creative team.
WHY JOIN US NOW
- Define the brand of the fastest-growing TCG marketplace while it's still being shaped.
- Work directly with our Director of Growth and CEO, with no layers in between.
- A small growth team, so your ideas get made instead of sitting in a deck.
- A salary range of $115,000-$145,000, plus meaningful equity.
- Full benefits: health, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k), and a wellness stipend.
- A monthly dogfooding budget to spend on cards, because we hire people who love this hobby.
OUR HIRING PROCESS
1. 30-min intro chat with Taylor (Director of Growth).
2. Portfolio walkthrough (45 minutes): take us through three campaigns or series you directed. Tell us what the brief was, what you changed along the way, and how they performed.
3. Paid creative exercise (about 3 hours, $300): we'll send you a real Rare Candy launch and a few pieces of our recent content. Give us a one-page brief for the launch, notes on what you'd change in our content, and a simple test plan for paid.
4. Panel with our CEO, co-founder, and Growth team.
5. Reference calls and an offer within 1 week of the final interview.
HOW TO APPLY
Apply through our Ashby posting and answer these:
- Tell us about a piece of content or campaign you directed. What was the brief, what notes did you give, and how did it perform?
- Tell us about a time performance data changed your creative. What did you see, and what did you change?
- Which TCG account or creator is doing it right, and what would you steal from them?
Rare Candy is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate individuality, from Pikachu collectors to Planeswalker pros, and are committed to building an inclusive team.
