Performance Creative Strategist and AI Producer

Remote | Full time | Paid 30-day working trial

Icarus Digital Marketing builds and scales direct-response ecommerce brands, including brands in difficult and restricted categories. We are hiring a hands-on performance creative operator to work directly with the owners on our internal portfolio of brands.

This is not a conventional graphic-design role. We need someone who understands why Meta ads convert and can personally turn that understanding into high-quality static and video creative using current AI production tools.

You may come from dropshipping, affiliate marketing, DTC, a performance agency, or a creative media-buying background. We care more about commercial judgment, production ability, speed, and proof of work than polished credentials.

The work

You will use and help improve our internal Creative Cockpit. It takes a brand from research and foundational strategy through campaign creation, production, review, and delivery. For each brand, the system holds brand assets and voice, customer language and audience psychology, pains and desires, necessary beliefs, competitor intelligence, awareness levels, angles, hooks, offer context, prior creative, winners, and performance signals.

Your job is to turn that intelligence into creative that can sell.

Read campaign briefs, audience research, voice-of-customer material, and brand strategy documents.
Decide what each batch should test and why.
Source and analyse strong visual and structural references.
Develop angles, hooks, scripts, concepts, storyboards, and landing-page direction.
Personally produce static ads and short-form video ads.
Use AI image, video, voice, and editing tools at a high level.
Create meaningful variants without producing repetitive AI slop.
Review work for persuasion, visual quality, brand fit, platform fit, and compliance.
Refine weak generations rather than accepting the first output.
Package approved assets for launch and document what each concept tests.
Read results and use the learning to plan the next batch.

What you must be good at

Direct-response advertising and Meta creative strategy
Audience psychology and voice-of-customer interpretation
Awareness levels, hooks, angles, mechanisms, objections, offers, and message-market fit
Understanding when an ad should lead to a PDP, advertorial, listicle, quiz, or sales page
Static ad, UGC, and short-form video production
Visual-reference analysis and controlled recreation
Current AI image and video workflows using tools such as Seedance, Google Flow/Omni, Nano Banana/Gemini, GPT Image, Higgsfield, Kling, Sora, Veo, or comparable tools
Editing, compositing, pacing, captions, sound, and final polish
Fast, organised batch production
Reading creative performance and choosing the next test

You are probably not right for this role if

Your portfolio is mostly branding, organic social content, or attractive design without performance context.
You call every asset “scroll-stopping” but cannot explain the audience belief or conversion mechanism.
You are a strategist who depends on other people to make the work.
You are a tool operator who needs someone else to provide every hook, angle, script, and decision.
You use one prompt, accept the first output, and call it AI production.
You cannot show exactly what you personally contributed to portfolio examples.
You dislike volume, iteration, testing, or direct feedback.

What success looks like

Within 30 days, you can understand our strategy packs and operating system, take a structured brief from research to finished assets with limited supervision, produce a useful weekly mix of static and video concepts, explain the reason for every important decision, maintain quality while moving quickly, and suggest practical improvements to the workflow.

Compensation

The role begins with a fully paid 30-day working trial at USD $2,000. If the fit is strong, it becomes a long-term full-time position expected to pay USD $2,000 to $3,000 per month, based on demonstrated level, with additional performance upside available for an exceptional long-term operator.

We care about ability, English comprehension, reliability, some overlap with our working hours, and quality of output.

How to apply

Do not send a generic cover letter. Message Simon on WhatsApp at +353 86 349 5073 and begin with: I make the work.

Send three Meta ads you personally made or materially directed.
For each example, state exactly what you did and explain the audience, angle, hook, and intended next step in the funnel.
Share any useful performance context you are permitted to disclose. Redacted evidence is acceptable.
Show one weak or failed creative and explain what you learned or changed.
List the AI tools you use in real production and explain your normal workflow from reference to finished asset.
Send a Loom of no more than five minutes. Choose one Meta ad you respect, explain why it works, and describe the next three variants you would test.
State your location, timezone, availability, and expected monthly compensation after the trial.

Applications without the requested evidence will not be reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will complete a small paid practical exercise before the 30-day trial.

Icarus Digital Marketing jobs

Performance Creative Strategist and AI Producer