Freelance Chief Creative Officer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Heartbeat is a full-service agency for healthcare Challenger Brands. Challengers are playing a high-stakes game—they must battle behemoth market leaders, upend ingrained treatment habits, or transform a “me-too” product into “yes-please.”

The agency is known for serving up distinctive strategies and differentiating approaches, ensuring clients’ market positions are uniquely owned. Heartbeat designs their organization around a 100% integration model, housing media, strategy, med comms, creative, technology, and even point of care/population health under the same roof for the tightest, most integrated campaigns possible. They price work based on outcomes, not outputs. Their innovative model delivers not only alignment, but powerful orchestration, greater efficiency, and maximum impact for every dollar spent—all the necessary elements for Challengers to triumph.

That’s the philosophy, here’s the creds: 250+ employees between NYC & LA; 6 agency leaders with decades of tenure; a pile of awards from the likes of the Mannys, MM&M Awards, OMMAs, and Clios; an industry-leading commitment to diversity and inclusion (with a Med Ad News D&I Champion nod to match); and a President who dared to be quoted as saying, “We celebrate people who stand up and say, ‘You know what? This is dumb.’ Damn straight.”

We are Heartbeat, the Challenger Agency in healthcare marketing & advertising. We dedicate ourselves, every day, to tearing down the status quo and ensuring our clients brands are impossible to ignore.

If you’re interested in overturning traditional thinking and opening the eyes of HCPs & Consumers alike to new healthcare options, you might be our next EVP, Executive Creative Director.

The EVP, Executive Creative Director (ECD) is a visionary leader responsible for generating, shaping, driving, and executing the creative direction and excellence of our agency. The EVP, ECD will oversee multidisciplinary teams, nurture creative talent, and foster a culture of collaboration, creativity, ingenuity, and integrity within the agency and Publicis network.

The EVP, ECD will report directly to the Chief Creative Officer (CCO) and is a key member of the agency’s executive leadership team.

This spotlight leadership role will sit at the NYC office with an onsite presence.

• Creative Leadership & Excellence: Leveraging deep, strategic creative development expertise, you will ensure the highest standards in visual storytelling, conceptual design, and brand consistency across all campaigns while continuously highlighting and developing the agency’s creative vision, ensuring cohesiveness across departments and providing guidance to the creative team of art directors, copywriters, designers and other cross-discipline players.
• Strategic Direction: Collaborate with leadership and clients to develop creative strategies that advance brand objectives and drive business growth for pharmaceutical clients.
• Business Growth: Energized and excited about new business opportunities, bringing thoughtful, fresh, and strategic ideas to the table that are well-suited and bespoke to each new brand.
• Team Development: Mentor, develop, and embolden creative staff while fostering an environment that encourages innovation, professional growth, and collaboration.
• Client Engagement: Serve as a senior point of contact for clients, presenting creative concepts and ensuring their vision is realized while maintaining agency standards.
• Resource Management: Oversee allocation of creative resources, budgeting for creative projects, and management of freelance or external creative partners as needed.
• Thought Leadership: Contribute to Heartbeat’s and Publicis Health’s thought leadership and energize and inspire team members’ creativity based on advertising trends and innovation.

• BA in Art, Design, Writing, Advertising, Communications, or related field.
• 10+ years of creative leadership experience, with at least 5 years in pharmaceutical advertising or healthcare communications.
• Exceptional portfolio demonstrating expertise in integrated campaign development for both pharmaceutical and traditional consumer brands.
• Strong understanding of pharmaceutical regulations, medical communications, and ethical advertising standards.
• Proven ability to lead, inspire, and manage multidisciplinary creative teams.
• Strong knowledge and curiosity around technology and GenAI practices.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and client relationship skills.
• Strategic thinker with a passion for creativity and innovation.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.

Hell yes, I want to do all of that. But tell me more about Heartbeat…

Heartbeat is the healthcare marketing & advertising Challenger Agency, headquartered in NYC and powered by ~300 smart people all over the US. We’ve been named “Best Place to Work” by AdAge and MM+M eight times, celebrated as a “Diversity & Inclusion Champion” by MedAdNews, and heralded as an iconoclastic creative community for more than a quarter century.

We care about three big things:

1. Ensuring our Client Brands are Impossible to Ignore We take on brands intent to break through entrenched habits, reach audiences others struggle to move, and stand apart in markets crowded. That means every challenge, every decision is an opportunity to find blue water, invent a new solution, or conjure Creative that provokes & delights. Checking a box is not in our DNA.

2. Standing as Challengers to the Status Quo

As sherpas & partners to marketers who have mountains to climb and the motivation to make it happen, we relentlessly deliver on our core values: ambition, insight, invention, courage, and positive impact. This isn’t for everyone. It’s definitely for us.

3. Being the Best Place You’ll Ever Work

We’re the most diverse agency in healthcare, by design: being the Challenger Agency means outside perspectives and new thinking aren’t niceties. They’re necessities. We foster that with compassion, curiosity, and a healthy dose of comic relief. Advertising can be hard: so we take every moment to celebrate.

We hope you’ll experience all that for yourself.

About Publicis Health & Publicis Groupe

Heartbeat is a proud member of Publicis Health, one of the largest health communications networks in the world. Publicis Health is one of the four solutions hubs of Publicis Groupe, offering us unparalleled global reach and resources.

Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent.

Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off.

If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact USMSTACompliance@publicis.com. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation Range: $250,000.00 - $300,000.00 annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. Temporary roles may also qualify for participation in our 401(k) plan after eligibility criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 06/26/2026.