The Position.

As Root continues to scale at a rapid pace, the Creative department is more focused than ever on telling the Root story through clear, bold, void-of-jargon-and-cliche communication. 

The copy team plays a critical role in this continued commitment – and as the Creative Director of Copy, you’ll be the primary creator and steward of the brand’s voice, tone, and core messages across these communications.

You’ll lead brand storytelling to drive differentiated awareness, conversion, and loyalty. You’ll refine and advance the copywriting discipline within the Creative department (and beyond). And you’ll be a proactive servant leader who effectively helps writers from varying backgrounds shape their work through expert writing and editing guidance.

Reports to: VP of Creative

What you’ll be doing.

• Discipline Leadership
• Maintain a keen sense of our business goals and ability to directly translate how content can help achieve these goals
• Iterate on the vision and structure of the copywriting team to ensure the discipline is delivering its best value to the organization
• Work hand-in-hand with Marketing, Design, Video, and Product leads to ensure teams/projects are set up for success
• Ensure the copy team has the right amount of time and space to do their work right
• Serve as the point of contact for copy related questions




Brand Voice and Tone Leadership

• Own Root's brand voice and tone evolution
• Continually create and adjust frameworks to illustrate the brand's voice, tone, flexibility, and usage
• Continually educate content creators across the organization on how to use these frameworks to craft brand-right messages
• Share frameworks with cross-functional partners to educate them on how to evaluate creative messages
• Maintain a living bank of copy examples that demonstrate these frameworks
• Always rise above clichés, expected lines, and jargon




Team Leadership

• Provide guidance and direction to the team to ensure content is as simple, compelling, and memorable as possible
• Serve as the team's manager, mentor, and go-to-problem-solver
• Effectively coach direct reports through challenges
• Support and grow the skills and individual goals of each writer
• Empower individual copywriters to be as self-managing as possible
• Serve as the editor for highest priority content pieces
• Assist as an additional writing resource, as needed
• Assist the team in brainstorming new ideas

What we’re looking for.

• Priority
• High creative bar
• Data-driven content creation
• A keen business sense for crafting and editing content that performs
• Voice and tone framework creation
• Servant leadership
• Adapts quickly
• Strategic thinking and visioning




Relationship

• Organization and planning
• Integrity and honesty
• Calm under pressure
• Know when to go after something aggressively
• Proactive
• Teamwork
• Persuasion
• Open to critique
• Manages conflict




Technical

• 10+ years writing experience
• 3+ years managing a team of direct reports, including other managers
• Experience implementing and managing brand voice and tone standards
• Tight writer
• Grammar expert
• Strong proofreading skills
• Crafting testable content

Join us

At Root, we judge people based on the merit of their work, not who they are. If you are passionate about what this role entails and solving real problems, we encourage you to apply. We want to learn about you and what you can add to our team.

Who we are

We’re harnessing the power of technology to revolutionize insurance. Using machine learning and mobile telematics platforms, we’ve built one of the most innovative FinTech companies in the world. And we’re just getting started.

What draws people to Root

Our success is in large part due to our unwavering standards in hiring. We recognize that our products are only as good as the people building and promoting them. We want individuals who find solutions by going through the cycle of ideation to implementation with curiosity, rigor, and an analytical lens. Ask anyone who works here and you’ll hear similar reasons for why they joined:

Autonomy—for assertive self-starters, the opportunities to contribute are limitless.

Impact—by challenging the way it’s always been done, we solve problems that have a big impact on our business.

Collaboration—we encourage rich discussion and civil debate at every turn.

People—we are inspired by the collection of crazy-smart people around us.