Senior Copywriter

Introduction Momentum Group is a South African-based financial services group. Our retail and specialist brands drive to build and protect our client's financial dreams. We help people grow their savings, protect what matters to them and invest for the future. We help companies and organisation’s care for and reward their employees and members.

Momentum Group is one of South Africa's largest life insurers and integrated financial services companies, operating through brands like Momentum, Metropolitan, Guardrisk, and Eris Properties. Through our own network of advisers or via independent brokers and utilising new platforms, Momentum Group provides practical financial solutions for people, communities, and businesses. Visit us at www.momentumgroup.co.za

Disclaimer As an applicant, please verify the legitimacy of this job advert on our company career page.

Role Purpose The Senior Copywriter is the senior writing craft lead in the Creative Studio, operating within an in-house team that follows an agency creative-team model. Partnered with the studio’s senior designers, this role conceptualises and creates work where design and copy land as one integrated idea.The role holds the craft bar for writing across everything the studio produces, from campaign lines and executive narratives to digital, social, print and internal communications. It applies the appropriate Momentum Group tone of voice to jobs in partnership with Group Brand, and brings the discipline, rigour and instinct of a senior writer to every brief.The Senior Copywriter reports to the Lead: Group Creative Studio and works as part of the studio’s leadership team, developing the Mid-weight Copywriter and strengthening the studio’s overall verbal and conceptual craft by helping designers recognise how language can sharpen an idea.This role sits in a Creative Studio that is moving closer to an external agency-style operating model, with copywriters and designers paired from brief-in to create stronger, more integrated work. It strengthens in-house writing capability, reduces dependency on external copy support, and helps ensure Momentum Group’s voice is applied with consistency, creativity and governance across priority studio outputs.

Requirements

• Diploma or degree in Communications, Marketing, Journalism, English or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience in a senior copywriting role, with meaningful agency exposure (agency creative-team experience is a strong plus).

• A strong portfolio demonstrating conceptual thinking and craft across brand, campaign, digital and long-form writing.

• Proven experience concepting alongside designers as a creative-team partner - not writing in isolation.

• Experience coaching or mentoring writers or leading a small team.

• Strong stakeholder management skills; comfortable in senior-stakeholder and Exco-level conversations.

• Comfortable in a fast-paced, deadline-driven, regulated environment.

• Familiarity with Microsoft 365 including Copilot, and confidence with AI tools in the writing process.

• Financial services experience an advantage, given the regulated environment we operate in.

Duties & Responsibilities****Concept and craft

• Lead concept development where the writing carries the idea, campaign lines, headlines, taglines, manifestos, and executive narratives.

• Conceptualise alongside designers from brief-in, in the agency creative-team tradition, rather than adding copy only once the visual direction is complete.

• Uphold the craft fundamentals: clarity of thought, economy of words, precision of language, rhythm and cadence, and the discipline of the edit.

• Deliver senior-level writing across the full range of formats the studio produces: long-form (annual reports, thought leadership, executive scripts), short-form (headlines, subject lines, social, digital), UX and interface copy, video and event scripts, internal and change communications.

• Translate complex business, brand and product goals into clear, persuasive, on-brand writing tailored to the audience.

Writing craft standards for the studio

• Hold the writing quality bar across everything the studio produces the equivalent on the copy side of what the Lead: Group Creative Studio holds on the design side.

• Run copy critiques with the same rigour as creative reviews — focused on the work, not the writer.

• Apply the Momentum Group tone of voice consistently across the studio’s output, in partnership with Group Brand, which is responsible for the official brand voice guidelines.

• Ensure regulatory, compliance and legal sign-off routes are followed on financial services copy, while preserving clarity, distinctiveness and craft.

Creative team pairings

• Partner with senior designers on briefs, bringing writing craft into the conceptual phase, not the execution phase.

• Take creative direction from the Lead: Group Creative Studio; contribute the writing point of view to creative reviews.

• Sharpen the writing instincts of the designers you're partnering with. Help them see what a great line is, and why.

• Flag creative or brief issues promptly so the Lead: Group Creative Studio can address them before quality is at risk.

Leading the Mid-weight Copywriter

• Coach and develop the Mid-weight Copywriter, critique their work, stretch their range, build their craft.

• Set clear objectives, provide structured feedback, and manage day-to-day quality of their output.Allocate concept and execution work in a way that builds their capability, in partnership with the Lead: Group Creative Studio.

• Model the standards, behaviours and craft the studio expects from its writers.

Stakeholder engagement

• Partner with Marketing Partners, Group Brand, Content & Digital and business unit stakeholders to shape messaging and concept directions.

• Challenge briefs constructively - asking the questions that clarifies the insight that leads to the sharper idea and the stronger message.

• Present written work with clarity and confidence at a senior stakeholder and Exco level.

• Manage stakeholder expectations honestly on scope, timing and quality trade-offs.

AI in writing

• Use AI as a partner in the writing process, for drafting, iterating, editing, adapting for audience and channel, not as a replacement for craft.

• Contribute to lifting both quality and turnaround of writing through smart use of AI tools.

Trends, learning and craft development

• Keep abreast of writing, content, brand and creative technology trends - and translate them into how we work.

• Bring inspiration and craft references into the studio; contribute to workshops, critiques and learning forums.

• Use performance data and audience insights to inform writing choices where relevant.

Copy quality control and release readiness

• Review and quality-control the copy on all Studio work before it is released back to the briefer, ensuring it is clear, accurate, on-brand, fit for purpose and aligned to the approved brief.

• Identify and resolve copy issues before release, including tone, grammar, messaging clarity, consistency, factual accuracy and avoidable rework risks.

• Confirm that final copy has followed the required brand, legal, compliance and stakeholder sign-off routes where applicable.

Competencies****Writing craft

• Senior-level command of writing fundamentals, grammar, structure, clarity, rhythm, precision.

Conceptual and creative thinking

• Brings ideas and concepts strategically in service of the brief.

• Sees writing as one half of the creative idea, alongside design.

• Judges own work and others’ work on whether the idea is strong, not just whether the copy is correct.

Collaboration and creative-team instinct

• Works as a creative-team partner