Senior Director Creative

We’re looking for a Senior Director, Creative to lead and scale our design function as a conceptual, strategic, and operational pillar of the Creative and Brand organization.

This role is responsible not only for visual excellence, but for building, developing, and maintaining a high-performing design team grounded in strong conceptual thinking. Success in this role depends on the ability to set a clear creative bar, move decisively when standards aren’t met, and actively mentor emerging leaders so responsibility and ownership can be pushed downward—freeing this role to operate up, out, and across the organization.

The Senior Director, Creative partners closely with strategy, brand, and creative leadership to ensure our visual systems are insight-led, scalable, and emotionally resonant.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Leadership, Team Building & Talent Development

Lead and scale a high-performing, conceptually strong design team spanning brand, motion, and multi-disciplinary creative
Build teams intentionally—prioritizing conceptual thinking, taste, and strategic fluency, not just executional skill
Establish and uphold a clear, non-negotiable quality bar for design, craft, and thinking
Act decisively when performance does not meet expectations—making changes quickly, thoughtfully, and in service of the team’s long-term health
Mentor and develop junior leaders so they are prepared to take on delegated ownership, responsibilities, and team leadership
Push leadership downward, enabling designers and emerging leads to operate with confidence and autonomy
Create clear growth paths, expectations, and feedback mechanisms for all levels of the team

Systems, Process & Operational Scale

Design and implement repeatable design systems, workflows, and processes that allow the team to deliver consistently high-quality work at scale
Identify inefficiencies in briefing, reviews, production, and delivery—and proactively solve for them
Partner with Creative Ops and Marketing Ops to ensure design processes scale with organizational growth
Build templates, frameworks, and visual systems that reduce friction and increase speed without compromising quality
Balance craft excellence with operational rigor, making “great work, done efficiently” the standard

Strategic & Conceptual Leadership

Partner deeply with the strategy function within the Creative and Brand team to ensure design is rooted in clear strategic intent
Translate insights, positioning, and brand frameworks into compelling, scalable visual systems
Pressure-test strategy through a design lens—helping refine ideas into clear, emotionally resonant expressions
Ensure design work ladders back to brand and business objectives, not just aesthetic goals
Champion conceptual thinking across the design team, ensuring ideas drive visuals—not the other way around

Strategy Partnership & Integration

Act as a creative counterpart to strategy leadership, collaborating early to shape creative direction and success criteria
Ensure the design team operates from shared strategic frameworks, not isolated project briefs
Help codify the strategy into clear visual guidance that enables faster, more confident execution
Establish strong working rhythms with strategy partners through working sessions, reviews, and planning checkpoints
Proactively surface and resolve misalignment between strategy and execution

Cross-Functional & Executive Leadership

Operate upward by partnering with senior leadership and executives to align design strategy with business priorities
Operate across marketing by building trusted relationships with Brand, Product Marketing, Demand, Events, Content, and Comms teams
Serve as the final decision-maker on visual direction for the brand
Anticipate cross-functional needs and creative risks before they arise—and build processes to address them
Represent the design function as a strategic partner, not just a service function

Creative Oversight & Craft

Own and evolve the visual identity and design systems for the brand across all touchpoints

Provide creative direction across:

Brand and campaign design
Website and digital experiences
Event and experiential marketing
Paid media, OOH, and motion
Internal-facing brand materials and presentations

Partner closely with motion designers to integrate movement into the brand system

Oversee freelancers, vendors, and production partners to ensure consistency and quality

Step into hands-on design selectively when strategic or conceptual leadership is required

WHO YOU ARE
15+ years of professional design experience, with senior leadership responsibility
5+ years of people management experience, including building and evolving teams
Proven ability to build conceptually strong, high-performing creative teams
Strong strategic thinker who connects design decisions to brand and business outcomes
Comfortable making difficult people decisions in the service of quality and scale
Experienced in both agency and client-side environments
Deep expertise across design tools and systems (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, motion fundamentals)
Confident partnering with developers, strategists, and senior stakeholders
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
The design team consistently delivers conceptually strong, visually compelling work at scale
Clear systems exist for how design work is conceived, executed, reviewed, and delivered
Junior leaders are growing into meaningful ownership roles, reducing dependency on senior leadership
Performance issues are addressed quickly and constructively
Strategy and design are tightly integrated, with fewer downstream misalignments
Cross-functional partners view design as a strategic thought partner, not just an execution arm
The brand feels cohesive, intentional, and emotionally resonant across every touchpoint
You are not waiting for guidance/direction, but proactively bringing solutions based on your deep knowledge of the business and partners

For candidates based in the United States, the pay range for this posi