Creative Strategist

The Creative Strategist sets the creative vision and brand standard for the organization, pairing hands‑on, high‑level design expertise with strategic oversight of an ecosystem of internal team members and external creative partners. Serving as the central point of contact for all creative needs, this role ensures every deliverable — from design and concept development to video, photography, and digital content — reflects a consistent, world‑class brand across all business units. The Creative Strategist builds, manages, and continually evaluates a network of agencies, freelancers, and production partners to extend the team's creative capacity, while personally guiding concept, art direction, content and quality standards across every touchpoint of the brand. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? WHAT YOU'LL DO: Own and evangelize the organization's creative and content vision, brand identity, and visual standards across all business units, campaigns, and channels. Serve as the primary point of contact for all creative requests, triaging incoming work and directing it to the right internal team member or external partner. Personally lead high‑level design, concepting, and art direction on priority and flagship projects, setting the creative bar for the organization. Build, manage, and evaluate an ecosystem of external creative partners — agencies, freelancers, production companies, and specialized vendors — including selection, scope negotiation, and day‑to‑day relationship management. Oversee the full range of creative deliverables, including design, video, photography, motion graphics, digital, and print, whether produced in‑house or by outside partners. Establish, maintain, and enforce brand guidelines and visual standards, ensuring consistent application across all business unit lanes and customer touchpoints. Present creative concepts, campaigns, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership and key stakeholders, articulating the rationale behind creative decisions. Develop and manage the creative budget, including allocation across internal staff and outsourced partners. Identify and evaluate emerging creative trends, tools, and technologies — including AI‑assisted creative workflows — to improve quality, speed, and efficiency. Collaborate cross‑functionally with marketing leadership, digital marketing, and content operations teams to translate business objectives into effective creative output. Manage timelines, capacity planning, and resource allocation across multiple concurrent projects and partners. Ensure adherence to licensing, usage rights, and legal/compliance requirements for all photography, footage, and contracted creative work. WHAT YOU'LL NEED: Bachelor's degree (B.A.) from a four‑year college or university, with at least 8‑10 years of related experience in the creative marketing field, including prior experience directing or leading a creative team, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. A robust portfolio demonstrating high‑level design and art direction across multiple media, including digital, print, and video. Proven experience selecting, negotiating with, and managing external creative agencies, freelancers, and production partners. A high standard of excellence with a strong eye for detail combined with big‑picture, long‑term strategic vision. Expert knowledge of creative processes, design software, tools, platforms, concepts, and teams. Familiarity with digital platforms, tools, marketing, advertising and analytics. Experience building, guiding, maintaining, promoting and propelling world‑class, multi‑division brands. Experience managing complex multi‑media, multi‑channel projects, campaigns, and vendor budgets. Excellent analytical, creative problem‑solving skills. Passion, leadership and expertise in customer experience excellence. Strong executive presence, with the ability to present and defend creative recommendations to senior leadership. Strong leadership, collaboration, diplomacy and communication skills. Ability to effectively cast and champion innovative creative vision across a large organization. WHY WORK WITH US? We like to take care of business and have fun doing it! We offer health, dental, vision, life, and more as a comprehensive benefits package. Don’t you want to work with awesome people? IMPORTANT INFORMATION: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk, see and hear. The employee is frequently required to sit. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk and to lift and move up to 50lbs. The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet. Required travel up to 25%. This position is considered a safety sensitive position. The job description is subject to change by the employer as the needs of the employer and requirements of the job change. EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor. #J-18808-Ljbffr